Camilo is leaving the Whitecaps for Queretaro, or not

This all comes on the heels of what originally seemed to be just an entertaining rumor, as chronicled by 86 Forever over the past week or so.

The MLS offseason always seems to have a few quirky moves, but the league has never seen anything quite like this and it’s entirely possible it could have some widely felt results. At the core of this is MLS’s ability to exercise what is commonly know as a “unilateral option,” basically meaning that the player has no say in the matter. This is an entirely common practice within the single-entity of MLS, but it’s not generally how the rest of the world works. Of course, single-entity is a unique setup, at least in the world of soccer, so we’re kind of use to that kind of thing around here. (Check out the blog Maple Leaf Forever for a more complete rundown of how this has played out elsewhere.)

What Camilo seems to be doing, then, is challenging one of the very foundations of the league. Up until now, the teams have held virtually all of the power when it came to contracts. If a player is unhappy about the money they are owed in their option year, there’s not really much they can do aside from demand a trade or threaten not to show up to training camp. The only real option for players was to wait until they were out of contract and then try their luck in a different league, which assuming the Whitecaps and MLS understand the contracts they are having players sign, did not happen here.

While this arrangement has never been formally challenged by a player, FIFA has never given any indication that they were strongly objecting to this policy either. At the very least, FIFA is almost certainly going to have to make a ruling as to whether or not MLS has the right to have unilateral contract options.

Regardless of FIFA’s decision, it’s unlikely to be of little solace to the Whitecaps, though, and it probably won’t be all good for the league, either. The best-case scenario form, at this point, is likely some forced compensation (and maybe Camilo’s agent loses his license).

Camilo is coming off a Golden Boot-winning season in which he also scored what was voted as the Goal of the Year. The Whitecaps will almost certainly lose a player who contributed to 28 of their 53 goals (22 goals, six assists). The league will be losing someone who was quickly becoming one of the few must-see talents, one that happens to still be just 25 years old and has plenty of good soccer ahead of him.

Either way, this has turned into an absolutely must-watch saga.