According to a T&T website - http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_sports?id=161271197 Also according to Soccer365.com - http://www.soccer365.com/mls/story_30108181946.php
Also, the chances of us getting Lapira just increased. "The Dons look set to drop their interest in American striker Joseph Lapira, who has been on trial at Pittodrie."
Read the T&T story more closely: it's just a rewrite of the draft day press release and says he signed in the header but not in the body of the story. The other one is interesting; Scottish papers were reporting yesterday that he couldn't get clearance for a temporary work visa to play with the reserves, so the team won't see him in competitive action. Probably had something to do with it. I think he's off to Notts Forrest next and will do more Euro rounds before he takes the bare minimum we're probably offering, so don't get too excited. As someone pointed out yesterday, there's a U.S. player at Chareleroi who doesn't even play in the reserve starting lineup and makes $100G per year. So the salary issue will be a big one.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ I flew in to Aberdeen today and went down to AFC's pitch and football store. While I was buying something for my son I asked the clerk what was happening with Lapira. He mentioned that while Lapira was seen working out with the team it does not appear that he has been involved in any games, etc. The clerk who was a football / Aberdeen nut did not display any emotion concerning Lapira. I guess they have lots of depth and see payers like this fairly regularly. Anyhow, that 's my update from Aberdeen.
Some potentially good news on the Lapira front (although it might be best at this point if we all keep in mind that this is an untested college kid) is that Notts Forrest, where he's supposed to be headed for his next trial, is trying to sign Leon Best from Coventry, according to British media, so there might be no first-team room for him.
Kinda sucks that he'll only play for us after everything else fails hardcore. I wonder what his attitude will be like. Will he be bitter and sour?
Hopefully he'll try extra hard to prove to those clubs that they missed out. If we can get 1 or 2 seasons out of him, I will be happy with that pick.
Just an update: checked the rules and james is a generation adidas player, which means he has already signed with MLS before even being drafted, and doesn't count against the salary cap.
James isn't gen adidas, these guys are gen adidas: Player Pos. Age Hometown College/Club National Team Eric Avila M 20 San Diego, CA UC Santa Barbara US U-23 Tony Beltran D 20 Claremont, CA UCLA US U-20 Josh Lambo G 17 Middleton, WI Chicago Magic FC US U-17 Chance Myers D 20 Thousand Oaks, CA UCLA US U-23 Alex Nimo F 17 Portland, OR FC Portland US U-18 Patrick Nyarko F 22 Kumasi, Ghana Virginia Tech Ciaran O’Brien M 20 Tacoma, WA UC Santa Barbara Brek Shea M 17 College Station, TX Texans FC US U-18 Rob Valentino D 22 Cave Creek, AZ Univ. of South Florida US U-23