Union trade Sergio Santos to FC Cincinnati

After being without Sergio Santos for the last few weeks, it now turns out the Union will be without him for good.

The 27-year-old Brazilian striker headed to FC Cincinnati in a trade on Friday, a day after word first got out the deal would happen. The Union were open to a deal because Santos’ contract expires at the end of the year.

The Union’s return is $300,000 in allocation money this year, up to $625,000 for next year for performance incentives this season, and “up to 50% of any future trade fee Cincinnati receives for Santos’ rights,” the official announcement said.

“We want to thank Sergio for his time spent with the Philadelphia Union,” sporting director Ernst Tanner said in a statement. “He played a major role in our first-ever playoff win and his charisma has contributed to many memorable moments over the past few seasons. We wish him all the best in this next chapter.”

The trade seems to not have been popular in parts of the Union’s locker room. Kai Wagner and José Andrés Martínez posted comments on the team’s Instagram post announcing the trade with negative emojis.

Santos hasn’t played for the Union since May 29, when Major League Soccer entered its summer break. Soon after that, Santos headed to Chile to finish his U.S. green card paperwork. Santos had to surrender his passport when he arrived and has been stuck in Chile ever since. Now the paperwork is finally done, and Santos was expected to arrive Friday in Cincinnati.

Santos leaves the Union with 22 goals and 13 assists in 89 games since debuting here at the start of 2019. His speed and skill made him a fan favorite, but his track record of minor injuries — hamstrings in particular — often was frustrating. He also faced questions about his endurance, with only six 90-minute outings in his time here.

Santos’ salary this year is $918,500, including a $190,000 raise that came with the Union picking up his contract option for this year.

Moving Santos leaves the Union with four forwards: Mikael Uhre, Julián Carranza, Cory Burke, and Chris Donovan.

Paxten Aaronson also is likely to play some as a second forward alongside one of the others after he was a forward-line star for the U.S. national team at the recent Concacaf under-20 men’s championship. Aaronson was the tournament’s top scorer with seven goals.

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The Union officially said goodbye to Jack de Vries and Matej Oravec on Thursday, moves that were known to be coming for a long time.

De Vries, a Union academy product, is off to Venezia full-time after a loan to the Italian team late last summer. Venezia was relegated from Serie A after its first season in the top flight for more than two decades but liked what it saw from de Vries on the club’s youth squad. So it paid a transfer fee that was undisclosed but is understood to be small.

Oravec was loaned to FK Železiarne Podbrezová in his native Slovakia last summer after being a bust here. After his loan ended, the Union parted ways with him. His departure after being brought here for a six-figure transfer fee goes down as a rare miss by sporting director Ernst Tanner on the international market.

“Say what you want about MLS — whether you think it’s the best league in the world or the worst league in the world, it is certainly a unique league with a lot of different styles of play, a lot of different climates, a lot of different travel issues,” Union manager Jim Curtin said. “We’re always trying to fine-tune and tweak and make sure that we do our best in our recruitment. ... That would be an example of one that didn’t go how either side wanted.”

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