Henry has signed for the Red Bulls, and now it looks like fellow former Barcelona teammate and Mexican international Rafa Marquez will follow. That should help to bring the Mexican-American community in NY out to the matches, and Marquez is a talented player. It looks another good signing.
Ljungberg has moved from Seattle to Chicago where he will join Nery Castillo - a speedy Mexican attacker who is on loan from Shakhtar Donetsk. I don't know if this is important or not. It frees up space for Seattle to sign another big player to join Blaise N'Kufo, the Swiss forward brought in recently and the even newer signing, World Cup semifinalist Alvaro Fernandez
Portugal forward Nuno Gomes has been linked with the New England Revolution. And after signing Deportivo midfielder Julian de Guzman last year, Toronto have signed another Deportivo this year in the form of Mista. I don't know much about Guzman, but Mista's a capable player. He's tailed off from the high of scoring 24 goals in the 03-04 season for Valencia, but he still possesses the touch and vision necessary to compete at the highest level. It's a good bit of business for Toronto.
And then there are the MLS players maybe going to Europe. I already wrote about Andy Najar's potential trial spell at Arsenal which would be awesome, but after a couple of big performances in friendlies against English clubs, NY Red Bulls forward Macoumba Kandji is rumored to be attracting the attention of a number of European teams. He's 24 and in the process of gaining US citizenship so he can play for the Yanks internationally, so it would be great to see him go to Europe.
And of course, there is the never-ending Landon Donovan to England saga. The latest is that he has said he would be interested in a return to Everton. Thank Goodness. That would be an awesome place for him. We'll see if Don Garber's intelligent enough to let him go. He seems to be under the mistaken assumption that keeping Donovan in MLS is the best way to grow the sport in the US. A quick look at Park Ji-Sung's time at Manchester United should be enough to show that a second-tier nation having its best footballer playing with the best of the best is enough to create serious interest in the sport. Let's hope Garber finally realizes this and lets Donovan go to Everton.
All of this speaks to the fact that MLS is now in a position to attract players playing in the best leagues in Europe. Whereas a few years ago, MLS wasn't ever really involved in the transfer window, now at least every day there are foreign players linked with MLS clubs and MLS players linked with top tier clubs abroad. This is the clearest indication possible that the quality of player in MLS has increased significantly. And it's refreshing for American soccer fans to have some connection between the domestic league and the leagues we watch regularly.
And a quick word on Jozy Altidore. Soccernet says he's been linked with two English clubs, Ajax, and Fenebahce. I hope he doesn't go to Turkey. The football's not bad there, but it's off the map. I'd prefer he stayed in England (even at the Championship level) or another Western European league. Ajax might be good, but he would run the risk of not getting first team football there. Luis Suarez is still there, and with a few other decent attacking options, Altidore might not get much playing time. Of course, being at Ajax is a bit of a special situation because they have arguably the best training facilities in the world. Its youth academy is rivaled only by that of Barcelona in terms of the best in the world.
Stay tuned. There's still plenty of time left for some blockbuster deals to go down in this transfer window.
No comments:
Post a Comment