Report: Marcelino Moreno’s loan to Cortiba to become permanent

Marcelino Moreno is about to be officially off of Atlanta United’s books, according to a report that states that his loan club Cortiba is exercising a transfer option of $1.5 million to buy the majority share of his contractual rights.

Atlanta will presumably hold a certain percentage of Moreno’s future transfer fee rights, though the most important aspect of this deal is simply the official sale, which means Atlanta United will no longer be charged the prorated transfer fee it initially paid for the player in 2020.

In the report, detail is included that states Cortiba had 48 hours upon the opening of Brazil’s summer transfer window to make the deal permanent or release him back to Atlanta. Although Moreno’s loan hasn’t gone extremely well for Cortiba — having only scored once in 20 appearances and losing a regular starting spot — the deal was seemingly cheap enough for Cortiba to see enough value to keep the player.

As for how the move affects Atlanta, the player’s $628,000 salary was already off the books this year due to the terms of his loan. But the player’s full cost against the MLS Salary Budget includes the transfer fee Atlanta originally spent on him divided over the amount of years on his contract.

We don’t know the specific details on the contract length or specific price, but it’s likely that the deal was for around 5 years (maybe more) and reportedly worth $6-7 million dollars. That equates to roughly $1,250,000 of annual spend on top of his guaranteed contract. Atlanta will have at least a portion of that money available to them when they hit the summer transfer market that opens July 5.