What usually happens in these "3rd world/developing" nations is that whatever can be produced locally is cheap (including food, clothes, a hot date on a Saturday night) but the imported - or sometimes importable - stuff is priced as it would be anywhere else across the globe. In other words,the date may be cheap, but if you want to treat her to a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, it'll cost you what it might cost you in the US (and sometimes more, depending on the import+consumption taxes). But having a beach front residence is probably very affordable.
According to twitter, Lee's been in Dallas for past few weeks. Looks like he wants to come back to MLS. It appears he's missed Binh Duong's last few games anyway, so I can't imagine he intends to return to Vietnam. Chivas, Philly and Houston are top 3 in the allocation order nowadays.
Nguyen tweets "its deff in the cards" when asked if he's coming back to MLS. Not sure which team would pick him up - Im guessing Chivas would pass, unless he's super cheap. I could see Houston, Toronto or Chicago all taking a chance on him though. Especially Toronto, given Lee's PSV training background. http://twitter.com/#!/leenguyen24
Well, if he falls to us, I'd welcome him to Columbus. Gaven, Rogers, and Ekpo are all out of contract next year. We could find ourselves missing some attacking midfield types all of a sudden.
Man he is an alright kid but this twitterspelling that he uses is ridiculous. I am an old fart now but is this how I should be expecting my 2 year old to be spelling like in a few years? Using Lee's style, I deff shuld be fraid.
Still no news from Nguyen, but according to this site he was the highest paid athlete in Vietnam last year with an $180,000 annual salary. MLS would probably offer him half that amount. Maybe. http://www.sportklub.info/vest.php?id=hamilton-najplaceniji-u-engleskoj
They'd offer less. A lot less. Would MLS even offer more than the league minimum? Maybe 45k if Nguyen's agent is really good at negotiations?
MLS roster freeze is today at 5 pm ET, so if Lee is going to come to MLS, the clock is ticking. EDIT: and agreed with the previous poster. He'll get a low offer, he has little leverage.
I'm not saying MLS will give him a huge offer, and I certainly haven't seen anything suggesting MLS teams or coaches are in hot pursuit. But, he's got plenty of leverage. A current high playing gig where you can tell your suitors either meet your demands or you'll walk is about the most leverage you can have. If he's happy playing in Vietnam and getting paid well, MLS has to lure him with a decent offer. If you're gonna low ball a guy already making big bucks you may as well not even enter negotiations. If he's burned his bridges in Vietnam and is desperate for a contract or just really, really wants to come back to the US to live, that's a different story. But, a guy already holding a contract paying him close to 200K a year has plenty of bargaining power.
What you are talking about isn't leverage. To have leverage you have to be wanted by the opposing entity. He's not wanted that bad by MLS.
Exactly. Now remember the bolded portion when I continue your quote. You say he has no real suitors, then say he has leverage because he has a high paying offer waiting for him that he can go back to if his non-existant suitors don't meet his demands. ---- Regardless, I'd be shocked if any MLS offer, real or potential, ever exceeded 60k.
http://twitter.com/#!/LeeNguyen24 Still not a whole lot of news. I wonder how realistic it is he will know something in the 'near future?'
Lee has just acquired Vietnamese passport. His agent said Lee could switch to Vietnam national team without any problem. How could it be possible? Isn't he captied to US?
He has played in friendlies which don't cap tie a player. He did play in the 2007 Copa America and IIRC there is an issue about whether or not it is a cap tying tournament.
i think the fact that we were guests to the tournament prevents it from cap-tying Nguyen. So between a friendly against China and being a guest to Copa, i am pretty sure that he's not tied to the US.
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2011/11/09/american-exports-nguyen-verge-signing-mls close to signing with MLS