Of course, this gets trickier from now on because Steve's transfer price should dip with only a year left on his deal. And, in the next summer window, he would be able to sign a pre-contract without any compensation to the DCU.
A few days ago, I race toward the elevator, with some Russian guy just stepping inside it. I yell, "Up or down?" He says, "Yes".
1 - I'd really like him to find a league better than Israel, even a 2nd division in a bigger country would be better. 2 - the 1/2 and 2/3 issue for MLS teams is a tricky one, because players on their first contract may end up leaving on a free more often. It certainly makes them a lot more desirable to other teams.
yeah, that carries a lot of risk, especially for the player. FIFA essentially guarantees the sanctity of contracts and, IIRC, has punished players much more harshly (temporary playing bans) than tampering clubs (token fines). I suspect Castillo's little adventure cost his new club a fair amount of money and weakened his bargaining position on his new contract.
As a DC fan, if the offer really is $1.5M, I'd probably take it. But that seems like a very strange number...Steve's a fine player by MLS standards, but he's a central defender. And I'm dubious Israeli teams have that kind of money for a central defender. I suppose it's possible that Aaron Schoenfeld's success has those clubs thinking, hey, if an MLS sub can do this, an MLS all star would dominate our league!
they also get the added bonus of not having to use a foreign slot....so any "good"player who qualifies for the league w/o having to burn a foreign slot has added value.
In 2014 The Daily Mail estimated the salaries for the world's 35 top leagues (since it's the Mail, they included the Championship but forgot/deliberately omitted BL2, BL 3, League 1 and League 2: which is why it's called The Daily Fail, but I digress). At that stage, Israel was 30th with average pay of $64k Sterling or about $82k, though the average is distorted by two factors; the league is almost as dominated by the "Big 4" (Maccabi Haifa, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Betar Jerusalem) as Scotland is by the Old Firm, and by the fact that in any one year about a quarter of the league's players are on their military service and are paid buttons, around $11k, while doing it. Since then, there's been a new and rather lucrative TV deal, negotiated by Sunderland's new GM IIRC, and salaries have begun to rise. According to this Ha'Aretz article 33 players in the IPL are earning over a million Shekels - $250k - a year, and there's a dozen or so earning two million Shekels or more. As a CB he'd normally be less likely to fit into that top-33, but he's an MLS All-Star and - more importantly - Jewish, which means that he's exempt from the foreigners quota. His age (he turns 26 in January) is also a plus. http://www.haaretz.com/soccer-33-players-earn-over-one-million-shekels-1.19929 The top clubs in Israel are no pushovers and there are plenty of scouts as well as on-the-way-up coaches, e.g. Paolo Sousa, Slavisa Jokanovic or Oscar Garcia. If he catches the eye of one of those coaches he can be playing in the English Championship or similar in a year or two.
Some articles are coming out about what players Maccabi Tel-Aviv will be targeting now that they have secured their place in the Europa League group stage with Zenit Saint-Petersburg, AZ Alkmaar and Irish club Dundalk. Maccabi appear to be focused on a left back option and some attack options since forward Tal Ben-Haim is wanted by Granada in Spain and is interested in leaving.
Left back you say? Well if they're not interested in a Birnbaum we have a Bornstein that might be of use. A little older but used to the intensity of Mexican futbol...
Second page of Joe Jow article: http://www.fourfourtwo.com/us/featu...chance-soccer-injury-interview-usmnt?page=0,1
I don't think Birnbaum is anywhere close to being a Bundesliga player! Werder actually want an american player currently not playing abroad that could actually make it in Germany? Darlington Nagbe.