North Texas SC has begun the club’s off-season process by making their end-of-2023 season contract moves. Most of the moves went as expected as you will see from our prediction here.
While I thought there was a chance Thabo Nare would be picked up due to how late in the 2023 season he signed – he failed to play a single minute – the real surprise was the option decline on Hope Avayevu.
Avayevu was North Texas SC’s best player this season and one I expected FCD to sign this winter. Even at the age of 20, he is, for my money, better than many of the recent college draft picks who were two years older and were kept around FCD for a season or two.
Declining his option doesn’t for sure mean we’ve seen the last of Hope Avayevu in Dallas. He could, for example, already have a deal with FCD ready to go (or even signed) and this option decline could just be a formality.
Or perhaps Avayevu just wanted to move on to some greener pastures in the USL or Europe.
Alas, sometimes the window with North Texas SC is quite short. For our thoughts on all these moves, check out our contract predictions.
Out of Contract
Alejandro Araneda
André Costa
Loan Ended
Manuel Caicedo
Yeicar Perlaza
Option Declined
Hope Avayevu
Theo Ferreira
Henri Santos
Michael Webber
Thabo Nare
Pablo Torre
Option Picked Up
Tyshawn Rose
Tomas Pondeca
Under Contract for 2024
Diego García
Dylan Lacy
Malachi Molina
Diego Pepi
Tomas Pondeca
Tyshawn Rose
Carl Sainté
Lautaro Taboada
Alejandro Urzua
Shocked by the Hope situation, but as you said there could be more information we aren’t aware of. If he did sign/will sign with FCD any idea when we might hear about it? FC Dallas offseason maybe? If there isn’t a roster spot yet, could they be waiting for the end of the season and then sign him?
It’s a mystifying move. If he is signed by FCD, we will probably not hear about it for a while. At least till after FCD is eliminated this year I think. I would not have risked dropping the NTX option if he hadn’t actually signed the new FCD deal. There would be a risk he would run off somewhere else. But maybe FCD has more faith in his word. (I don’t trust agents.)