Explaining how Matias Pellegrini joined NYCFC from Inter Miami

The club used an “offseason buyout” – in its simplest terms, that’s just a mechanism for the MLS salary cap. He couldn’t play in MLS games, but Miami were still paying him and technically controlled his rights. Pellegrini was loaned to Estudiantes, back where he began his career, but the club didn’t exercise its purchase option after the loan expired this summer. Boca Juniors were reportedly interested, as was a team in Spain, but no deal materialized.