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Every year, near the primary and secondary European transfer windows, rumors start to fly. This one slipped through the cracks and attempts to find more on it have come up empty, but the UK paper The Sun has the following tidbit:
“Sporting Kansas City striker Daniel Salloi hopes his agent will be able to find a Championship club for him in January.”
Championship meaning the English Football League Championship, or the second tier of English football. The Championship lies one level below the English Premier League. Much like in the United States the United Soccer League has rebranded their second league the USL Championship in a nod to England’s setup.
You should keep in mind The Sun is a tabloid. So this should probably be taken with a grain of salt, as all rumors really should at this stage in the year. But let us entertain this for just a minute.
Salloi was the leading scorer for Sporting Kansas City in the 2018 regular season with 11 goals. Add to that another seven assists across 29 appearances (26 starts) and you see why he would be linked with a move to Europe. Add to that the fact that he’s now grossly underpaid based on his performance pulling in a guaranteed compensation of just $81,625 for the 2018 season. Compare that to his wing partner Johnny Russell at $1.331 million and you start to see what a value Salloi is.
So ultimately, even if this specific rumor doesn’t have any teeth, Salloi will keep being linked to bigger clubs. With Sporting KC playing in the CONCACAF Champions League early in 2019 they can ill afford to lose Salloi. If he were to go, as a MLS Homegrown signing, SKC would be entitled to keep 100 percent of his transfer fee. Also they would get at least $750,000 in General Allocation Money (GAM) from the deal, up from $650,000 in years past. The league looks like they make increase the $750k number each year too, so it could be more.
Like it or not, MLS is still a selling league for now and Sporting KC will continue to develop talent from the SKC Academy to the Swope Park Rangers to the first team; partially for this very reason. That said, pay the man! Don’t let him get away for nothing.