Davino Out
December 4th, 2008 . 1:12 pm . By: Buzz Carrick
The big winter changes at FC Dallas under Schellas Hyndman have begun as FC Dallas has moved to end Duilio Davino’s time with the Red Stripes. The move comes as somewhat of a surprise, albeit a welcome one, as Davino was guaranteed at $400,000 plus for 2009. Davino arrived as the big signing under Steve Morrow last winter to shore up the back line as well as assisting General Manager Michael Hitchcock in his quest to sell more tickets. Davino failed to deliver on both accounts.
While the wording of the press release makes it hard to determine exactly what mechanism FCD used to rid themselves of Davino, it’s most likely a mutually agreeable contract buyout number was found. FCD clearly wanted to get any amount under the $400,000 they would owe Davino off the books, since any buyout of a guarantee contract would still count on the cap next year. If we can do a bit of speculating, Davino may have seen bench time coming and thus agreed to a buyout. Now the Mexican defender can return home to perhaps play out a year or two. This also underscores that Hyndman is making all the player decisions as Hitchcock can’t he happy to see his high dollar, high profile Mexican set packing in a perhaps unglamorous fashion. Here’s the limited press release… FC DALLAS AND DUILIO DAVINO PART WAYSFRISCO, Texas (Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008) – FC Dallas General Manager Michael Hitchcock announced today that the club and defender Duilio Davino have mutually agreed to end his contract with FC Dallas. FC Dallas will begin searching for a replacement center back, while Davino will explore opportunities to play in Mexico. “Duilio is a great professional who has enjoyed a storied career,” said Hitchcock. “He brought a great deal of experience and leadership to FC Dallas that will benefit our younger players for years to come. We wish Duilio all the best in the next chapter of his career.” Davino was signed by FC Dallas on January 9, 2008 after a 10-year career with Club America in Mexico. He was named captain of FC Dallas prior to the start of the season, and started 22 of the 23 games he played in, missing seven games with a left foot injury. 15 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
Ah.. Some good news at last.
Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Buzz, I would love to see an article detailing your best guess at FCD’s salary cap situation. I’m sure it would be complex with guesswork on allocations (Ruiz, Gbandi, etc.). Are you saying that the full Davino 400k will count against cap, or we to guess on the cap impact of that, too?
The cost of the buyout will be on the cap.
But I take that the buy out must be much less than the actual contract.. This is basically a severance package.. I don’t know about professional soccer, but many folks are lucky to get 2 weeks these days if they get laid off tomorrow. What your guess Buzz?
Think this may be a way to keep Kenny? Davino was a designated player, correct? Could someone in MLS actually use a designated player tag on a good young player and not just Landon the whiner or over the hill Claudio.
A good move for all parties, even if FCD took the full cap hit.
Any additional news on Brek Shea’s new surgery? That really sounds bad for his career…
It’s about time!! Maybe Schellas is feeling the holidays and decided to finally make some good decisions. Either way, this is a great step in the right direction. Wahoo!!
Davino was not DP, but he did make the 400k amount. my interpretation is that if you make MORE than the 400k is when you get counted as DP, Davino was making exactly that amount, so he wasnt necessarily a DP. That way, FCD coudl still use taht card to sign someone if they wanted too.
TT, correct.
A team needs league approval before signing their DP. I heard from somewhere, I can’t recall where it was, that the league would not approve Cooper because they are looking to bring in big-name international players.
nathan… more than $250 but less than $400 I would guess.
Ben, probably not cause no DP on Cooper is more of a principle issue about domestic players.
Moose, I’ve heard nothing yet beyond the initial report on Shea.
WHOOO!!!!
so what happened to brek??
Hyndman 1 Hitchcock 0
Buzz, can we credit Ellinger with the assist? or was this unassisted?
at least SH means to do things his way…whether it’s no longer wanting davino, or starting bruno despite the fans’ dissatisfaction.
screw what hitch thinks. he was 0 for 2 w/ davino as what buzz noted. he should just be lucky he has a job. he needs to formulate an alternate 3rd jersey so fcd can make mroe revenue.
Welcome news. Maybe the rest of the backline, Drew Moor in particular, will now be able to focus on marking just their own man. Hard to shine back there when you’re always covering for someone else.