If the Fredy Montero-era of the Seattle Sounders wasn't already over, it appears to be now. The latest reports suggest the Colombian has agreed to a five-year deal with Portuguese giant Sporting Club de Portugal (colloquially referred to as Sporting Lisbon). Assuming the deal gets finalized, this would almost certainly mean the Sounders have accepted a transfer fee and relinquished any rights they have to Montero.

From the look of it, this was a move facilitated by the Sounders, as opposed to Montero's current club Millonarios, where he's been on loan for all 2013.

The key from the Sounders' perspective will be how much they net in Montero's sale. As we've previously reported, the Sounders would probably need somewhere between $2 million and $4 million in order to receive any allocation. Although there's always a chance that MLS rules on this subject have changed, last we heard was that the team needed to recoup any transfer plus salary paid to the player before they were given allocation money that could be used to pay down the salary-cap hit of other players on the roster.

Unfortunately, there are still no reports regarding the fees Sporting may have paid.

The allocation money aside, this seems to be a very good move for Montero's career. Sporting is one of Portugal's "Tres Grandes", alongside Benefica and Porto. They are coming off a seventh-place finish in the Portuguese Primera, but have regularly qualified for European competition in the past. Montero's playing style would probably be well suited to Portugal and the 25-year-old is still well positioned to make even bigger moves within Europe.