Brotherly Game Archive
Philadelphia Union transfer rumor: M’Bolhi to Antalyaspor has stalled, could be off completely
Reports say that negotiations have broken down between Philadelphia Union goalkeeper Rais M'Bolhi and Turkish Super Lig club Antalyaspor. From there, it gets complicated.
Multiple sources are now reporting that the proposed transfer of beleaguered Philadelphia Union goalkeeper Rais M’Bolhi to Turkish Super Lig club Antalyaspor has hit a snag. Turkish journalist Koray Geçgel was the first to report this, via twitter:
antalyaspor, m’bolhi transferinden vazgeçti!
— Koray Geçgel (@kry_zaragoza) June 28, 2015
Geçgel says in that tweet that Antalyaspor and M’Bolhi have given up on the transfer, but there’s much speculation about what happened and how serious the break in the negotiations is. Everyone seems to agree that M’Bolhi has been in Turkey since Thursday, trying to get a deal with Antalyaspor done. Things start to get murky when talking about what caused the stoppage in negotiations, and just how serious the stoppage is. Reports since then from the French L’Équipe and the Algerian Radio Algérienne have seemed to confirm that the deal is dead, although a Turkish website Antalyasporum.com seems to indicate the talks aren’t dead but on hold, blaming the holdup on what cut of the transfer M’Bolhi’s agent will receive.
Another interesting bit from the L'Équipe article – it says M'Bolhi's contract with MLS goes through 2017. MLS hasn't yet released the salary figures for 2015, but if this is accurate it could mean that the Union are on the hook for a lot of money for a guy who will clearly never play another minute for the club again.
