Szetela to sign with Spanish Club Racing Santander

Danny Szetela is heading to Spain.

After Nearly two months of transfer speculation and negotiations, the Columbus Crew midfielder has passed up offers from Roma and Newcastle (among others) to play for Spanish First Division side Racing de Santander.

The Herald News has learned that Szetela has signed a three-year deal with the Northern Spain-based club, which began the La Liga season in solid fashion by tying Barcelona last weekend. Racing de Santander finished in 10th place in La Liga last season.

Szetela, who signed the deal via fax on Friday afternoon, is set to travel to Spain over the weekend to take his physical. He currently holds a Polish passport which means he won't count toward Racing's foreign player total.

Szetela turned down offers from Newcastle, Roma and Brescia, including a late bid from Roma believed to be more than 250,000 Euros per season. Financial details of the Racing deal were not disclosed but Szetela did take less money from Racing than Roma offered in order to have a better chance of seeing first-team action.

Racing de Santander will pay a $150,000 transfer fee to Major League Soccer, a large portion of which will go back to the Columbus Crew.

Szetela becomes the second Clifton-born player to sign with a Spanish club this summer, joining childhood friend Giuseppe Rossi, who signed with Villareal earlier this summer. Racing plays host to Villlareal on Sept. 26th.

Comments

[nico]

Glad to see Americans taking on the Spanish game, nice move.
Question: In this case, did the player sign for the team electronically? How does this transfer qualify under the deadline if he is not in Spain to sign the paperwork? Thanks!

[Richard]

good move...glad he's not in EPL...will definitely get some playing time...i liked racing vs barca the other day...
GOOD LUCK!

[Brandon]

Amazingly, I think this is the best of the rumored moves Szetela could have made.

I know I'm excited about having more americans in Spain.

[Metzeng]

Ives, thanks for keeping us updated. I'm really excited to see another American in La Liga.

[Jasen]

ditto what everyone else said...congrats to the Clifton native and TRUE American.

[Tony M]

Great move! Love it!

[MetroFlip73]

Vamo carajo!

Good for you Danny! After cheering you on in Canada, and to talking with your sis and Mom in Toronto, very happy you got outta that hell hole.

Keep Representin'!!!

[CD]

Fun Santander fact of the day:

"In the Roman Empire, the town was known as Portus Victoriae Iuliobrigensium."

If that was still the name the club crest would have to be really large. It looks like a nice place to live on the coast of Spain. I would take Santander and La Liga with playing time over Newcastle and the bench in the Premiership anytime.

Congrats Danny.

[Matt L]

Regarding signing...just fax the sig pages, originals can be exchanged later.

[Paul Lorinczi]

Wow...take less money to get more playing time. Good for him.

[LAJames]

I think this is incredible news. There isn't much better of a place to work on your technique than Spain. I'll have to check out Santander's squad to see the competition, but I don't believe they have many stars in their midfield; so as long as he gets some quality PT, this is great for him and hopefully the USMNT.

[brentmcd]

great news. u.s. midfield pool just got even stronger

[eric]

love to hear a young guy pick PT over a bigger club, especially when PT is with a mid-table La Liga team. now, if only i could watch the games...

[RONAND0]

I believe Aldo Duscher plays centrally for Racing. He used to play for Deportivo La Coruna and his name probably sounds familiar because he was the guy who hurt Beckham before the 2002 world cup.

[Whitescandal]

That's great news. We'll be able to watch Racing quite a few times this year on Gol TV...pretty much any time they play Barca, Madrid, Sevilla, or Valencia.

[CRSvideo]

Well, we'll be able to watch them once the whole TV contract thing there gets cleared up.

[Dominghosa]

Nice late swoop in by Racing. Good move for the kid to a team that finishes mid-table in a very good league.

[Mayor Bloomberg]

Great move. A lil let down at first but for a young Yank Abroad it has a lot.

Great Weather
Great Food
Possibility of Playing time.
Well run club -IE Stable coach.
La Liga

[John]

Well we're going to need better La Liga TV coverage.

Great move. Somebody please check for me but I believe he will be the only American in La Liga and the first since Kasey Keller. We need more Americans in Spain, Italy and Portugal. Congratulations to Danny!

[Tomas]

Hello, I´m a Racing supporter from Santander. This our webpage:
http://www.realracingclub.es/default.aspx

In times of the Roman Empire, Santander was the only place in spain unconquered by them.
Racing has several important playres, as Munitis, an international player with Spain, Aldo Duscher and some others.
Sorry for my english ;-)

[Aaron]

Ives,

Can you update us about what went wrong with Danny's representation and the Roma deal? I was really pessimistic last night when it looked like everything was falling apart, but making a move to a solid team in La Liga is the best that could be asked for- congrats Danny! Oh to be living in Spain and making peanuts, much less the 100 thousand or so I'm sure he'll make... Spanish women... oooooooo.....

[Tomas]

If you have any doubt about Racing or Santander (the city) you can ask me what you want
http://serrana.blogia.com/upload/20060516185110-cantabria-mayo-mayo-06-custom-2-.jpg
http://www.e-cons.net/images/santander.jpg
Some pictures about Santander, and this is the dome
http://www.webdelracing.com/multimedia/fotos/campo/pajaro.jpg

[Tomas]

http://www.realracingclub.es/files/multimedia/celebracion3.jpg
http://www.realracingclub.es/files/multimedia/sa281003.jpg

[Tomas]

This saturday at 22:00 (utc+2)in La sexta Zaragoza vs Racing
you can see it on zattoo streaming

[Sean]

I really respect Szetela for taking less money and opting for playing time to help his game grow. This will help both him and the Nats in the future.