Boy, FC Dallas kept this nugget quiet. That or they were just waiting on someone to ask the obvious.

According to ESPN Insider (sorry folks, gotta have a subscription but I do have you covered!), midfielder Brek Shea is indeed a Designated Player. More importantly he is apart of the new Young DP rule that took effect last year.

With his original rookie contract set to expire (MLS contracts are often guaranteed for two years with two league option years tacked on) Shea was likely to go free over the winter. With a young DP offer on the table, he instead agreed to make Dallas his long-term home. In return -- though 2012 salary numbers are yet to be made public -- he will have gotten the kind of money he might be making were he to jump to a decent European league.

Read on for more quotes and details from this article

FC Dallas manager Schellas Hyndman added how excited he is to see such a rule in place for the league.

"It's so good for our league to give us the opportunity to take a home-grown player for example, and make him a young DP," Hyndman said. "It doesn't count that much against the salary cap. But one day he may be a starter for you, one day he may be a national team player for you, one day he may have opportunities to go overseas."

This certainly is a twist to the new Young DP rule, one that most may have no considered.

"I think [it] has really helped," says Hyndman. "With the young DP spots, where you can bring in players U-20 and younger, and their salary will only count against your budget at 150 [thousand] on the salary cap, now as a coach you're willing to go get that young player. The important thing is that the young player is coming in and fits into your budget, maybe you'll have rights to that player, maybe you can sell them on."

Obviously this news has a great impact on the kind of money MLS and FC Dallas will be expecting in a transfer fee for Shea once that time comes. Daniel and I have long agreed that it would have been this summer, after the Olympics. Now with the US not involved in the summer games, that prediction took a fairly big hit.

It isn't at all out of the question that Shea isn't here for another year or so. Teams across the pond will know that his price tag is a hefty one. That is good news for Dallas down the road when that transfer fee check clears into their bank account.

What do you all make of this news? Pretty exciting to hear that Shea is a DP?