Cyle Larin has transferred to Besiktas, who are in the last 16 of the Champions League.
His move from Orlando was a debacle, as Orlando had exercised a team-only option on Larin's deal assuming he was under contract until 2019, while Larin thought he was a free agent as FIFA had not recognized team-only options in the past. Besiktas announced on Twitter that Larin was going physical testing a few weeks ago, and Orlando obviously challenged that.
A good summary of the situation is here:
http://www.espn.com/soccer/major-lea...uences-for-mls
And the following quote which sums up how despite Larin's tactics in forcing the move, he wasn't the only party at fault in the whole ordeal:
Quote:
But this was a scenario potentially avoided if Orlando City had handled the Larin situation better from the start.
The 2015 No. 1 overall draft pick was a consistent goal scorer from the time he stepped foot on the field for Orlando. Yet Larin was perhaps the most underpaid player in the league.
He crushed the MLS rookie goal-scoring record with 17 goals in 2015, but in the midst of a front-office upheaval after the season, did not get a new contract. He followed up that stellar debut season with 14 more goals in 2016 -- once again tops on the team. Still, Larin, who was making less than $200,000, did not receive a new contract offer.
There were transfer offers ahead of the 2017 season and interest again during the summer window, but Orlando City didn't sell. It wanted to wait until after the season when its percentage of a transfer fee would increase from 50 percent to 67 percent. It also offered a below-market-value raise to Larin, per a source with knowledge of the discussions. Shortly after that offer, Larin was arrested for driving under the influence.
Despite its hesitation at rewarding Larin with a big contract extension, Orlando traded as much as a then-league-record $1.6 million in allocation money for a forward, Dom Dwyer, who had scored fewer goals than Larin over the previous two seasons. After the trade, it started work on a contract extension that would eventually pay Dwyer more than $1 million a year. Larin spent the final month of the season on the bench -- a confusing decision that decreased Larin's value ahead of a winter window when Orlando City might look to move him.
The showdown with Larin and Besiktas was the fallout of an increasingly contentious relationship. Orlando definitely played a role in that escalation.
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