TRANSFER TRACKER STATUS: Report
FC Dallas are supposedly close to completing an outbound transfer that could send shock waves across the MLS Western Conference, with The Athletic reporting on Wednesday (subscription required for full version) that FCD are preparing to transfer talented playmaker Mauro Diaz to a club in the United Arab Emirates.
The deal isn’t done yet, according to reporter Paul Tenorio, but he says the creative Argentinean known to many MLS fans as “The Little Unicorn” has already completed his exit physical.
Tenorio refers to Arabic-language media reports and social-media “chatter” connecting Diaz to Shabab Al-Ahli Dubai FC. Based in Dubai, the club are seven-time UAE league champions and were runners-up in the Asian Champions League in 2015, though they finished in fifth place in the 2017-18 season, which ended in April.
Diaz has sat out Dallas’ past two matches, Saturday’s 3-0 road loss to the New York Red Bulls and their dramaticU.S. Open Cup loss to Sporting Kansas City earlier this month, and did not take part in FCD’s training session on Wednesday.
Technical director Fernando Clavijo told reporter Buzz Carrick of 3rd Degree and the Dallas Morning News afterwards that the club is “working on something” with regards to Diaz, one of the most exciting and incisive No. 10s in MLS over the past several seasons.
Diaz, 27, joined Dallas from Argentinean powerhouse River Plate in 2013 and has scored 23 goals and 44 assists in 109 regular-season MLS appearances (84 starts), plus five assists in six MLS Cup Playoffs appearances, four of them coming in FCD's memorable run to the Western Conference Championship stage in 2015.
