FC Dallas will receive solidarity payment as part of Weston McKennie's transfer from Schalke to Juventus, sources tell MLSsoccer.com.
Per FIFA guidelines, training compensation is paid to clubs when their academy product signs a first professional contract with a foreign club prior to the end of the season of the player's 23rd birthday. Solidarity payments are made when that player is subsequently transferred – at any age – between clubs in different countries and a transfer fee is involved.
McKennie joined the FC Dallas academy when he was 11 years old then left to sign with German club Schalke when he was aged 18. Now 22, McKennie joined Juventus from Schalke for a reported $3.5 million loan fee, with an option to make the transfer permanent for $21 million. If Juventus choose to make the deal permanent, Dallas would then get a small percentage of the $21 million as well.
Sources did not indicate exactly how much FCD would be due in the case of McKennie's transfer to Juventus.
MLS clubs receive training compensation and solidarity payments since the league announced in April 2019 that it would begin to comply with FIFA's Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP). FIFA's RSTP outlines compensation to clubs for developing players who opt to sign their first professional contract with a foreign club.
When McKennie left for Schalke in 2016, RTSP stipulated FC Dallas would have received around $250,000, per ESPN's Jeff Carlisle, who wrote an explainer on MLS joining solidarity payments. MLS is not currently pursuing claims for training compensation or solidarity payments for players who left the MLS development system for foreign clubs prior to April 2019.
