The New Revolution’s coffers are flush with liquid belongings and newly minted Sporting Director Curt Onalfo turned a purchaser when the MLS commerce window opened for enterprise on Monday.
In the primary exterior acquisition of his tenure, Onalfo obtained veteran defender Nick Lima from Austin FC in a money solely transaction.
The Revolution departed with $275,000 in 2024 General Allocation Money with an addition $25,000 in 2024 GAM if Lima achieves prescribed performance-based metrics. Lima is signed by the 2024 season.
“Nick Lima has proven to be a dependable defender in Major League Soccer over the last seven seasons and has been a steady presence on the backline for both his previous clubs,” mentioned Onalfo.
“With the ability to play at either outside back positions, we foresee Nick making important contributions to our squad and bolstering our defensive unit in a key area for the 2024 season.”
The “key area” Onalfo referred to is left again. Lima, a right-footed kicker, was introduced in to fill the void that opened when Brandon Bye suffered a torn ACL in a League’s Cup match in opposition to Atlas FC on Aug. 3 at Gillette Stadium.
Bye underwent surgical procedure at Mass. General Hospital on Aug. 28 and was predicted to be out for 9 months. Left again turned a revolving door through the tumultuous last three months of the 2023 season, most frequently stuffed by exterior again Ryan Spaulding, heart again Ben Sweat and midfielder Matt Polster.
Lima, 29, is a 5-9, 176-pound, native of Castro Valley, Calif., who performed 4 collegiate seasons at Cal-Berkeley and later signed as a home-grown participant with the San Jose Earthquakes.
Lima has made 195 common season appearances for San Jose (2017-2020) and Austin FC (2021-2023) and is one in every of solely 5 MLS defenders to have 5 assists in every of the final two seasons. Revolution proper again DeJuan Jones can also be one of many 5.
Lima recorded slightly below 15,000 minutes on the pitch with eight objectives and 20 assists. Lima has additionally been capped 9 instances by the United States National Team with two appearances within the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
Source: www.bostonherald.com