A verbal agreement is in place for Chicago Fire’s Gabriel “Gaga” Slonina to go to Chelsea for a $10 million base fee, a source confirmed to The Athletic. There are escalators within the deal to take the base fee higher. CBS’s Fabrizio Romano was the first to report.
Source confirms a verbal agreement is in place for Slonina: $10 million base fee for the Fire, with escalators to take it higher. Big fee that can have impact throughout Fire organization, from GAM to expenditures down the academy, etc. https://t.co/WRZj3c8mDq
— Paul Tenorio (@PaulTenorio) July 30, 2022
Slonina, 18, is a goalkeeper for the Fire. He made his professional debut for the Fire on Aug. 4, 2021, becoming the youngest starting goalkeeper in MLS history. Thus far, Slonina has 34 career match appearances.
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The Fire and Chelsea have been in contact regarding Slonina for months, including before the sale of Chelsea to a consortium led by American Todd Boehly. That sale understandably put a pause on talks, but they picked back up in recent weeks. Despite some light interest from Spanish giant Real Madrid, the West London club was always the favorite to sign the 18-year-old U.S. men’s national team goalkeeper. Slonina is going to finish this season with the Fire before heading to the Premier League in January.
The impact on the Fire should be a positive one, overall. In MLS, a portion of the transfer fee (around $1.1 million) can be converted into general allocation money, which is essentially extra salary cap space. The other $9 million or so can be used to inject money into other parts of the club, including discretionary funding for signings — like designated players, under-22 initiative signings or targeted allocation money players — but also into areas like the youth development academy from which Slonina himself was developed. The Fire also have another highly-rated young goalkeeper behind him, homegrown Chris Brady, who started for the U.S under-20 national team at the CONCACAF championships.
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On the international level, Slonina represented the United States at the U-15, U-16, U-17 and U-20 levels. He has seven caps for country among these four age levels.
The Fire (7-6-10) sit eighth in the Eastern Conference.
(Photo: Anne-Marie Sorvin / USA Today)
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