Nigel de Jong is Out of the MLS, but Why Was He Ever Here in the First Place?

Even in retrospect, now that Nigel de Jong was allowed to leave for Galatasaray on a free transfer on Wednesday, it's hard to understand what possessed the Los Angeles Galaxy in signing him in the first place.

Signed on the January transfer deadline day from AC Milan on a free, de Jong brought the Galaxy and Major League Soccer the cachet of yet another big name on the payroll. Except that de Jong had gained his notoriety primarily by being, well, notorious. He was—and is—a midfield enforcer of the hardest kind. The savagery of his tackling is a throwback to the 1980s and '90s, when bruisers routinely got away with things that would get them red-carded now.

Stateside, de Jong was famous for breaking Stu Holden's leg, the first in a series of injuries that would derail the Premier League midfielder's career. And also, of course, for karate-kicking Xabi Alonso in the chest in the 2010 World Cup final.

That was the player the Galaxy knowingly signed. For reasons a layman can't quite comprehend.

Admittedly, it made a certain amount of soccer sense. In Steven Gerrard and Giovani Dos Santos, the Galaxy had a central hub that had no capacity and interest in defending, respectively. The team needed a counterweight, a holding midfielder to shield the territory his colleagues further up the field wouldn't be covering. De Jong had been an elite holder, and at 31 he was still somewhere close to his prime. He was also surely the best player with such a skill set available to the Galaxy, and was even affordable at some $500,000 for his first season, although a multi-million dollar bump would make him a Designated Player in his second year, which has now been preempted by his departure.

But de Jong's baggage far overshadowed whatever merit he had on the field. And, sure enough, de Jong quickly went back to stomping dudes. In the fifth game of the season, he injured Portland Timbers national teamer Darlington Nagbe and was suspended for three games. Then, on July 4, he got red-carded for a challenge on Blas Perez and missed another two games.

The Galaxy, a club that deserves as much credit for advancing the league's credibility and relevance as any for its persistent pursuit of players who help to move the needle, had no use for a walking PR liability such as de Jong. (Which is to say nothing of picking up Belgian defender Jelle van Damme, against whom Oguchi Onyewu once pressed charges for racial abuse.) They signed him anyway.

MLS is no longer in a precarious place, having solidified its place among American sports leagues at last. Still, that doesn't justify harboring hooligans such as de Jong, who is said to be nice enough off the field but whose transgressions on it are intolerable. The whole episode was simply embarrassing to the league.

There are plenty of other holding midfielders out there. Granted, most of those available to the Galaxy probably aren't as good as de Jong, who was helpful in his time stateside, when he wasn't suspended. But then there may have been a reason that they were able to get de Jong—he's a liability. And so, on balance, his time in the states was a failure.

What prompted his departure is still a matter of conjecture. The Galaxy had reportedly been eager to unload him. And Galatasaray surely made for a lucrative destination. Either way, MLS is better off without him.