Unfortunately the article only appears in ESPNDeportes so there's no english version. But to summarize: Mendoza was on trial for club Gaziantepspor in Turkey and in less than a month he went back to Mexico because he said the team was like a neighborhood club because they didn't have training clothes. Mendoza pointed out that they asked him to buy his own shorts since he was only there for a trial. He goes on to say that before his trial to Turkey, he was looking at the MLS, specifically at San Jose and he hopes that those talks can start again and that he hopes to hear something next week. Here's some more on the rumor (in english this time) from our friends at MLSRumors.com. http://mlsrumors.blogspot.com/2008/01/jos-de-jess-mendoza-to-san-jose.html Now remember we must follow the template, so well articulated by JazzyJ, of how to handle rumors. I gotta say that if JD and FY don't sign this guy, we should stop hoping for any international signings. Here's a guy (and a striker nonetheless) that has played for the big Mexican clubs (America, San Luis, Monterrey) and played for the Mexican national team (I think this past June) and says he wants to play for the Quakes. This guy practically has dropped on JD and FY's lap.
Well, the MLS rumors site says he wants to specifically play for San Jose. Any info on this guy? I have no idea who he is, what hes done, or what type of player he is.
Yes, what IBT said. Perhaps, an amendment should be submitted to "the committee" (JazzyJ and selected others) for consideration that, in some instances, a step exclaiming "WHO?" be added to the template. I also know nothing about our man, Mendoza, here but it appears he has been with some good, big clubs in Mexico and I would be interested in at least having a look at ANY player who specifically expresses their desire to play for the Quakes--that shows a great attitude. I wonder why he is so interested in SJ?....figures he'll immediately start on an expansion side?....has family in the Bay Area?....knows there is a substantial Latino population in this area? So long as it is not a cash-grab because his agent told him SJ needs forwards and has a DP slot available. I don't know what $$ he would be asking but I can't imagine it would be DP bucks since none of us have ever heard of him. Still...benefit of the doubt...if he WANTS to be here, specifically, let's bring this guy in for a test drive. BTW, it cracked me up to start my day by logging on to the boards only to find yet another "______ to San Jose" rumor. It's almost becoming like a joke-of-the-day type of deal.
Jesus Mendoza is listed on the wikipedia site for Mexico's National team under the section of players in Europe. I can't at this moment find a list of resent rosters to know when was the last time he played of the national team. Perhaps someone that follows the Mexico national team more closely can help out here. He has played for both Chivas and Club America.
[ " 29 year old Mexican striker, José de Jesús Mendoza who is known best from his time at Chivas, Club America, as well as Monterrey and San Luis is looking for a new move away from his current club Gaziantepspor in Turkey. Destination: San Jose As the story goes, Mendoza wants to play specifically for San Jose and looked forward to the return of the Earthquakes. He hopes to get a deal done through his agent: Gabriel Guerrero: " I would like to play for San Jose." he said. " ] VERY INTERESTING ! !
According to this thread, Mendoza's trial at Gaziantepspor came to an end when the team sold fellow Mexican De Nigris. He was last seen trying his luck in Azerbaijan. I'm starting to understand why he'd like to play in San Jose...
Azerbaijan? It makes you wonder if he is damaged goods in some way if he is trying to find a team in such an out of the way place. (no MLS jokes now!)
I think it wouldn't hurt to give him a trial. With practice starting in a week, I still only see one starting forward in Glinton and three forwards headed for the developmental team. We are way too thin at the position to turn away an experienced forward that has basically showed up at our front door.
If he's out of contract we won't have issues with transfer deadlines. A trail seems like a great idea.
If it makes any of you feel better/worse, I simply e-mailed MLSRumors the ESPNDeportes link, and translated the part about specifically San Jose. No inside info on this one.
Seems only natural that someone named Jesus would want to play for the Quakes. (i.e. the forces of good and evil coming into their natural alignment.) In a related note: Did you know that "alexi lalas" is just a coded anagram for "evil as LA"? He is how. rule #1) Replace "x" with a "v" rule #2) Two letter that are the same equals the upper case letter. So, aa=A. Apply the two rules then rearrange the letters in "alexi lalas" and you get: "evil as LA". OK, better go do something productive now.
Well San Jose better damned well get a couple one-time high caliber first division Mexican players because so far they are not offering much to get the Mexican American/Latino fan base to really buy into our new team. This will help them sell seats (last I heard we still had closer to 3K than 4K season seats sold but that was provided by a sales agent at the superdraft party) which will be especially important for the 4 games at the Colisuem and when we move to a ~20K seat stadium. Plus that will sell Jerseys. I remember that John Doyle said something about obtaining more foreign players in the hopes to pull in a more diverse crowd and that he meant from somewhere other than Canada (meaning Latin America and not a DeRo) but so far I am pretty unimpressed. Getting a couple well known Latino players is key to creating a marketable team in the bay area and will increase sales so that they go ahead and plunk down the money for all those goodies we want in a new stadium and so they start to spend money on quality players. I look forward to starting to run into salary cap and DP player restraints because that will mean the ownership is really willing to throw down for this team. I think that one of the best ways to give the ownership that level of confidence is by creating revenues fast and getting a couple well known players out of the Mexican and other Latin American leaguses is a critical component to obtaining those revenues.
I saw a short thread about Jesus Mendoza that I think was in the Mexicans Abroad forum, and there were references to Jesus Mendoza as a guy with "9 lives" - I think the implication being that he keeps popping up when you think is career is over? His last 3 three years in Mexican football were with San Luis. I couldn't find any stats for him for those 3 years. But appears that he was productive at one time for Chivas, around 1999-2000. But that's quite a while ago.
In terms of getting some good Mexican or Central American players: I wouldn't worry too much at this point in the year. Historically, such players have often signed closer to the season opener. Last year, Blanco signed in March, and joined Chicago in July. When players such as Luis Hernandez or Carlos Hermasillo signed in years past, it was usually around May or so. Since the Mexican league season is underway now, it probably makes more sense for such players to stay with their respective teams, rather then playing in preseason games at PAL stadium. Similarly, when the Quakes signed Ronald Cerritos in '97, I believe the signing took place in March.