And in the process, obliterates US player transfer fee record to the tune of $73.1M. He's loaned back to Dortmund for the rest of the season.

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Chelsea have signed Christian Pulisic from Borussia Dortmund for 64 million (57.6m, $73.1m) and have loaned the United States international back to the Bundesliga club ahead of him moving to the Premier League this summer.

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I guess they're hedging on not being able to keep Hazard after this season? Hope Pulisic will get next season regular playing time at Chelsea.

Pulisic signs with Chelsea

I would assume they make this trade knowing they won't have one of those two there

Is he good enough to play?!?

It would also depends on whether or not they're able to sign strikers to replace Morata/Giroud. If not (highly unlikely), then Hazard may play false 9 again.

I'll watch. I hope he gets playing time!

Also didn't realize Pedro and Willian are both 30 so age is definitely not on their side.

Very real chance Chelsea needs to replace Hazard and either Pedro or Willian (or both). Even if they keep Willian or Pedro, I'd bet their minutes start dropping in the near future. Seems like a real good opportunity to break through to me.

I would be shocked if Willian is still at the club when Pulisic arrives.

BTW, at the number reported, Pulisic is the 3rd most expensive Chelsea acquisition of all-time after Kepa and Morata so there's gonna be pressure to play.

They certainly arent gonna recoup that fee by adding him to the loan army or whatever. What they are paying for him compared to the overall market, his position, and his age, I would say the most comparable recent signings for the club are the twin signings of Oscar and Hazard in 12/13, and they combined for 90+ starts between them in the first season despite basically playing the same position.

I'll root for him like 98% of the time.

jeffk said:

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I'll root for him like 98% of the time.

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yep, always rooted for Dempsey to do well.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/deadspin.com/how-is-christian-pulisic-going-to-fit-in-at-chelsea-1831430703/amp

Pretty good article on the transfer. The author thinks this is a great situation for him but Chelsea and American fans must be patient with him.

He's not playing with Dortmund. He needs to play whether with Chelsea or Dortmund.

Rudyjax said:

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He's not playing with Dortmund. He needs to play whether with Chelsea or Dortmund.

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I know he has had some injury issues, but it's a bit ridiculous that he isn't starting for Dortmund more frequently given his performance there

PatAg said:

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Rudyjax said:

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He's not playing with Dortmund. He needs to play whether with Chelsea or Dortmund.

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I know he has had some injury issues, but it's a bit ridiculous that he isn't starting for Dortmund more frequently given his performance there

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Watching them week in week out they're playing really well without him.

He is only starting in midweek non bundasleiga matches. I knew based on how they were playing it would be hard to get him back in there. And I don't blame them.

JJxvi said:

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I would be shocked if Willian is still at the club when Pulisic arrives.

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This. Willian is gone.

There's an interesting subplot here that I had never considered... should Pulisic's youth club receive the traditional 5% of the transfer fee that is typically set aside for youth clubs? Like many in America, they charge plenty of money, so you can make the argument that they are already compensated.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jan/03/christian-pulisic-transfer-us-soccer-financials

Sounds like there are pending cases for Yedlin and a few others already in the works as well

Here is another story on how American youth leagues can miss out on big pay days.

sbnation story on youth clubs being compensated

Interestingly, it appears PA Classics doesn't think its getting screwed.

http://www.espn.com/soccer/soccer-transfers/story/3742138/christian-pulisics-youth-club-unlikely-to-pursue-solidarity-payment-after-chelsea-transfer

More on the topic from a different angle

gig them said:

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More on the topic from a different angle

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Solidarity payment are dumb from what i can tell. Sounds very soccery, in a very sepp blatter type of way.

It makes a lot more sense when the core of your developmental system is the fact that you have hundreds of smaller pro clubs who are out there signing and developing players and then the player would simply get recruited away by a bigger a club who can pay them more.

Here the machinations are such that it would almost be ridiculous. Its one thing to say like the Dallas Texans or Seattle Sounders Academy should get a solidarity payment, its a bit of an absurdity to think that like Stanford University should get a solidarity payment if a player like Jordan Morris gets sold overseas or whatever.

who?mikejones said:

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gig them said:

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More on the topic from a different angle

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Solidarity payment are dumb from what i can tell. Sounds very soccery, in a very sepp blatter type of way.

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It's not something that would really make sense in any other sport in the US the way they are setup.

Imagine the nightmare and various avenues of outrage if like significant percentages of pro-contracts in the NBA and NFL were being funneled directly to college and random high school programs.

I don't agree that youth clubs here should make any money off of this, with the exception being a MLS youth academy that's free to players. If you've already been paid $2500-3500 per year for the kid from 10-18, I don't see the argument.

OregonAggie said:

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I don't agree that youth clubs here should make any money off of this, with the exception being a MLS youth academy that's free to players. If you've already been paid $2500-3500 per year for the kid from 10-18, I don't see the argument.

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Wasn't McKinney from the DC Dallas academy program that is free?

OregonAggie said:

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I don't agree that youth clubs here should make any money off of this, with the exception being a MLS youth academy that's free to players. If you've already been paid $2500-3500 per year for the kid from 10-18, I don't see the argument.

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I think the initial signing at Dortmund makes sense to get some money on. I wasn't aware any future signings would count, since he's not coming directly from the academy anymore.

Seriously, the only persons/entities that should get a cut should be the owners of the contract, the player and the agent.

Yeah he was. I don't think they were too happy about losing him for free.

OregonAggie said:

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I don't agree that youth clubs here should make any money off of this, with the exception being a MLS youth academy that's free to players. If you've already been paid $2500-3500 per year for the kid from 10-18, I don't see the argument.

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My thought is that if these clubs got paid, they could reduce and possibly eliminate these fees altogether.

To start, US colleges and high schools would obviously not be eligible for either solidarity payments or training compensation. Only clubs that are directly linked to the national soccer federation are eligible for such payments and the universities and high schools in the US are not linked to the federation in any way.

It's interesting to see how training compensation and solidarity payments are used in other confederations and federations to fund youth development. UEFA is probably the most transparent with training compensation, solidarity payments, and money from UEFA club competitions allocated to all clubs for the express purpose of funding youth development and a mechanism to show how those payments are used for that purpose. The US decided this is not how youth development should be funded and is going its own way. It's different than football, basketball, and baseball which rely heavily on taxpayer funding of player development by virtue of taxpayer-funded player development programs in the educational system. Soccer in the US is now largely bypassing the taxpayer-funded development model and trying to find something that works. The end result will probably be that the MLS-funded DA programs will become the gold standard and the non-MLS programs will struggle to hold on to their best players. I know they're hoping USL teams will join the DA fray and that might help, but no movement there yet.