The Curious Case of the Permanent International Spot

How can teams trade permanent spots? Is it still happening?

Special thanks to Marc Machado for the transaction tracker he kindly let me use. Shoot him a follow, he knows his stuff. I also want to mention that this isn’t perfect and is an estimate based on the info we know. If anyone wants to reach out to ensure everything is clear, shoot me a message.

Before we dive into today’s topic, I just wanted to say thank you for the support. I know it’s only been 4 posts this year but it’s been so much fun. This has been my first year not working closely in soccer since 2016. I was worried about what I’d miss when I departed FC Dallas but man, this has only got even better. Being able to nerd out with you guys, exchange conversations, and just learn more from everyone has truly been so much fun. Everyone, and I mean everyone has made this year a blast, so thank you.

I know I called this Footy Analytic Musings (or FAM) and recently (including this post), it’s been more about salary cap mechanics. With the release of GAM and MLS increasing its transparency, I almost think of soccer analytics and the cap being hand in hand, especially in our beautiful salary-capped league. You need to operate within the restrictions presented, so in the off-season, expect to see more salary cap info and some more on-the-field stuff as the season goes on.

Let’s dive in.

Last week, Houston Dynamo GM Pat Onstad made the rounds on the Bayou City Soccer Podcast. In a clip, he remarked how a 2009 trade with the New York Red Bulls gave RBNY a permanent international spot and how it cost them millions in GAM because they were A) Down 1 international spot and had to buy one to get on level with teams and B) Not able to flip the international spots.

In 2024, according to the Roster Rules and Regulations, MLS allocated 233 international spots across the 29 teams. That makes for around 8 spots a team, with one team having 9. There are a few exceptions:

• A team can trade for a spot in the future (ex: In the Leonardo Campana trade, Miami acquired a 2025 AND a 2026 international roster spot)

• Canadian teams have slightly different rules: Their domestic players are either Canadian Citizens (or have other special statuses), homegrown international rule players, or US Domestic Players.

  • Canadian teams can designate 3 international players who have been under contract with MLS and have been registered with a Canadian club for a year to not count towards the international slots. This is who those players were as of the 2024 September 17 Roster Profiles

I’ve learned in my days covering, working, and analyzing MLS that the faster you can get players with Green Cards, the more profitable it can be. For example, in 2024, the Seattle Sounders traded five spots for $775,000 in GAM. Another example was Nashville SC, which traded five spots for $825,000 (timing matters; Seattle sold one of its spots in July, making the value go down). Again, you can see the value of these and why Onstad makes that point. He’s 100% right; being down an international slot can cost you net around $350,000 per year (if we assume the value is $175,000 of trading one at the beginning of the season, you’d lose the opportunity to sell it for that price and would need to acquire it at that price).

One aspect people took out of that interview was if the Dynamo are still down a spot. My close friend Tony Rubio (the biggest Dynamo supporter I know) asked me to figure it out. I was also curious; is MLS still penalizing teams for a trade that happened 15 years ago, in a relatively unknown world we were in?

Here’s the facts that I had going into this:

• The New York Red Bulls and Dynamo made a trade for a permanent international spot in 2009

• Real Salt Lake traded a permanent international spot in 2005 to the Colorado Rapids

• Colorado then traded an international spot until 2031 for the rights of Sanna Nyassi in 2010 (How did they get to the 21-year number?)

• NYRB’s Director Of Communications, Andrew Vazzano, said the spot isn’t with NYRB in 2024

• The September 17, 2024, Roster Profiles and their international slot allocation

Working backward, I looked at the roster profiles and went through Marc’s tracker. I ran into one issue; LAFC/Chicago made a trade for an international spot after the roster profile publishing, which I assume was to have Kike Olivera be eligible as he was not on the roster in the games leading up to September 24.

I could not find any trades the Dynamo made in 2024 involving a roster spot. Across both roster profiles, they had 8 international spots

After all the math, it seems like those permanent international spots have been sent back to the respective clubs. In the roster rules and regulations, 8 is the number that teams are anchored on, so this makes sense. I also assume with Vancouver, there was a compromise to say hey, we will give back Colorado the spot and give you the extra spot until 2031. Hence why we don’t have 232 (29*8) spots and instead, have 233.

It seems like the Dynamo and RSL have received their spots back. However, the rant from Onstad is still valid; because they were seemingly down a spot until 2024 (an estimate by me), they were forced to ship out allocation money for that 8th spot year after year. I’m assuming this because they did not trade away any 2023 spots and in the release, it says that is their 8th spot, which was used to sign Nelson Quiñónes. The Dynamo then acquired a 9th spot to sign Sebastian Kowalczyk

You can see why Onstad is still bringing it up; they had to shell out $150,000 in allocation money for a spot that they should have but was traded away 15 years ago. Sure, MLS apparently made it right, but that doesn’t help retroactively. The Dynamo are in a cap bind as well too, with the lowest amount of listed GAM across all teams going into the 2025 off-season.

My overall thoughts? If it hasn’t been done, MLS teams should not be able to trade international spots 3 seasons in advance. For example, if you in 2025 wanted to trade a ‘25 and ‘26 slot, that’s fine. However, you’d be barred from trading ‘27 and onward. I’m sure this has been fixed by the league but if it hasn’t, just a thought. It’s almost like the Steipen Rule in the NBA regarding draft picks.

I don’t think many teams are looking to trade spots forever anymore. It’s absolutely hilarious though that this happened, especially Vancouver’s. I’m not sure what was the thought process, but damn is MLS history funny.