Sporting Kansas City and the Montreal Impact swapped second-year players on Tuesday, when SKC sent defender Amadou Dia to Montreal in exchange for forward Cameron Porter.
The 20th overall pick in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft out of Clemson, Dia made 32 regular-season appearances in his year and a half in Kansas City. He made 10 league appearances for the club this year, but had fallen out of favor over the last couple of months, falling behind fellow left backs Jimmy Medranda and Seth Sinovic on the depth chart before another left back, Ever Alvarado, was signed by SKC on June 24.
Born in France but raised in Colorado, Dia will join a fullback group in Montreal that includes Hassoun Camara, Ambroise Oyongo and Donny Toia.
"We took this decision in order to improve our depth at the fullback position. Amadou is a young player that has already gained a good amount of experience in the last year and a half and will provide us with some depth for the second half of the season," Montreal technical director Adam Braz said in a club statement.
"With the number of strikers on our roster, it would have been difficult for Cameron to break through and gain significant minutes. This provides him the opportunity to go somewhere and hopefully have a chance to gain some minutes. We want to thank Cameron for his services on and off the field and wish him the best of luck moving forward."
A third-round selection in the 2015 SuperDraft out of Princeton, Porter got his pro career off to a dream start, scoring a dramatic stoppage-time goal against Pachuca to ignite Montreal’s run to the 2015 CONCACAF Champions League final. Things took a downturn shortly after, however, as the 23-year-old tore his ACL in Montreal’s second MLS match of the year. He hasn’t appeared in a league game since.
Similar to Dia in Kansas City, Porter became surplus to requirements earlier this month when Montreal added veteran Italian Matteo Mancosu to their already-deep forward corps.
"Cameron is a player who we feel has a lot of upside," SKC manager Peter Vermes said in a statement released by the club. “He can play multiple positions in the attack and it will be good to have another young player to develop. We also want to thank Amadou for his contributions to our club and we wish him the best in Montreal."
