YOUNG RSL STAR PLANS DANISH MOVE
Ridge Mahoney
Soccer America
Tuesday, Jul 7, 2009 7:01 AM ET
[MLS] Sooner or later, Real Salt Lake forward Yura Movsisyan will
be heading to Denmark. Agent Patrick McCabe confirmed Monday that
Danish Superliga club Randers has reached an agreement to employ the
21-year-old starting in January, following expiration of his current
MLS contract. McCabe said Randers had tendered an offer to MLS to
acquire him during the European transfer window, which opened last
week, and that MLS and RSL had rejected the offer. According to a
source, Movsisyan, who earns about $71,000 in base salary, had spurned
at least two attempts by MLS to sign him to a new deal. Under FIFA
statutes, a player under contract is free to begin negotiating with
other clubs during the last six months of his contract, and according
to McCabe, Movsisyan has been under scrutiny by several European teams
since the start of the MLS season. "He’s young, he’s fast, and he
scores goals," said McCabe Monday by phone from Denmark. "There are a
lot of teams who are looking for just this kind of player and this is
something Yura really wants to do." RSL’s players were given four days
off following their 1-1 tie with San Jose last Friday, and Movsisyan
and McCabe flew to Denmark last weekend. "We were going to check it
out," says McCabe, "see the facilities, see the stadium, meet the
coaches, meet the players. Yura liked the setup and they were obvious
about wanting to sign him, so we got a deal done pretty quickly."
Randers is coached by former international John Jensen, a key figure in
Denmark’s astonishing triumph at the 1992 European Championships. As
a last-minute replacement for Yugoslavia, which was kicked out of the
competition in the wake of sanctions imposed by the United Nations,
Denmark upset the Netherlands in the semifinals on penalty kicks and
beat Germany – with Jensen scoring the winning goal — to win the
title. Another former international, Flemming Povlsen, works with the
forwards. "He very much wants to play for the [U.S.] national team,"
says McCabe of Movsisyan, whose family is Armenian and fled persecution
in Azerbaijan when he was 12 to live in Southern California. Movsisyan
is in the process of acquiring a green card and is married to an
American citizen, Marianna, who is expecting their first child in
December. "It’s nothing against Real Salt Lake or MLS, he just thinks
he will progress faster in that environment." Randers is playing in
the Europa League, a new competition that replaces the UEFA Cup. In
its opener it beat Linfield (Northern Ireland), 4-0, last week, with
the second leg to be played in Belfast on Thursday. It finished fifth
in the Superliga last May. With Movsisyan signed to play for Randers
starting in January, negotiations for the club to buy him from MLS
have resumed. If MLS receives a transfer fee, RSL would receive about
two-thirds of it and the rest would go to the league. If he leaves
as a free agent, RSL would retain his MLS rights.
Movsisyan was drafted by Kansas City out of Pasadena City College in
2006 and was traded to RSL midway through the 2007 season. He scored
seven goals in 22 games last year and this season has four goals in
16 games. His career stats are 16 goals in 71 regular-season games.
He will return to the United States Tuesday with his new deal in hand
and perhaps a permanent move in the works for sooner rather than later.