Atlanta United has signed U.S. men’s national team goalkeeper Brad Guzan, but he won’t be available to play for the club until this summer. Middlesbrough FC, the club Guzan was playing for in England’s Premier League, tweeted the long-rumored news Wednesday. Atlanta United confirmed the signing.
The club said he signed a multi-year deal with MLS. Atlanta United was able to secure the rights to the player by being No. 1 in the MLS Allocation list. Guzan is not a Designated Player.
Guzan will become at least the fourth player on the MLS expansion club’s defense to have made appearances for the U.S. national team, joining Michael Parkhurst, Greg Garza and Zach Loyd. The team also is on the verge of signing Argentinian defender Leandro Gonzalez Pirez, pending a successful physical.
Guzan has made just a handful starts in all competitions for Middlesbrough this season, having fallen behind Victor Valdez. Guzan, 32, previously played for Aston Villa after transferring from now-defunct Chivas in MLS. He has made 53 appearances for the U.S. men’s national team, and should still be in the mix for new manager Bruce Arena if he can secure consistent playing time.
Atlanta United has three goalkeepers in its preseason training camp underway in Bradenton, Fla.: Decatur’s Alec Kann, Alex Tambakis, the team’s first signing, and SuperDraft selection Alex Kapp of Boston College and Creighton.
The interest in Guzan was first reported in early December, but then appeared to hit a snag earlier in January when it was reported by Sam Stejskal of MLSSoccer.com that Middlesbrough was demanding that Atlanta United pay a transfer fee for Guzan. Doing so would have prevented Atlanta United from avoiding signing Guzan as a Designated Player.
The Premier League season ends May 21. The transfer window in England, which is when players can be sold and bought, opens July 1. The secondary transfer window in MLS opens July 10, which is when he likely will join the team.
If the window is when Guzan can join the squad, Atlanta United will have already played 17 of its 34 regular-season games. It will play at Columbus on July 1. Its next game will be against San Jose on July 4 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Guzan signed a two-year deal with Middlesbrough that was supposed to last until June 30, 2018.
He joined Aston Villa in 2008 on a reported $1 million transfer fee and made 144 appearances for the team, all when it was in the Premier League.
He experienced inconsistent success with Villa. He lost his starting job to American goalkeeper Brad Friedel for part of the 2009-10 season, which necessitated a loan to Hull City. He rejoined Villa in 2011, was released in 2012, but re-signed with the club.
He remained the starting goalkeeper until the 2014-15 season when he was dropped by new manager Tim Sherwood. Villa was relegated from the Premier League to the Championship following last season.
The club wasn’t a model of stability during Guzan’s time there. After three consecutive top-10 finishes in Guzan’s first three years, the club didn’t finish higher than 15th in the next five. The club had six full-time managers from 2008-16 when Guzan was there.
When the move is completed, Guzan would become the second U.S. men’s national-team goalkeeper to leave England for a return to MLS after Tim Howard joined Colorado from Everton. Howard has consistently been Guzan’s main competition for playing time with the U.S. during the past few years.
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