What designated-player predicament could mean for Pellegrini

Inter Miami CF managing owner Jorge Mas shed more light on the club’s designated-player situation, and Matías Pellegrini could wind up not being on Inter Miami’s roster when the season starts.

The club is looking to become roster-compliant ahead of Major League Soccer’s opening day — Friday — after revealing that Blaise Matuidi will be registered as a designated player for the upcoming season.

The problem Inter Miami face is that they already have three designated players — the most allowed by the league — on their roster in Gonzalo Higuaín, Pellegrini and Rodolfo Pizarro.

The league’s designated-player rules allow teams to acquire up to three players whose compensation and acquisition costs are greater than the maximum budget charge ($612,500) while carrying the maximum budget charge against the team’s salary budget ($4.9 million).

Matuidi was originally signed last summer — a transaction that’s currently being investigated by MLS to make sure it complied with the league’s salary-budget and roster guidelines — using targeted allocation money, an MLS mechanism that allows clubs to sign players whose annual budget charge falls between $612,500 and $1.612 million.

Any player who has a budget charge more than $1.612 million is required to be counted as a designated player.

Inter Miami signing Matuidi on a TAM-contract for the 2020 season allowed them to use their final designated player slot to acquire Higuaín, who signed with the club a month after Matuidi.

While Inter Miami is in the midst of a roster dilemma, Mas said the plan from when Inter Miami signed Matuidi was for the 34-year-old French midfielder to count as a designated player during the 2021 season.

“We had always anticipated Blaise Matuidi would be a DP in ‘21,” Mas said. “We’re working through our roster now in terms of the things we have to do with our DPs.”

So what changed to the point where Inter Miami aren’t roster compliant with less than a week of the offseason left?

Mas added that when Inter Miami signed Pellegrini as a 19-year-old young designated player in July 2019, they expected that he would be allowed to be reclassified into the under-22 player initiative that MLS is starting.

The initiative, which hasn’t officially been announced yet but is supposed to start this season, would allow clubs to sign up to three younger players (22 or younger at the end of their first season in the league) with no limits on acquisition fees at a reduced budget charge as long as their salary is less than $612,500 for 2021.

While it’s previously been reported that current MLS players are expected to be allowed into the initiative as long as they’re eligible, the South Florida Sun Sentinel confirmed multiple media reports that Pellegrini, isn’t expected to be eligible for the U-22 classification because his salary is greater than $612,500.

The Sun Sentinel also confirmed that Inter Miami aren’t expected to be able to buy down one of their designated player’s deals with allocation money, meaning they’ll likely have to buy out, loan, trade or transfer Higuaín, Matuidi, Pellegrini or Pizarro.

While not common, this isn’t the first time an MLS team has been faced with this kind of predicament.

The LA Galaxy faced a similar situation ahead of the 2019 season before buying out the final year of Giovani dos Santos’ deal so Zlatan Ibrahimović could be a designated player after signing as a TAM-player the previous season.

Among Inter Miami’s designated players, Pellegrini is the most likely to not be with the team for 2021.

Pellegrini was one of Inter Miami’s first signings after the club paid a transfer free between $6 and $9 million to acquire him from Argentine side Estudiantes.

He started at the left wing in six of Inter Miami’s first seven games, but he had a difficult time finding his footing during his first year in MLS — and first outside of Argentina. He fluctuated between being a starter (six games), sub (six games) or unused sub (four games) in the team’s final 16 matches. Pellegrini recorded one goal and two assists in 19 games (12 starts) in 2020.

The Athletic reported that Inter Miami have been in contact with other MLS teams about trading Pellegrini. Most of the transfer windows around the world closed, making a loan or transfer more difficult for Inter Miami.

Although Pellegrini struggled during his first season in MLS, new coach Phil Neville previously said he’s been encouraged by the midfielder during preseason practices.

“What I said to him on Day One is he has to start enjoying his football again — playing with freedom, like he used to do as a kid,” Neville said. “When you’re relaxed, you’re happy, you play your best football.

“Ultimately, he didn’t play his best last year. He was new to the country. He was a boy coming to a new country, new culture and to MLS, which is a different style of football. What he said to me was that he wants to work as hard as he can. And I’ve seen a boy that’s shown all those qualities. He’s still young and needs time to develop.”

That development, however, may not take place with Inter Miami this year.