Giovani dos Santos signing will not require the Galaxy to drop one of its international players

When news first broke that the LA Galaxy traded away an international roster spot to NYCFC for allocation money, questions began to arise about how the Galaxy were going to sign Giovani dos Santos. While it had already been announced how the Galaxy were freeing up a designated player slot for the Mexican international (using targeted allocation money to buy down Omar Gonzales' contract under the dp threshold), the Galaxy, in trading away an international roster spot to NYCFC, created for themselves another hurdle.

Like in many leagues around the world, MLS regulates the number of foreign players within the league in order to promote the growth of domestic players. In 2008, each MLS team was given 8 international roster slots. The league also allowed teams who did not wish to use these slots to trade them. Since this time, the LA Galaxy have traded away two of these slots-- once as a part of the Marcelo Sarvas to Colorado deal, and the other as a part of the aforementioned deal with NYCFC.

This move left the Galaxy with 6 international roster spots, all of which were being filled: Jaime Penedo, Raul Mendiola, Mika Vayrynen, Leonardo, Steven Gerrard, and Ignacio Maganto.With Giovani dos Santos on the way, room would have to be made.

This lead to a great deal of speculation over possible scenarios. Mika Vayrynen seemed like the most obvious choice, but with rumors coming out of Panama's Gold Cup camp that Jaime Penedo was unhappy with his contract, Galaxy fans began to fear the worst.

But Bruce Arena is here to say not to worry.

For you my friend. May you cherish it. Also this will someday be a great trimmed clip! @SeanSteffen @LAGConfidential pic.twitter.com/ktbyMolOw0

— Chandrima Chatterjee (@chandrimatweets) July 18, 2015

According to Arena, one of the current international roster slot players is getting a green card. Once this occurs, (if it has not occurred already) the Galaxy will have the open slot for Gio upon his arrival after the Gold Cup.