LA Galaxy appear to be tapping brakes on Cristian Pavón pursuit, for now

LA Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney confirmed at the start of the club’s preseason that a transfer bid has been made for attacker Cristian Pavón, on loan from Boca Juniors the last season and a half, but we now have some more clarity of where the situation stands as Pavón’s legal case in Argentina continues.

Pavón has been accused of rape, and investigators have officially named him in the case as they investigate it.

While there’s been no movement in the case or in the transfer story since then, many stateside have wondered if the advancement of the case in Argentina has changed the Galaxy’s desire to sign the player.

Vanney was asked directly about it more than once on Wednesday during media availability with reporters, and while he was more suggestive than anything, he did shed some light on the current situation.

The new coach was asked if LA was planning to move on from their pursuit of Pavón, given the ongoing case.

“Yeah, I think, to be candid, all options are on the table,” Vanney said. “We need to continue to move forward and keep our options open and keep looking at different possibilities, assess the situation and when it’s time to either move and get it finalized or move on, then we need to be prepared to do so.”

Pavón is scheduled to go to court to be interviewed next week, which could possibly lead to a resolution in the case, if investigators decide not to pursue it. Vanney indicated the club is waiting for a resolution to either make a deal or walk away.

“I think when those conclusions are met and are clear, we’ll be ready for either one and so I think that’s our responsibility here over the next couple of weeks, few weeks is to try to get clarity on this whole situation,” he said.

Vanney’s comments fit in with reporting this week from Corner of the Galaxy, which said that a deal between the Galaxy and Boca Juniors is effectively in place, but it’s “on pause” for the moment while they see how the legal case proceeds. This report does give some room to the possibility the investigation or case could continue on for months or longer, and in that case, LA may not be willing to see the outcome until the end.

While Pavón’s pursuit is still to be determined, the Galaxy signed two attacking players this week, in French winger Samuel Grandsir and former Toronto FC midfielder Victor Vazquez. Vanney, who said at the start of the preseason that the club was looking to add 6-8 players, denied the signing of Grandsir is a sign LA are moving on from Pavón.

“Well, I don’t think it necessarily signifies we’re moving on from Cristian,” he said. “I think he is another piece. We’ll see. I don’t have enough information to really say on the Cristian thing. We are continuing to look to build the roster, whether that is with Cristian, without Cristian is still a little bit to be determined. But Samuel was going to be added, regardless of whether Cristian was here or not. He is another piece, there’s another wing that needs to be filled. And there might be one or two more, we’ll see, in addition to other pieces within the team that we want to fill. So that piece was going to happen and now we continue forward on trying to fill more of those spots.”

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