On Wednesday evening, a new report was revealed that FC Dallas forward Jesus Ferreira had a transfer deal blocked by Major League Soccer.

According to The Athletic’s Tom Bogert, FC Dallas received a $13 million bid for USMNT forward Jesus Ferreira from Russian club Spartak Moscow that would have been accepted, but the league has stepped in and told all parties that the potential deal would not move forward.

Ferreira wanted to make the move and was in negotiations with Spartak over personal terms when MLS communicated its decision to Dallas and Ferreira. The reasoning delivered to the club and player was that there are risks for American business entities doing business with Russian entities.

MLS has the authority to nix the transfer because, as a single-entity league, all paperwork and transfers go through the MLS office.

This is not the first time MLS has stepped in to stop a potential move like this. In 2022, MLS stopped a potential $5 million deal between the New York Red Bulls and Lokomotiv Moscow for Cristian Casseres Jr. The midfielder was eventually transferred to Toulouse in France last summer in a deal that could be worth north of $1 million if all performance-based incentives are hit.

So why was this deal blocked?

According to the report, since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, sporting entities worldwide have largely severed ties with the country. FIFA and UEFA had suspended Russia from international competition “until further notice” in 2022.

Spartak itself has also suffered from financial problems since the wake of the invasion, and in August of 2022, 100% of the club and its stadium were sold to Russian oil firm Lukoil, whose co-founder Leonid Fedun previously owned the club. Lukoil has also had sanctions from the US treasury since 2014.

At the end of the day, MLS has the final say in these moves. They’ve probably blocked more transfers over the years than what has been reported, too.

So why would FC Dallas be okay with this move?

I’ve said probably a half dozen times or more that I felt the number FC Dallas was chasing to get for Ferreira was north of $10 million. The fact that they were good with a $13 million fee tells us that I wasn’t far off.

But it is a bit concerning that the club would even potentially waste their time with this sort of bid from a Russian team, given all that is going on in the world. You’d think they would have the knowledge that MLS had already previously blocked a move for Casseres Jr to a Russian team not that long ago and that a move like this would likely be handled the same way by MLS.

Why would Ferreira want this move?

I don’t believe (yet) that this is a ‘Ferreira is unhappy in Dallas’ kind of situation. He’s a young guy who probably saw this as a challenge and a new chapter in his professional career, not to mention a transfer fee that probably intrigued him a lot.

The downside is that it makes you wonder if he even knows what has been going on on that side of the world these last two years. You would hope this isn’t the case, but it does really make you wonder. Did he not see what happened with Brittany Griner?

For me, sitting here writing this, I can’t help but think that tossing away a comfortable life in Dallas for Russia is just a huge misstep for Ferreira. To go from making a pretty solid living in a state with no income tax to a place with sanctions and issues due to a long ongoing war. Yeah, it feels problematic.

Final thoughts

I didn’t want to rush into these thoughts last night when this news broke. For starters, the club and the league declined to comment on The Athletic’s story. I don’t have any updates of my own, but I do trust what Bogert is reporting (even if he did previously have incorrect information on the contracts of both Nico Estevez and Andre Zanotta a couple of months ago).

At the end of the day, I think Ferreira’s agent or representatives took a big risk with this one. Yeah, I just can’t help but think they took a giant swing at this and potentially opened some big problems for everyone involved. Maybe I’ll be wrong there.

Sadly, this is probably the first step of a long and probably rough transfer process for Ferreira and FC Dallas. They’ve officially set the mark of what they want for him, and I would be shocked if anyone would come in and match that any time soon.