FC Cincinnati and Frankie Amaya have parted company by way of a trade, ending a relationship that extended over parts of three years and saw Amaya become one of the on-field faces of the FCC organization.
FC Cincinnati traded Amaya, its former No. 1 overall MLS SuperDraft pick in 2019, to the New York Red Bulls with details of the trade still to be revealed.
FCC is expected to receive a sum of general allocation money, or "GAM," a movable financial resource with Major League Soccer that can be used to pay down player contracts.
The trade ends a mostly fruitful partnership between player and club that soured during this past offseason.
The 20-year-old Amaya departs FCC having played in more than 40 matches for the club and tallying one goal, a June 16 winner against Atlanta United at the MLS Is Back Tournament.
More:Report: FC Cincinnati files tampering charges with MLS over contact of Frankie Amaya
FC Cincinnati had received offers for Amaya during the winter but insisted they weren't interested in parting with the player.
Amaya later went public with a trade request, telling The Athletic via a representative in February, "I have asked the club to trade me as I don’t feel my goals can be achieved in Cincinnati."
FC Cincinnati again indicated in a statement that the club seemed intent on keeping Amaya.
Club officials acknowledged the difficult 2019 and 2020 seasons but cited their interest in building around Amaya along with newly acquired talent such as Brenner Souza da Silva, who was mentioned by name.
Amaya was one of FC Cincinnati's most popular players among fans. He was also one of its most promising stars and had been talked about by club brass as a player that could potentially provide a strong financial return in the event he progressed to a European club or elsewhere in MLS.
More:FC Cincinnati's Avionne Flanagan 'trying to fight for minutes' after signing contract
Amaya was called into two separate United States national team camps in recent months. In December, Amaya pulled out of Gregg Berhalter's senior men's camp due to a positive COVID-19 test.
The player remained on U.S. Soccer's radar ahead of the busy 2021 calendar and was brought to Mexico as part of a youth national team camp for CONCACAF Olympic qualifying, however Amaya failed to progress to the Under-23 team's roster for the group-stage and eventual semifinal loss to Honduras.
Amaya then returned to Cincinnati for preseason where he was something of an enigma in the eyes of observers, and maybe within the club itself.
In a March 30 interview, FC Cincinnati Head Coach Jaap Stam said that while Amaya had rejoined the club and was training, he wasn't fit for training and had been held out of a March 27 scrimmage against the Chicago Fire for that reason.
In the March 30 interview, Stam redirected questions about the prior trade talks and Amaya's future away from his desk.
More:Here are the details of FC Cincinnati's trade with Los Angeles Galaxy
The manager deferred to other parties for analysis and comment on whether there's a lingering rift between the player and FC Cincinnati following the offseason trade talk.
"You’d need to ask Frankie or Gerard about that," Stam said. "The thing is that I need to work with the players who are available. Frankie’s one of them over here, so, you know, he’s been training with us, but what’s gonna happen with him in the future, I don’t know. The only thing is, which is very important for me and my coaching staff and for the players that have already been training before he came, that we need to have everybody sharp, and we need to have the good mindset, the right mindset to go forward. And that’s the most important thing for us. And so we’re not going to be talking too much of that or paying too much attention to maybe what is going to happen."
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