For what it's worth, http://www.planetfootball.com/artic...d=218&title=Dallas+close+in+on+mystery+player European. Coming in for trial soon. 7 caps. A top scorer in a western European league. Any ideas? Also suggests we're going to bring a SPL player in for a look, and that we might get Nunez on a loan. I've never heard of MLS receiving a player on loan before.............
Re: Re: Bergin's Mystery trialist Oh. Duh. My bad. Doesn't MLS own a piece of his rights, now, though? I guess it's still a loan.
Geez, Bradley was right in his article on mlsnet.com, we do stay busy in the discovery market! Two Euro forwards and a possible loan for Nunez. That's having more than one iron in the fire alright. I hope one of them pans out after all this build up. We could use the help up front.
Just a quick note - the article says "European based", not European. Also, its unclear how "top scorer" is being used - i.e. euphemistically, in that he scores "a lot", or literally, THE top scorer. I thought one poster's guess of Jardel was interesting, in that its close to the facts, but pretty unlikely. I guess the first step is to figure out what are the "Western European leagues", starting with the least likely onward: England France Germany Italy Spain Netherlands I think we can rule out those countries, if the player truly is a "top scorer". Next batch: Portugal Belgium Scotland Ireland Wales Switzerland Austria These are all western European nations (although Switzerland and Austria are borderline), and I guess would be possibilities. If I had to bet, I'd say it be one of Portugal, Belgium or Scotland (otherwise, it seems a bit of a stretch to highlight the "top scorer" of the Welsh league). Also, the player must be currently available to be signed by MLS, taking into account FIFA's transfer rules, i.e. the player has to be out of contract, or the team for which he is playing must be willing to release his contract. In the end, I have no idea who could meet this criteria. All the players who would be available, top scorers that I can think of have more than seven caps. In fact, I've found its pretty hard to figure out current number of caps for non-US players. Here are some players who came up in searches for 7 caps (none of which are real possibilities, though): Andy Cole has seven caps for England Duncan Ferguson has 7 caps for Scotland Diego Tristan had 7 caps for Spain as of May 2002 BTW, any chance the "Scottish" player is Russell Latapy?
Larsson has said he is ready to leave Celtic. Think he has more than seven caps. Wishing will make it so, lets get the bhoy in Dallas!
Eduardo Hurtado is a "striker who has played in the SPL" so, as with all things, your mileage may vary. Not to mention the snippet of the HSG / Frisco deal within 2 weeks. I guess the best thing about that situation is that neither HSG nor the City of Frisco are saying anything - which may mean they really are close to a deal. God willing.
The article actually says "has being a leading scorer in a Western European League" I'll assume this means has been a leading scorer in a top flight western european league. I'd assume Boksic has more than 7 caps (If he has ever been a leading scorer in a league). Di Canio maybe?
no. he has never been capped. he only has republic of ireland "b" and u-21 caps to his name. good shot though. anyone else?
Boksic has more than 50 caps. DiCanio was a high scorer in the Scottish league back in 97/98, where he had 17 goals in 37 appearances. However, I am pretty certain he does not have any caps. Here's an excerpt from an article I found on the subject: "It is a little known fact, although perhaps one that may become more widely known if anything ever comes of it, that Paolo di Canio, a born and bred Italian, could be the answer to England's striker problems. Although he is surely nearer to the end of his career, at 33 years of age, his perfomances on the pitch have proven that he is still a world class player. However, crucially, Di Canio has never played international football, which may just give a glimmer of hope if Sven Goran Eriksson is prepared to take chance on him. ... Paolo di Canio has been overlooked by Italy at all levels, and having never played for his country of birth he could now technically qualify to play for England on the basis of residence here in the UK. " Indeed, here's an amusing quote I found by Giovanni Trapattoni on Di Canio's chance of an international callup: "Only if there's an outbreak of the bubonic plague."
Wait a second? Is Jefferies looking at getting a player from the SPL as well as Nunez? If so I thought this was a really quite off season...do we have enough SI spots for that?
Marco Negri or Fab Ravanelli???? Ravanelli probably has more than 7 caps and would appear to be a bit of a stretch, but Marco Negri is still in his early 30's, playing in Seria B and was the leading scorer in all of Europe (I think) at one point a few years back for Glasgow Rangers. Not sure if he ever played for Italy though.
Re: Marco Negri or Fab Ravanelli???? That's an interesting pick ... In 29 games for Rangers in 97/98, he scored 32 goals. Also, the club Negri plays for, Livorno, is coached by none other than former MLS'er Roberto Donadoni. Ravanelli had 20 caps back when he played for Marseille.
i cannot seem to find any info on the amount of caps that negri has, but i know that he had none as of 1999.
OKAY does any of the aforementioned players or any top scorer from a western league (for the matter) actually need a trial. c'mon! sounds like smoke up the arse to me. i'm going to prepare myself for disappointment, utter speechlessness, or a basic sense of cluelessness.
He has 7 u-21 caps......and he never said full caps. Plus...some Irish boards are stating that he is complaining about taking a pay cut....down to about $100K per year. He is still my bet.
i think that is a weak link, but you never know. i still think that is someone else. we will see soon. i am sure buzz is all over this.
I am in a relative sense. Jeffries won't give me the name until it is "official" that the player (s) in question is coming.
No there is only one open SI slot. Nunez is playing in the UNCAF cup right now, and any thing worked out with him is still going to take a while, if it can be worked out at all. Meanwhile I am certain they will take a look at some of these other players... who knows maybe one of them will be what they are looking for. Or maybe one of them will be good enough to make the Burn cut another SI... or maybe one of them has a green card or something. It is way to early to really speculate.