Alicia DelGallo: Larin’s plans surprise Orlando City CEO.
Orlando City CEO Alex Leitão said he had no idea the team’s leading scorer was ready to leave the club before reading Cyle Larin’s comments in an article published Wednesday by the Orlando Sentinel.
Larin, who has long expressed his desire to one day play in Europe, believes he is ready to make that leap now.
“I think I’m at the right place to go play in Europe and it’s the right time,” Larin told the Sentinel, going on to thank the club and fans for the last three Major League Soccer seasons.
That was news to Leitão, according to an interview with Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi on his radio show on 96.9-FM Thursday morning.
“I didn’t know anything because he didn’t speak with me about this,” Leitão said. “I think the way things should be done is Cyle should come talk to me and express his desire. Look, he’s a great guy. He’s an incredible football player. I understand his desires, but I just think he’s not being well advised in what to do.
“The way those kinds of things happen is you come to the club and speak to us and say what he wants ... if it’s something that’s good for the club and Cyle we can explore the opportunities.”
The message aligned with Orlando City general manager Niki Budalic’s response saying the club is open and committed to helping Larin achieve his goals outside of MLS.
Larin is entering the first of two option years left on his contract.
Leitão reiterated that the Lions’ Canadian striker is young at 22 years old and said talking about his goals and preferences publicly before working it out with the club is bad advice, likely from his agent and others around him.
“If he comes to me, and says, ‘Alex, I want to leave, I’m not committed with the team, I’m not committed with Orlando,’ then after that we will start looking for opportunities,” Leitão said. “But, again, it must be something that’s good for the club and for Cyle.”
According to Leitão, Orlando City received interest in Larin from “maybe one club” a while ago, but the offer was “nothing even close” to what Orlando City feels is fair value for the striker with 43 goals in 87 appearances since 2015.
Larin’s agent told the Sentinel at least five “very, very good” offers not typically seen in MLS came in from European clubs during the summer transfer window and that type of interest continues.
Leitão said he wants Larin to stay in Orlando, but he knows it’s normal for young players to want to move overseas, if possible. He said the club will help him reach the next level if two things happen: Larin communicates he is ready to leave and an appropriate proposal comes in.
“He needs to express his desire to us. He knows exactly where I’m sitting in my office,” Leitão said. “So, we don’t have a proposal, we don’t have Cyle saying he wants to leave, actually, we don’t have [anything] right now. We have this interview.”
Dwyer’s future
During the radio interview, Leitão also addressed the future of striker Dom Dwyer, who the club committed $1.6 million to secure via trade in July.
Dwyer is entering the final year of his contract, an option year the club has said it will exercise and has not yet agreed to terms for a new contract with Orlando City beyond that.
The club said from the beginning that it expects Dwyer to be a long-term asset and leader in Orlando. And while Dwyer has expressed excitement in joining the club, where he played for a bit in 2013 when Orlando City competed in the lower-level United Soccer League, he has been coy about contract negotiations.
Dwyer told the Sentinel last week, “I’d like to be at this club, it’s something we’re trying to figure out, but I can’t say I’m so confident at it right now. I’ll keep training hard and we’ll finish off strong and we’ll see where it goes from there, but I think this one’s out of my hands a little bit.”
Dwyer may not be confident in the ongoing negotiations at the moment, but Leitão is.
“I’m very comfortable about this situation,” Leitão said during the radio interview. “We [made] a big effort in order to bring Dom Dwyer; he’s part of our plans. We want him to be the leader that we believe he can be for this club. So, I’m fine with that. Niki [Budalic] is taking care of that, and I’m pretty sure we’re going to find terms.”