Guzan to Aston Villa in $1.5 million transfer

                                                                 Photo by ISIphotos.com

Brad Guzan is on his way to England and the English Premier League is about to add another American goalkeeper.

The Chivas USA and U.S. national team goalkeeper is heading to Aston Villa for a transfer fee of $1.5 million after Villa and Major League Soccer agreed to the fee and completed the transfer on Friday afternoon, sources with knowledge of the negotiations told SBI on Friday afternoon.

The Los Angeles Times and Sideline Views were the first to report today that Guzan would be leaving MLS via transfer.

Guzan had a transfer move to Villa blocked because of his inability to secure a UK work permit, but sources with knowledge of Guzan's case believe he will secure his work permit now after playing in five of the U.S. national team's eight matches this year.

The $1.5 million transfer fee is a fraction of the almost $4 million fee Aston Villa agreed to in January, mainly because Guzan is in the final year of his MLS contract and could have left on a free transfer on January 1 had a transfer deal not been made.

The No. 2 overall pick in the 2005 MLS Draft, Guzan was the first draft pick in Chivas USA history and overcame a rough rookie season to develop into one of the best young American goalkeepers in the U.S. national team pool. He posted a 0.93 goals against average, including 13 shutouts, to win MLS goalkeeper of the year honors last season.

The 23-year-old goalkeeper had drawn interest from clubs ranging from Arsenal to Celtic, but set his sights on Aston Villa, where he will instead join fellow American goalkeepers Friedel and Tim Howard in the English Premier League.

Now Guzan is headed to Aston Villa, where the goalkeeper situation is wide open since the return of Scott Carson to Liverpool after spending last season on loan with Villa. Several goalkeepers, including Brad Friedel and Paul Robinson, have been linked to Aston Villa but Guzan appears to be the first goalkeeper signed by Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill.

It remains unclear whether Guzan's transfer will affect his status as a candidate to be an overage U.S. Olympic team player. The Olympic roster is set to be unveiled on Thursday.

Comments

[Tim F.]

Good for Guzan. Best of luck to him!!!

[Adam]

Keep that USA-GK pipeline flowing!

[Blake]

Finally! Thanks, Ives, glad I read the blog the gets the MLS transfers first.

[Don]

go brad! nice reporting ives!

[CPTKevin]

I'll put him on my fantasy team along with Howard.

[chris]

it was first posted on big soccer your late by an hour

[Joamiq]

Kick some ass, sea bass

[ELAC]

3 million is low-ball. Way to go MLS. Once again, Chivas get no respect.

[sublicon]

GET SOME!!!!!!

[Ulrich]

A bit unfair that Chivas USA & RBNY will both get the same amounts of funds to use on new players even though Altidore transfered for 3x the amount of Guzan.

Once again, MLS uses archaic rules to even the playing field and to keep one team from truly being able to replace a player with an equal player.

[torrey]

Great for Brad. Good to see it happened sooner rather than later.

You're slacking though Ives. 'First on SBI'? The transfer was broken on Sideline Views a couple hours ago.

[DeLarge]

He'll be the new Friedel in no time.

[kahlva]

So there's always confusion over transfer amounts (did anybody really ever work out what Eddie Johnson left for??) - but is it $1.5 million? Or $3 million? Or $4-6 million (reported elsewhere?)

Possibly it's 1.5 million pounds?

[Don]

maybe ives is the first one to report the 3 million figure? sideline view broke the transfer first without a fee though

[romanov]

I'm afraid if I refresh the page again the transfer amount will be half a million and Villa in next year's all-star game.

And sidelineviews did have it up for a while.

[Ives]

Apologies for the initial $3 million transfer figure. There was a miscommunication regardng pounds and dollars.

[Ives]

Fair enough on Sideline Views. I see that the LA Times had Chivas USA saying he was sold as well.

[tbisgrove]

Finally gets to leave. Don't think if he went on the free transfer, that we'd ever see him play stateside other then the USMNT, but anyways, good stuff Guzan.

[kahlva]

Oof. $1.5 million is low. But I guess it's better than getting nothing in January...
(although I doubt Chivas USA will say that if their new goalkeeper sucks for the rest of the season...)

[frank from sf]

good move . hope he plays, if not , it's not really that great.

[KingSnake]

Pocket change even to a EPL team outside the Big Four.

[andy b.]

Wish we could figure out how to do for strikers what we've done for keepers: produce a string of quality guys. Not that I'm complaining about this one. Great news for Guzan, let's hope he starts.

[HomeyBoehme]

So he can leave for $1.5 million, but Kenny Cooper can't? Good luck to Guzan though.

[CD]

Good, now Villa has an extra $2.5 to pay off the work permit office to get him cleared to play.

[CD]

If you're wondering as of today:

1,500,000.00 USD = 754,321.71 GBP

[DeLarge]

Same w/ the Darren Huckerby to San Jose news. Heard that on FSC Report the night before.

[Dominghosa]

FSC didn't confirm the Huckerby signing. They were saying the Quakes were looking to sign Huckerby.

[Ives]

DeLarge, the Huckerby deal was definitely first reported by SBI. The Guzan transfer was not, if only because I waited for the actual fee, which wasn't agreed to until late afternoon.

[Fred]

Fantasy MFLS question: Who will now man the nets for Chivas? Dan Kennedy? Is he any good?

[DH]

Its still to be confirmed from our end but if true welcome to Villa Park Brad - AV Fan UK

[Slugger]

Still find it hard to believe MLS wouldn't let Twellman go for double that. How many Luciano Emilios can you get for $3M?

[andy b.]

Geez, with all of the zaniness over who-reports-what-first, it must be nearly impossible to get this stuff right. For what it's worth, Ives, your obviously sincere attempts to do so mean I'll keep turning to you for news no matter what. I can't see how anybody can really keep straight the timing issues, but at least you're being very transparent about it. Good work.
Also, in the end, I'd rather read your reports anyway, even if they actually wind up being 30 seconds after some other guy's.

[Freddy]

He should of went to Celtic. It's a more prestigious club, he'll play in the Champions League every year and he'll win a medal or two every year.

[DeLarge]

Gotcha Ives, for some reason I thought the Huckerby thing was old hat by the time I read it on here.

I see most things first on here, so I'll let it slide.

For now ;)

[DemonJuice]

The work permit thing had to have factored in to BB's decision to sub Guzan in at the half in those friendlies, right?

Yeah, that's probably rhetorical.

Someone mentioned they wished we could export strikers like we do keepers. I think we're ahead of England in keeper skill simply because keepers aren't considered real footballers in England.

In America, at all levels, the keeper position is one to compete for, not one to be stuck with, hence we churn out many more quality keepers.

We're still way behind the world when it comes to strikers, though. The rest of the globe has been concentrating on that position far longer than we.

[dcpohl]

Free Guzan!

[inkedAG]

Good luck to Brad and all, but only 1.5 mil? That's a sad offer. Should've been at least 3

[Isaac Mundia]

This is a good year for the US Soccer Team. Other than the trio of winless friendlies(which did have its benefits), things are looking up for Bob Bradley's team. I'm liking him more and more. First Jozy Altidore to Villareal(second place in La Liga only just behind real madrid) and now Guzan to Villa? Now all we need is for Damarcus Beasley and Eddie Johnson to get back on form and our team is gonna kick A**

[Scott A]

A bit unfair that Chivas USA & RBNY will both get the same amounts of funds to use on new players even though Altidore transfered for 3x the amount of Guzan.

Posted by: Ulrich | July 11, 2008 at 05:03 PM
-----------------
I can't keep track of MLS rules. RBNY and Chivas USA would get the same amount even though the transfer was higher? Why is that?

[Dylan]

Yea, I hate how MLS runs..

[Scott A]

And if RBNY and CUSA get the same amount, what amount is that?

[Trevor]

$500K is the most any MLS team can get in allocation, the rest can be used to pay down the difference on a DP salary(I believe) and for other soccer related uses(youth system, stadium etc....)

[DemonJuice]

I think the rule is that the team gets 2/3 of the transfer fee, but there's a cap on what can be spent on new players: $500,000.

I think there are provisions to increase that cap on a case-by-case basis, however.

[DemonJuice]

Sorry, Trevor, didn't read your post at first.

I'd be interested to know if Dell'Apa (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=503146&root=mls&cc=5901) is right about the flexible cap.

[aristotle]

What's with all of the comments on the low ball transfer fee when it was clearly explained why the fee is low?

The original fee was $4 million. The fact that it didn't go through was not the fault of MLS. The fee is much lower now because Guzan will be out of contract and if his transfer was delayed much longer he could have gone for free.

It's also kind of strange to hear comments about MLS being gullible or foolish by taking low transfer fees for players, and then on the flip side you have people saying it's wrong that MLS won't let players go for a low fee because the player wants to go. You can't have both.

[Matt M]

Good for Guzon.

Despite his troubles this year, I expect he'll do well with a little more seasoning.

I see Chivas has no experienced backstop behind Guzon. Only rookie Lance Parker.

That's a bit worrisome. Maybe Chivas should not have been so rushed to trade Burpo this winter.

This has not been the year of the goaltender in MLS. Cronin and Wells have been mediocre and they were supposed to step in immediately. I don't know of too many backups ready for a starting position, either.

I've noticed plenty of good keepers in USL1 this year. Eylander, Jordan, etc. They might get a decent one there on the cheap.

[Jamie Z.]

Congratulations, Brad. Time to shave your head.

[4now]

I do hope he proves me wrong, but I don't rate him.

He lacks poise, does not command is back four effectively, and has an awkward reading of the game.

[4now]

Indeed, Matt M. is correct. That pipeline is drying up. Wells an Cronin are laughable. And few young GKS seem to exhibit the kind of promise of Keller, Friedel and Howard who were/are all world-class goalkeepers.

[Trevor]

Well I think there are good prospects for the future, Josh Lambo is still very very young, Quentin Westberg is only 22 and could be the #1 keeper a club tipped to return to Ligue 1 in France this season. He could be a good option, along with potentially Seitz/Cervi depending on how they progress and where they go. I think we're in a much better position when it comes to Goalkeepers than many other countries. It's that elusive striker thats holding us back, we need that sure thing, somebody that will score goals in bunches, then we will really step up to the world stage.