Minnesota United Sells Oluwaseyi, Shows Need For MLS Calendar Switch

Tani Oluwaseyi #14 of Minnesota United points in the air after scoring at the Seattle Sounders during the second half at Lumen Field on June 01.

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In the end, Minnesota United Sporting Director Khaled El-Ahmad had no good options as Villareal pursued Loons star striker Tani Oluwayesi.

He could either separate his squad from its most productive attcking player just in time for the MLS stretch run and next month’s U.S. Open Cup final. Or he could risk alienating the 25-year-old Oluwaseyi by denying a preciously rare chance to move from MLS directly to a Big Five European league, not to mention leaving a club record transfer fee of reportedly $8.5-$9 million on the table.

In the end, El-Ahmad did what was definitely in Oluwaseyi’s best long-term interest, and probably the club’s as well, officially sending the Canadian international on to an enticing new opportunity in a move announced Friday.

And in doing so, he also illustrated why so many clubs – even those who experience frigid winters like those in Minnesota – are coming around on a potential MLS calendar switch that feels like an eventuality more than a question.

Dollars Out Require Dollars In

With the close of the league’s incoming window earlier this month, MLS smashed its previous record for outlay on new players, with 30 clubs combining to spend roughly $336 million in deals during the league’s two 2025 windows.

But the long-term sustainability of such an approach depends on MLS also to increase its volume as a player exporter. And the only real way to continue that work is to be willing to sell when most clubs with money are doing most of their buying: the summer season that precedes the beginning of most European seasons.

Minnesota is far from the first MLS club to suffer from this misalignment. And in particular, teams with in-form strikers like Oluwaseyi have repeatedly found the terms of mid-season sales too good to refuse.

In 2022, the New England Revolution sold striker Adam Buksa to RC Lens in early June. Later that year, New York City FC loaned Valentin Castellanos to Girona for the start of their La Liga campaign.

Last summer, the Philadelphia Union sold Julian Carranza to Feynoord just hours before the calendar turned to July. Not long after Real Salt Lake sold Andres Gomez to Stade Rennais.

All four of those clubs made genuine attempts to reload before the year ended. Only 2022 NYCFC won a playoff match. Neither 2022 New England nor 2024 Philadelphia reached the postseason.

Weathering The Storm

Minnesota’s sale comes even later, meaning the Loons can no longer make incoming transfers and can only add to their rosters via free agent signings. That said, the club were clearly planning on this eventuality when they added forwards Mamadou Diengo from Hartford Athletic and Kenyel Michel from LD Alajuelense.

They were also one of the few MLS teams with two productive center forwards, and Kelvin Yeboah will now perhaps get more chances to add to his haul of nine goals and two assists. But there’s bound to be a drag on the Loons’ performances for the rest of the season with Oluwaseyi’s departure.

Switching the schedule will come with challenges. Playing through the coldest part of the winter in Minnesota is not only inadvisable, it’s more or less impossible, as an infamous World Cup qualifier between the United States and Honduras in early February of 2022 proved.

But the combination of a winter break, some additional scheduling imbalances to help the league’s coldest markets, and perhaps even the shifting of Leagues Cup on the annual schedule should make those challenges solvable.

In exchange, clubs like this year’s Loons or last year’s RSL wouldn’t have to face the prospect of sandbagging their season for a club-record payday nearly as often. Instead, they could do much of that business at the start of their own campaign, giving sporting directors, managers and even fans a lot more time to adjust to their side’s new reality.

If MLS is serious about becoming a league that rivals some of the world’s most famous, that change needs to come as soon as is reasonably possible.