Ali Fadal: Off-Radar Midfielder, Colorado Rapids Cheaper Ambition, and Other Thoughts

COMMERCE CITY – Colorado Rapids have signed Ali Fadal, the club announced Saturday morning. It is a two-year contract with team options for 2027 and 2028. This could very well be the last significant move the Pids make this transfer window. Let’s break down what it means.

Fadal just turned 21-years-old and is originally from Nigeria. At the time of publishing, he’ll take up the club’s final international slot. He is a central midfielder, mainly a No. 8 or 6. He spent some time at The Soccer Institute of Montverde Academy in Florida before moving to Valencia FC of La Liga. Colorado has signed a few players with connections there.

The 5’11” player turned pro in 2023. In two seasons, he’s spent most of his time with Valencia B, which plays in the fourth tier in Spain. He’s played 32 times for them in league play, recording an assist in 1,118 minutes. His one first team cap was in the Copa del Rey.

“Ali is a dynamic player who has gained valuable experience in one of Europe’s most respected development systems. We look forward to helping him grow as a player and seeing him make an impact in Major League Soccer,” Sporting Director Fran Taylor said.

We don’t have a lot on this kid. The fourth division in Spain isn’t anything to write home about. The club likely knows someone who knows someone who told them something they liked (not that it was wrong) about the player when he was at Montverde. Maybe there’s some metrics or analytics they like about him.

Hopefully they’re right. If you told me the Rapids signed a 21-year-old from a Spanish reserve side, I’d assume he would start the year with Rapids 2 like Mike Edwards did. The fact that he’s a central midfielder is a good thing given the one hole remaining (pending the Ted Ku-Dipietro trade) was a proper holding midfielder. The profile’s great for what the club and manager Chris Armas are looking to do long term.

Big picture, this is a bit of an underwhelming winter after last year. Colorado sold Moïse Bombito for a reported $7.7 million. They spent a bit over a million for two center backs from Cincinnati. Good. They spent about that much probably for Ku-Dipietro. He could be amazing in the years to come. He’s not a huge upgrade right now over Omir Fernandez or Calvin Harris. Now they’ve signed a reserve player from Spain, likely for a free transfer or a minimal transfer fee.

There’s several million dollars of that Bombito money left over. Where is that money going? They’re out of U22 spots. Out of international slots, including ones they’ve traded. After the way things ended with Lamine Diack and the issues the team had defensively to end the year, everything I heard was they wanted to sign a holding midfielder.

Maybe Fadal’s going to be a surprise break out player no one sees coming. Maybe he fills that role. But if they’re running the 4-2-3-1 with a double pivot like last year, they’ve got five 8s and no 6 that’s done it for a first team yet.

Photo Credit: Manuel Queimadelos/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images

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