Meet Matias Pellegrini, the Major League Soccer’s sacrificial lamb of the year. Well, at least for April.
Inter Miami CF announced Friday that it has exercised its offseason buyout on Pellegrini’s MLS contract ahead of today’s roster compliance deadline.
That gave the team three Designated Players for this season – Gonzalo Higuaín, Blaise Matuidi and Rodolfo Pizarro.
MLS has been conducting an investigation into whether Miami’s signing of Matuidi complied with the league roster and budget rules during 2020.
The league said Friday it had concluded that Inter Miami was not in compliance with those rules during 2020.
In 2020, Matuidi was categorized as a Targeted Allocation Money player. Matuidi’s compensation was above the compensation limit for a TAM player and he should have been classified as a DP. As a result, Inter Miami violated the DP limit as the team had three DP in addition to Matuidi last year.
The league is finalizing the investigation and will be announcing the results of that investigation, including sanctions, in the near future.
Pellegrini has joined Fort Lauderdale CF, the club’s USL League One side, on loan and will not be eligible to compete on the team’s 2021 MLS roster.
