Well, it happened. After an offseason of back-and-forth negotiating between Brazilian Attacking Midfielder Evander and the Portland Timbers Front Office, Evander has left The Rose City for Cincinnati and all the Skyline Chili he could ever want.
Evander’s departure from The Rose City had been imminent for some time after his comments about the end of Portland’s 2024 campaign. In his Tweets, he highlighted the “off-field issues” that impacted the team and their performances on the pitch.
In the MLS’s 2025 updates to their roster rules and regulations, they announced a new rule that would allow teams to use unlimited amounts of funds (cash) to acquire talent from clubs within the league, without having to trade assets, such as GAM or SuperDraft picks. There are some caveats to this new cash-for-player rule, such as clubs only being able to acquire two departures per year via the C4P rule, and when C4P trades occur cash has to be the only form of compensation. Additionally, the player traded receives 10% of the transfer fee. This new rule allows players to make the MLS a more lucrative destination, instead of seeking moves abroad.
If you are interested in reading more about the new C4P rules, my friend Arman Kafai of Backheeled and Footy Analytics Musings wrote a great article about them, which is linked below. (If you don’t already follow Arman, you should!)
The crux of the Evander trade relied on FC Cincinnati offloading their former number 10, Lucho Acosta. Acosta left Cincinnati for Dallas, with Dallas paying Cincinnati a fee of $5,000,000 plus $1,000,000 in performance-based add-ons. This trade between Cincinnati and Dallas set a record for the Cash for Player roster rule, with the record previously held by Dejan Joveljic between LA Galaxy and Sporting Kansas City.
The reason why Evander’s move from Portland to Cincinnati turns eyes stands from a roster-building perspective. Evander’s move to his new home came at the price of a $12,000,000 base fee and an additional $150,000 in performance-based incentives. The Timbers also retain a sellon percentage, should Evander be moved in the future. In a week of heads turning with cash for player trades, FC Cincinnati’s move for Evander has shown that this tool works, and can be used to keep top talent in the MLS.
When Evander joined Portland from Danish side FC Midtjylland at the end of 2022, his market value was approximately 9 million euros, and at the time of his departure from the Timbers, his value had risen to 14 million euros. Evander’s move from Portland to Cincinnati had shattered MLS and Timbers’ financial records. With his 12 million dollar move, Evander had broken the record for the most expensive intra-MLS transfer, and he also shattered the ceiling for the league’s new cash-for-player mechanism. On the Timbers front, Evander’s move to Cincinnati also shatters Portland’s outgoing transfer record, previously held by Jeremy Ebobisse’s 1.167 million dollar departure to the San Jose Earthquakes.
Let me tell you why I as a Timbers fan and as someone who has aspirations to be a Chief Soccer Officer in MLS one day don’t hate the Evander move, and what this (and other) moves mean for the MLS and its cash for player roster building mechanisms. First, as a Timbers and MLS fan, I want to see Evander succeed. He did some incredible things during his time in Portland and is the kind of talent that this new roster-building mechanism is targeted for. The MLS is shifting itself away from the rhetoric that it is a short-term, talent-exporting league, and shifting itself into a league where dynamic talent wants to come play and stay for a longer time. This rule allows for these dynamic superstars to stick around for a while, receive financial rewards, and continue to flourish as players and increase their market values.
Now examining this move through the lens of a future Chief Soccer Officer, when you are managing rosters, you manage the players as people in addition to them as sporting department assets. When you have a player who has off-the-pitch issues, it is vital to consider the implications that this player’s issues will face on the other members of the squad. As a General Manager, your job is to manage the entire state of the roster, not just one individual player. This new roster construction mechanism allows for Chief Soccer Officers to find solutions to any issues that players might have, whether on or off the pitch. In the case of FC Cincinnati CSO Chris Albright, Evander was a suitable target after the departure of Lucho Acosta, and Portland CSO Ned Grabavoy was able to find a solution to Evander’s off-pitch issues, and the club was able to gain a profit on the funds that were invested to bring Evander to Portland originally. Evander’s move was a win/win situation for both FC Cincinnati and the Portland Timbers Soccer Operations Departments, and we get to see an MVP-caliber player continue to play in the MLS.