Red Bulls Reacquire Caden Clark on Loan in the Most MLS Way Possible

New York is welcoming Caden Clark back for 2022 after striking a deal with fellow Red Bull property RB Leipzig. If only it were that straightforward.

Caden Clark will spend the 2022 MLS season with the New York Red Bulls, just like he did in '21 and for part of '20. But the hoops the Red Bulls had to jump through just to make this happen are all sorts of outrageous.

The Red Bulls had sold Clark, an 18-year-old U.S. prospect on the rise, to fellow Red Bulls property RB Leipzig in June 2021, with his move effective as of the recent January transfer window. Straightforward enough, right? Well, Leipzig elected to loan Clark back to the Red Bulls for '22 after all, and that's where things get complicated. 

Because of Clark's status—a player who was transferred outside MLS for a fee of at least $500,000—he must go through MLS's allocation order to return to the league, even on loan, and even to a club that is owned by the loaning parent club. That order is used as a field-leveler, as a means to distribute players who have either been transferred out or have achieved a high enough status for U.S. senior or youth national teams to meet MLS's standard. In theory, for a league like MLS whose calling card is employing spending and acquisition restrictions in an effort to achieve parity, it can serve a useful utility.

But in this case, it's a bit much. The Red Bulls, in order to move to the top spot in the allocation to be able to bring Clark back, had to conduct two trades—one with Toronto FC to move up to No. 2 in the order and another with FC Cincinnati to shift up to No. 1—that cost the club a total of $675,000 in general allocation money ($575,000 to Toronto, $100,000 to Cincinnati). All for a player its own parent company already had under its control. Some MLS machinations and rules make you scratch your head. In the annals of peak MLS moves, this is right up there with the best of them.

With all of the MLS math sorted, Clark's immediate and distant future looks like this: he'll spend 2022 with the Red Bulls, while having extended his Leipzig contract by a year through '25. In essence, he's deferring his trip to the Bundesliga by a year and maintaining a three-year stay in Germany, just a year later than expected. And it just cost his MLS club a whole lot more than it should have to make it happen.