Questions persist regarding the revelation today that Frank Lampard reportedly was not a New York City FC player (even though he was paraded out in front of the US soccer media this past summer as their new signing). Instead, he was in fact under contract with Manchester City for the full 2014/15 season with a break clause included in his contract (but later removed) that would have allowed the former England midfielder to leave the club in January and move to MLS.
Despite this, Manchester City decided to keep Lampard under contract for the remainder of this season where he’ll join up with New York City FC in late May or early June, thereby missing four months of the MLS 2015 season.
Needless to say, many members of the US soccer media are outraged tonight regarding the news and how New York City FC arguably hoodwinked the press into believing that Lampard was under contract with New York City FC and loaned out to Manchester City when the opposite seems to be true with Manchester City owning the player’s contract, not NYCFC. Unless Lampard signed two contracts — one with NYCFC and one with Manchester City? Hopefully MLS will reveal more details soon.
In the meantime, here’s a selected assortment of tweets from the US soccer media:
