The Flash . Sahlen is signing the cap buster. I hope he can put 5k a game in Rochester...or he'll be 2M down easily after season one. Then again...10-20M per yr in hot dog sales should give him deep pockets. He put the major parts of GP back together. Women's soccer's finest talent will remain in Women's Professional Soccer. Marta, the Brazilian forward who was MVP and scoring champion in WPS' first two seasons, reached agreement Tuesday with the expansion Western New York Flash for the final year of her reported three-year, $1.5 million deal with the league. Marta, who has won FIFA's World Player of the Year award the past five years, scored 10 goals to lead the L.A. Sol to the 2009 regular-season title and a berth in the championship game, then scored 19 as Bay Area-based FC Gold Pride won the WPS title last year. The Sol disbanded last January, and Gold Pride folded in November. The Flash, which as the Buffalo Flash won the USL W-League title last year, previously acquired former Gold Pride defenders Ali Riley (Pacific Palisades/Harvard-Westlake School), Candace Chapman and Kandace Wilson (Los Angeles/Walnut HS and Cal State Fullerton), midfielder Becky Edwards, and forward Christine Sinclair. The club also has picked up Swedish national team captain Caroline Seger, U.S. national-teamers Yael Averbuch and Ashlyn Harris, as well as midfielder McCall Zerboni (San Clemente/San Clemente HS and UCLA) and defender Whitney Engen (Rolling Hills Estates/Peninsula HS). It made Diamond Bar's Alex Morgan (Diamond Bar HS) the top pick in the Jan. 14 WPS draft. After NY honors the last yr of Marta's contract...does her salary come in-line to what she is really worth since she doesn't increase bodies in seats? I've said I think she's worth about 2x Kelly Smith who gets 100k from Boston. Who is Mr MagicTalk going to sell to the Brasilians in FL now? Formiga? Faby? Cristie? Playing with Washington fans about moving the team doesn't look so bright now.
congrats to wny on signing marta. that's a great team - even tho it's only on paper. i really think they'll do well on the field too. they should click right away. i don't see any defense being able to control marta... and sinclair... and ohara... and morgan... but i don't want to hear any crocodile tears about bleeding $$$ from sahlen at the end of the year. i truly hope they know what they're doing.
Totally agree. I said similar in the other thread but I like the croc tears phrase you used And newsouth, there are other threads where the Marta signing was posted & is being talked about.
you're right. my bad. (hasty posting after looking at druid squirrel's list -the wrong list - on another thread) let me rephrase. i don't see any defense being able to control: marta... and sinclair... and morgan... and edwards... and riley... etc., etc.
they are going to be really fun to watch. i see a 3 woman front. wilson and riley together again in the back. best at getting forward in the league, two of the best in the world imo.
In theory an ultra defensive set-up managed by Jose Mourinho could do tje job or the other way is to confiscate the ball Barcelona style...but who can do that ?
Seems Marta was never a true Free Agent... I was going to put a link to this article in the Flash forum but there's a shiny new Marta thread so here ya go. Jeff Kassouf reports that Marta's loan to Santos may not have been legal It is a long (and interesting) article. Here's the meatiest part (but read the rest).
Re: Seems Marta was never a true Free Agent... yeah, I saw this, too. So will FIFA turn a blind eye (if they even learn of it)? If there are actual consequences, I can't imagine they'd be very great in this case. My other question: why did we not know about this until now? FCGP didn't ever say anything about it that I can recall. It all seems very fishy to me.
I thought the same thing. But if AMWAY pays for much of the contract and all that's left is one year then why not? This owner has a lot of money. DEEP pockets. And the two years that I've seen Marta in this league, Live and TV, she is something special. Clearly above everyone esle in this league. This team immediately is the odds on favorite to win the 2011 WPS Championship. Marta makes that much of a difference. And she IS the most exciting player this league has. Period.
I think FCGP is pissed that they had the rights to a highly profitable player that due to their folding, they could not make money off of. What was she supposed to do sit on her arse for four months knowing she had a season and WWC to prepare for. *I would do an analogy about getting re-poed and looking for g-ma's watch for collateral, but I don't want negative reps. Is Shannon Boxx?
how about tell the club that wants you on loan do what clubs that get players on loan do: pay for the use of a player who is already under contract to another team.
I'm sure she just wants to get her $500K and couldn't care less if another team folds. It's not like she's from anywhere in America. She'll just go to another team. Marta must be used to that by now.
I could see if the team hadn't folded. Do you tell your employeer (after it has gone out of business), that you got a new job and then they get a portion of your new paycheck? I wonder if she told WNY since the elder wand was passed on to them.
Except, of course, the people involved don't want that. You should check out Jeff DiVeronica's work. Here he quotes the WNY folks as saying they aren't trading Marta for Abby. DiVeronica says elsewhere that he thinks having Abby visit Rochester in another team's uniform would prevent "Abby fatigue" (my term not his). That would enable WNY to fill the house for those games in ways they wouldn't over the course of a full season. Marta could provide region wide attraction for fans over a longer time. I think WNY feels like they can market her to sell tix in ways FCGP didn't or couldn't. Time will tell as to whether they are right or wrong, of course.
So did she loan herself out (sign the papers) before November? Also had they notified her that the club would cease opertations before she signed with Santos? Had WNY already inherited her contract when she signed with Santos? The people reporting on this need to answer these questions, because if the answer to all those questions is yes, then I don't see what the problem is. Though I will say if you know you're ceasing operations what difference does it make if she told you are not, unless you wanted to cash in. The examples from the article are between team that still exist.
Well, is Marta's 3 year guaranteed contract with one team or the league as a whole? I'm getting the sense now that it must be with the league as a whole. Santos/Marta's agent have always used the term loan w/ respect to her time at Santos. If it is a loan, then someone still owns her contract and she isn't a complete free agent. Otherwise, they wouldn't be so careful to use "loan" would they? Players' contracts are business assets even for a team that isn't going to play next season. Assets are sold to try and cover existing losses. There are other industries that have "non-compete" clauses in contracts which require some sort of payment to nix. I do agree that parts of the story are super murky and I totally agree that noisy me wants to know all the details. eta: I just saw this tweet by the former SBFC GM. which strongly suggests her contract is with the league and not a specific team. eta2: Kessler has an interesting series of tweets. Read from the bottom to the top.
Thanks for digging up that info and surrounding developments. You are correct assets are sold to cover expenses when one dies or goes out of business. I just can't help but wonder who's books was she on when she agreed with Santos or as to why FCGP didn't speak up sooner?
If she did not sign with another team, FCGP would have been on the hook for her salary (at which time they would have most likely filed for Bancruptcy) or could have have paid it out as an expence....the signing by flash relieves GP of having to pay her
