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The saga between Alexander Isak and Newcastle United is now open to the court of public opinion after both parties issued statements this week.
Isak wrote on social media that “broken promises” had led to the breakdown of his relationship with the club. In response, Newcastle said the criteria for a sale had not been met and they remained open to the striker rejoining the squad.
Isak, 25, has already skipped Newcastle’s season opener against Aston Villa and is highly unlikely to return when Liverpool visit St James’ Park on Monday. The Sweden international returned to the north-east of England three weeks ago after the summer break and has been training individually at Newcastle’s Benton facility ever since.
He’s not the only Premier League footballer to have attempted to force a transfer, but Isak’s conduct in seeking a move has divided opinion in the UK.
But in the U.S., both NFL and NBA fans are accustomed to players assertively vying for better contracts, moves, or trades. The Athletic examines some of the most recent standoffs in American sports.
NFL
Contract disputes are so common in the NFL that there are names for different player protests: holdouts and hold-ins.
A holdout is when a player is a complete no-show to mandatory offseason team activities, usually in search of an improved contract or trade.
During a hold-in, players attend team activities, such as training camps, but forgo participating in training, usually citing injuries. This avoids fines for missing preseason days.
Holdouts and hold-ins serve as threats as the actions are likely to disrupt a team’s preparations, with an organization at risk of going into the upcoming season without a key player.
On The Athletic’s No Free Lunch podcast, Ndamukong Suh said: “When you do it in camp, it applies enough pressure for them to say, ‘Alright, this is not what I’m envisioning. It’s messing us up leading into the season’.
“The funny thing is, you’ve implemented 90 percent of your foundations from a team perspective on offense and defense during those summer months.”
One ongoing hold-in situation is playing out between Micah Parsons and the Dallas Cowboys. Parsons, entering the final year of his rookie deal, is one of the best defensive players in the league. At the start of August, he shared a post on X stating he had requested to be traded. The lengthy post cited reasons such as being held to close-door negotiations without his agent present.
Thank you Dallas 🦁👑 🙏🏾! I pic.twitter.com/EUnEj9uRUt
— Micah Parsons (@MicahhParsons11) August 1, 2025
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones expects Parsons to play in Week 1 against the Philadelphia Eagles. A contract extension has not yet been agreed, which means it seems possible that Parsons could be playing out the final year of his current deal. The Cowboys could then try to re-sign him in the offseason or franchise tag him.
Per The Athletic’s Michael Silver, San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk staged a training camp hold-in last summer, citing a sore back, and submitted a trade request. Trade discussions were held for Aiyuk, who was heading into the fifth year option of his contract.
Aiyuk was eventually cleared medically but didn’t show up for practice the following day, leading the team to work out a deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Aiyuk showed up the day after and agreed to accept the team’s latest contract offer (a four-year $120 million extension), so last-minute that head coach Kyle Shanahan had to sprint up the stairs to ensure general manager John Lynch didn’t execute the trade.
Aiyuk had a slow start to the campaign before tearing his ACL in Week 7.
In 2023, Chris Jones held out from the Kansas City Chiefs, skipping training camp and missing the season opener — just like Isak. The two parties eventually agreed on a one-year contract extension. The star defensive tackle went on to have a career year with 10.5 sacks, and was named a first-team All-Pro for the second straight year. “I’m super pleased with how it turned out,” said Jones after signing the deal, per ESPN.
In 2024, he signed a five-year extension with Kansas City worth $158.75 million, with $101 million guaranteed.
Chris Jones, winner of three Super Bowls and one contract dispute. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
Eduardo Tansley
NBA
Players in the NBA can wield significant influence over reaching their desired destination. Two players, Bradley Beal and LeBron James, even have no-trade clauses in their contracts, meaning they can veto any trade involving themselves that they don’t approve of.
In terms of going public over a move, it is hard to top James, who, in July 2010, did a special on ESPN’s The Decision to reveal he would be moving from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Miami Heat. In fairness, he was an unrestricted free agent at the time.
Skipping games, as Isak has, is still a rare occurrence. Ben Simmons was fined millions of dollars for missing the entire 2021-22 season with the Philadelphia 76ers due to a lingering back issue and mental health struggles.
He was traded to the Brooklyn Nets in February 2022 in a blockbuster move involving James Harden despite still having four years left on his contract, but missed the rest of the season after undergoing back surgery. Simmons filed a $20 million grievance with the Sixers over withheld salary due to his absence on the court and the case was settled with the help of the NBPA.
Thirteen months earlier, Harden had joined Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving at the Nets after nine years with the Houston Rockets.
The summer before the start of the 2020-21 season, Harden delayed his arrival to the Rockets training camp for a week and was seen hanging out with rapper Lil Baby in Las Vegas. He was fined $50,000 for violating the league’s Covid-19 protocols for attending a private indoor party days before the NBA regular season started. Despite being viewed as out of shape going into the Rockets’ first game, he dropped 44 points. Eventually, he got his desired trade in January.
Eduardo Tansley
MLB
Miguel Andujar pictured playing for the New York Yankees in 2021. (Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
Requesting a trade, especially one where a player wants to join a specific team, rarely happens in MLB.
I cover the Yankees, and the last time they dealt with this was in 2022. Miguel Andujar, who at the time was a struggling hitter, asked for a trade after he was demoted to the minor leagues. The Yankees denied his request. He was eventually released later that season and was claimed by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Since moving on from the Yankees, Andujar has become an above-average hitter with the Athletics and Cincinnati Reds.
MLB contracts are fully guaranteed, so players holding out for more money or better opportunities elsewhere tend not to happen.
Chris Kirschner
NHL
There aren’t apple-to-apple hockey comparisons in recent years. Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman missed all training camp in 2024, but he was a restricted free agent in need of a new contract, not a player demanding a trade. His negotiation with the Bruins leaked into the public at points, but the sides ultimately agreed on an eight-year, $66 million deal two days before the start of the season.
Swayman didn’t play in the Bruins opener after missing camp but made his season debut two nights later.
“The fact that we went through this process and the tools that I learned with it, it’s gone now. All I care about is being a Bruin,” he said on signing the new deal.
Restricted free agents missing part of training camp is not a shock in the NHL world, but normally they are because of contract negotiations, not a trade request. The situation between Jack Eichel and the Buffalo Sabres is another one. He was traded to the Las Vegas Golden Knights after a rift between him and the Sabres developed over the type of surgery he should undergo.
Peter Baugh
(Top photo: Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
