The Seattle Sounders will trade Marco Pappa to the Colorado Rapids in exchange for allocation money, according to of-substance reports from both the Denver Post and Fox Soccer. The deal would mark the second time in a week they’ve sent a winger elsewhere for financial relief.
The reported trade, even moreso than most deals of its kind, would be best characterized as a business decision first. Simply put, if Pappa wasn’t due such a significant salary increase, he’d stay in Seattle.
Though the MLS Players’ Union salary release listed Pappa’s 2015 salary at $75,000, I’ve heard that the actual figure was much larger than that and that his 2016 wage was set to rise somewhere close to the Designated Player threshold.