Inter Miami finalizing loan deal to send Rodolfo Pizarro back to Mexican club Monterrey
Rodolfo Pizarro is heading back home to Mexico.
Inter Miami is finalizing a deal to transfer the Mexican playmaker to Monterrey on loan with an option to buy his contract, two league sources confirmed on Wednesday.
Pizarro played for Monterrey “Rayados” before signing with Miami as its first Designated Player in early 2020. He is eager to get back into the Mexican national team lineup, so playing in Liga MX should suit him. During his two seasons with Monterrey Pizarro helped the club win a CONCACAF Champions League title and a league title.
Pizarro is one of Miami’s three high-priced DPs, making $3.35 million per year, and his departure was expected as the club is overhauling its roster and needs to unload salary to compensate for hefty MLS fines for violating roster rules in the Blaise Matuidi deal.
Pizarro, 27, excited fans with his flashy skills, but his pairing with forward Gonzalo Higuain was not as productive as expected. He scored seven goals in 46 appearances with Miami and his frustration showed at different points this past season.
Pizarro was at his best and played more freely when Higuain was not on the field.
Higuain, the team’s leading scorer with 12 goals and seven assists, was most comfortable when his midfielder brother Federico fed him the ball. When his brother wasn’t playing, he tended to drift back into the No. 10 position to help create offense and that invaded Pizarro’s space. Pizarro mentioned to reporters at mid-season that he and Higuain needed to figure out how to play together. Higuain said he needed better service into the box. His body language often displayed his frustration with teammates.
Pizarro struggled through the early months of 2021 before turning things around in mid-August. He scored the stoppage-time game-winning goal in a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Fire and scored two goals in a 3-1 win against Toronto FC.
The goal against Chicago was his first of the season and first for club or country since October 2020. He started the 2021 season with a strong game against the L.A. Galaxy, but then his performances slipped. He was slowed by a nagging hip injury, was left off Mexico’s national team roster for a few games and was benched by Inter Miami coaches in July.
He said in an August interview that he had lost confidence and was not feeling like a vital part of the team.
“I had personal issues I dealt with, the injury…I didn’t have my family nearby, so that affected me,” Pizarro said. “For me, confidence is everything and I didn’t feel important. I lost belief in myself. But the last three weeks I have been working on that and I am enjoying the game again. I am happy. I know who I am. When you have confidence, things go well. That is true in any profession.”
His performances in the Chicago and Toronto games earned him a last-minute invitation to the MLS All-Star Game. He was added to the event to fill the void left by the absence of Mexican MLS star forwards Carlos Vela (Los Angeles FC) and Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez (Los Angeles Galaxy), who were both injured.
Inter Miami may replace Pizarro with Brazilian Raphael Veiga, a 26-year-old playmaker who scored 41 goals and had 11 assists in 139 games for Palmeiras since arriving in 2017. Inter Miami has been in negotiations with Veiga over the past month.
He helped the club win a historic Campeonato Paulista, Copa Libertadores, and Copa do Brasil treble in 2020. A few weeks ago, he scored a goal in the 2-1 Copa Libertadores final victory over Flamengo.
Inter Miami was expected to unload at least one of the three DPs, and Pizarro made the most sense. Higuain and Matuidi will be 34 at the start of next season. Both have a year left on their contracts, but their age and salaries make them difficult to sell.
Higuain is the league’s third-highest paid player at $5.79 million per year and Matuidi’s base salary is $1.5 million but he reportedly makes nearly $4 million including image rights and other bonuses.
The Pizarro deal is the latest of Inter Miami’s off-season moves.
In the past month the club loaned Julian Carranza to Philadelphia Union, added midfielder/fullback Mo Adams from Atlanta United for the rights to backup goalkeeper Dylan Castanheira, winger/forward Ariel Lassiter (son of former MLS star Roy Lassiter) from Houston Dynamo and Brazilian midfielder Jean Mota from Santos. The club also re-signed veteran midfielder Victor Ulloa and traded winger Lewis Morgan to the New York Red Bulls for $1.2 million in general allocation money.
Inter Miami finished in 11th place in the Eastern Conference this season, four spots out of the playoffs. Training camp opens Jan. 17 and the season opener is at home Feb. 26 against the Chicago Fire.
Individual match tickets for the 17 home games are available through ticketmaster.com. Fans can also call 305-428-0611 for more information.