Signing News

Official: Union acquire Chris Pontius

Photo: Courtesy of DC United

On Monday afternoon, Philadelphia Union announced the acquisition of attacking midfielder Chris Pontius from DC United in exchange for both General and Targeted Allocation Money.

Per league and club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, CBS Philly and PSP contributor Kevin Kinkead tweeted Pontius arrives on a one-year deal.

Said Union Technical Director Chris Albright in a statement, “We believe Chris is an excellent addition to our first team and organization. His ability, experience and winning mentality will help lead our club in the right direction in 2016.”

News of the deal was first reported on December 1 by Ives Galarcep at Goal.com, quickly followed by another report from Steven Goff at the Washington Post. The Washington Post report put Pontius’ 2016 salary at $420,000. Goff reported at the Washington Post after the trade was announced, “With Pontius’s hefty salary and injury history, United was reluctant to retain him, sources said.”

Pontius, 28, was drafted by DC in the first round of the 2009 SuperDraft, seventh overall.The attacking midfielder/winger has scored 31 goals, and recorded 17 assists, in 152 appearances, including 126 starts.

 

15 Comments

  1. What was expected.

  2. *grumble*
    *snort*
    *shrug*

  3. Meh. Seems like a lot of money for questionable productivity…

  4. course if the guy scores 18 goals this season we’ll all be like….damn fine move!
    .
    we come by the cynical nature of our tree stump so honestly in this city. least I do.

  5. Twellman reporting “significant” allocation money & 6th overall pick for Maidana, and Wenger. Interesting. Initial reaction is hate, but with Stewart here I’m willing to be patient. Has to be more pieces brought in with “significant” allocation money coming back. And say what you want about Twellman, but he’s usually pretty on with things like this

    • Agreed. And this is Day 1 of the silly season. I know it’s not in Philly’s nature, but we need to be patient and see how this plays out by the end of the January transfer window.
      I’ll withhold judgement until early February.

    • Dan C (formerly of 103) says:

      But look at the deals together: Union get Pontius, the 6th pick and maybe a surplus of allocation for maidana (who wasn’t going to start) and wegner( insert snarky comment here). Barnetta moves to the center and the U also now have their first true left wing since Mapp. Not a bad day’s work IMO

    • Yeah, I think that’s the thing. With Stewart reportedly already here, we can be confident that this is the beginning of an actual roster building strategy in which the “other pieces” are already identified with plans A, B and C coming into focus. You know Stewart already has a list of targets. It needed MLS-style adjustments, but we’ve brought in an executive who has been doing just what the club needed, not trying to foist it on a young, rookie coach. I have a feeling that we’re going to have an interesting team put together by Feb. I’m pretty optimistic it will be better.

  6. This is a 1-year deal on a guy that could be a MASSIVE upgrade over everything we have put on the left side.
    If he’s too hurt, he leaves after next year and we free up a large chunk of money.
    This was a good calculated risk.

  7. Lucky Striker says:

    Adopting George Carlin’s stance on back of refrigerator food with regard to this move.

    “Could be meat. Could be……….cake. Could be…………meatcake”………………….

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