Anyway, formerly communist Europe has some of the positive qualities as an MLS shopping market that South America does. There are a lot of players playing in a fairly highly developed infrastructure, but not making crazy amounts of money, they have some degree of cultural affinity for living in the United States, and they are accustomed to the idea that players go some distance abroad to "make it" in the sport. On the minus side the US is further abroad for them, including culturally, as well as in time zone terms for Mom watching the game-type purposes. On the plus side, there is a lot less MLS competition there, and virtually none from Liga MX. The devil is in the details, but bringing in an FC Basel-bred braintrust to import talent from that region, play a possession passing game that those players will be accustomed to, and meld that identity into a newly reinvested youth academy, that all passes the straight face test as an elevator pitch. The missing piece is butts in seats, and the credibility both locally and globally that would bring. That's the thing about Chicharito, he's not of that concept, but if the plan is a well-designed bus, he's about 10,000 gallons of gasoline.
Dc United just announced a huge signing (Edison Flores) and they are negotiating with another big name (gaston silva). We might make our moves and STILL not make the playoffs!!!
You guys do realize that the reason we're getting so many Slovenians is because our crest makes them feel right at home, right?
People have said it offhandedly, but I think it's genuinely true that Chicharito is the third biggest draw in the world for the Fire/Galaxy behind only Messi and Ronaldo. Sign Mbappe and prove me wrong, cowards.
The Friday before the Gold Cup final, about 150-200 people showed up at UIC just to watch El Tri and the USMNT get off the bus to practice. The practice itself was pretty well covered by tarps and fences, though some people were able to see over by climbing on top of their SUVs that were parked near the stadium. Only about 5 of us were USA fans. There was no formal announcement of this practice of any kind, people just showed up. People there had been waiting for hours. I talked to people who said they called out sick from work the moment they heard where the team was practicing. So yeah, it wouldn't be unreasonable to say CH14 could outdraw Mbappe in this market.
Chicharito is a "bigger name" than Bale, at least around these parts. Bale is a much, much better player. Personally, I think Chicharito is probably in the top-5 in the "big name, butts in the seat" category. Messi and Ronaldo, of course. For MLS and for Chicago, I would think Chicharito would be next, with Lewandowski next and then, possibly, Neymar. Yes, Chichcarito is not in the class of the four on the field, but 1) he would be 1/10 the price of the other four and 2) he would be a better fit right now. Beat me to it! I wrote my post a few minutes ago, but did not post it.
I've never quite understood the idea that Polish stars are even in the same stratosphere as Mexican stars in this regard, but people seem convinced that they are.
I guess it is a neighborhood thing and, perhaps, more than a little personal bias (since the Polish National Team is third in the teams I follow).
I'm from Pittsburgh and my Grampa was Slovenian, not Slovakian. My Uncle had a Slovenian style polka band not a Polish polka band with a horn section or a German polka band with a tuba as the bass. You best get that right in certain circles!
Via the one annual contract buyout every MLS team is allowed, a rule I was absolutely aware of thirty seconds ago.
"Official" Announcement: https://www.chicagofirefc.com/post/...and-defender-marcelo-mutually-agree-part-ways Not even a "We thank Marcelo for his contributions" (since he barely contributed) or "We wish Marcelo well in his future endeavors" (since they probably don't). We knew nothing about him, paid him (in MLS terms) a crapload of money and we received almost nothing. It took me a good 10 games of asking "Is Marcelo any good or not?" to determine the answer.
I swear, I spend so much goddamn time online talking about this league, and I too had no idea this was a thing.
Using obscure MLS lacunae to dump a guy NRod just signed is a positive sign for the new organizational structure operating as advertised.
So apparently the rumor is that Mansueto really wants Pizarro and we could get him, but that Heitz doesn't want him. Above all else that begs the question "why not?", but that is a real pickle. A choice between disastrous attendance and kneecapping your brand new sporting director on the centerpiece of the roster is a gnarly one.
Pizarro would help attendance in the spring. If the team is ass in August even if he's on it, then attendance help he'll give will be gone. I want Pizarro, but I also don't know who Heitz would have as a CAM alternative. (and, sadly, years of posting on BigSoccer has not, in fact, made me an expert).
I tend toward this being the answer as well, but I don't know Mexican soccer well enough to feel like I can speak to Pizarro's marketability. The general rule is you leave soccer to the soccer people and empower them with the simple and clear mandate to win as much as possible. But the business-side problems just create howling headwinds for the soccer side the way things are currently. They aren't as cleanly separable as you'd hope for the Chicago Fire right now (this year, literally the upcoming stretch of games, especially) If it's Chicharito you tell Heitz to go fly a kite and sign him immediately for any price. But Pizarro is not Chicharito.
He is way more famous, is a bigger draw and is a striker, so he will show up in more highlights on the news [as if the local news ever shows Fire highlights]. He also played at Chivas, Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Bayer Leverkusen. He is the all time leading scorer for Mexico and has played in (and scored in) three World Cups, as well as two Confederations Cups and two Gold Cups. The resume is impressive as hell.