The Philadelphia Union picked up midfielder Nizar Khalfan in the MLS Waiver Draft after Vancouver Whitecaps FC waived him earlier today.
The Union have waived goalkeeper Thorne Holder and defender Juan Diego Gonzalez.
With the loss of Mapp to Montreal earlier today in the Expansion Draft, combined with the release of Holder and Gonzalez, the Union cleared $418,795 in guaranteed compensation salary from their books. Khalfan was paid $61,250 by Vancouver in 2011. Assuming that he will earn the same amount in 2012 with the Union, that opens up $357,545 to add to the salaries of players currently on the roster or for future acquisitions.
A native of Tanzania, Khalfan played in 22 Major League Soccer regular season matches with Vancouver, starting in nine games while scoring one goal with four assists. Khalfan joined Vancouver midway through the 2009 USL First Division season. He has 25 caps with the Tanzanian national team, scoring five goals.
Holder signed with the Union on March 1, 2011. The Trinidad & Tobago youth international keeper saw no first team action and made four reserve games appearances. Holder was waived by the Union on July 26 but returned to the club on August 22. His season ended when he suffered a concussion in the reserve team game against Columbus Crew on September 18, which led to the signing of Chase Harrison on September 23.
After playing in seven games in the Union’s inaugural season following his signing with the club on August 5, 2010, Gonzalez made no first team appearances in 2011. The Colombian defender started all 10 of Philadelphia’s Reserve League matches.
I was looking at the salary cap rules and taking into account the 4 development players that are under 25 and don’t count towards your cap (don’t know who they are for the Union), Gonzalez/Mapp leaving and Home Grown players it appears that the Union have a rather large amount of wiggle room. I would expect that a decent amount of that will go to paying Williams, Marfan and possibly Torres more, but even so am I right that they have a LOT of potential money to spend? (we have not even mentioned the bimbo bucks yet)
Let me stop dodging what I am really trying to say here…DP?
Give williams part of Gonz’s money!!!
Apparently this guy is not bad at all, but I am worried we picked him u. Do we really need to crowd our midfield more? Do we really need to make it easier for Nowak to give minutes to the wrong players?
He’s pretty good. Surprised Vancouver let him go. Good pickup. Low salary. Young. Figure out what to do with him later.
Our midfield sucks…he is a welcomed addition and Mapp was a welcomed departure.
Always the optimist, I see… I am very comfortable with an (attacking) midfield stable of Marfan, Garfan, Adu and Torres. Add in this Khalfan and I think we have a good MLS quality batch of midfield options.
Speedy bench weapon, not crowding out the midfield. What Houapeu is supposed to be, and what Langley was signed to be. Looks like we just short cut the development process and got someone a bit farther along. Mapp crowded the midfield – Khalfan looks like more spark for 1/3 the price.
Use that extra $$ to bring Torres over for good!
+1
…..and what about Neon Keon? We desperately need some size for set pieces. We were no threat at all on free kicks last year and the service wasn’t ‘that’ bad.
Good pick up. Spend money on FO people to handle visa paperwork. FREE KEON
I can’t believe that nobody has picked up on the real story here. Khalfan is actually the mystery Farfan triplet. Khal is Tanzanian for Far. Duh!
THERE ARE NEWS THAT NIZAR KHALFAN IS JOINING SIMBA SPORTS CLUB OF HIS HOME COUNTRY TANZANIA- HE IS A GOOD MIDFILDER BUT I THINK IS A SHORT TIME CONTRACTOR COZ HE IS NOT A PLAYER FOR THE LOCAL LEAGUE, MAY BE ITS BECAUSE THE TEAM IS REPRESENTING THE COUNTRY IN CONFEDERATION CUP TO THE SECOND ROUND AFTER ELIMINATING ES SETIF OF ALGERIA.
THERE ARE NEWS THAT NIZAR KHALFAN IS JOINING SIMBA SPORTS CLUB OF HIS HOME COUNTRY TANZANIA- HE IS A GOOD MIDFILDER BUT I THINK IS A SHORT TIME CONTRACTOR COZ HE IS NOT A PLAYER FOR THE LOCAL LEAGUE, MAY BE ITS BECAUSE THE TEAM IS REPRESENTING THE COUNTRY IN CONFEDERATION CUP TO THE SECOND ROUND AFTER ELIMINATING ES SETIF OF ALGERIA.