Personally speaking, as Wayne Rooney plays out his final weeks with D.C. United before moving to Derby County we’ll hopefully see a reduction in crazy rumors. That said, it’s a little hard not to take one (admittedly from the Daily Mail) at least with a note of seriousness.

A couple of weeks ago when they said D.C. United was interested is Wes Foderingham, a goalkeeper currently at Rangers FC, I had to take a second. First about the rumor: Foderingham started for a three-year period for Rangers from 2015 to 2018, before being replaced by Allan McGregor, and has appeared in five games in the time since. He’d helped Gers get promoted back into the Scottish Premier League after spending five seasons with Swindon Town, helping that club earn promotion from England’s League Two to League One. The article states that Rangers turned down bids of $2 million and $1.5 million bids from West Bromwich Albion and Nottingham Forest, respectively, in the last 12 months, and that the 28-year-old Foderingham is looking to leave in January on a free transfer, asking out of the last six months of his contract in the process.

It’s the “goalkeeper looking to leave in January” part that sticks a little here. Bill Hamid left D.C. for FC Midtjylland, and was looking to usurp Jasper Hansen, but the Denmark international played well enough to force FCM’s hand to get Hamid minutes. Hansen’s form hasn’t changed, helping them to a Danish Cup in 2018-19 while leading Midtjylland to 2nd place after a championship in 2017-18. He has 38 clean sheets in 103 appearances with them in the process. That said, Hansen does turn 35 at the end of March, and like Foderingham, his contract runs until June 2020.

So, where does D.C. United come into this? Well, Hamid’s loan ends at the end of this season, and he has two more years on his FCM deal. Foderingham would be free, is slightly younger (3 months) and smaller (2-ish inches) than Hamid, though they have the shared pedigree of starting a lot at the club level at a young age. And oddly enough, Foderingham and Hamid are repped by the same agency, so if there is leverage being done on the player’s side, this becomes interesting.

So, while it may not be a rumor as silly as, say, Ashley Williams or Antonio Valencia, D.C.’s status at the goalkeeper position is worth enough of a note to pay attention to as the offseason will be an interesting one for the second straight year.