Marcelo Salas to join the Fire? – Update
By: Tom | May 29th, 2007Update: Luis blog reveals the news – “According to the Fire, Chilean striker Marcelo Salas will begin training with the Fire Wednesday. While Salas has yet to sign a contract with the Fire, I’m told “it’s a good possibility” he will be signed.”
You all know how much I love rumours. So I only report them when they’re particularly juicy and have some kind of source. It’s particularly good if the source is in another language, since then I can claim all kinds of misunderstandings about the credibility of the source and meaning of the article.
Anyway, from el mercurio online:
Marcelo Salas viajó con pasajes y todos los demás gastos pagados, en una nueva demostración de los esfuerzos que el Chicago Fire está haciendo para formar una escuadra competitiva. La escuadra roja ya fichó al delantero mexicano del América Cuauhtemoc Blanco.
Unfortunately my Russian is better than my Spanish (I kid you not). Here’s the obligatory Babelfish gibberish:
Marcelo Rooms traveled with passages and all the other paid expenses, in a new demonstration of the efforts that the Chicago Fire is making to form a competitive square. The red square already fichó to the Mexican forward of America White Cuauhtemoc.
So, yeah. I like the “red square” name for the Fire. Beats “The Men In Red”, anyway. Well, there you go. Nothing like unsubstantiated internet rumours. I do know Salas was released by his team in Chile, which means that (a) he is available; and (b) he’s probably not in very good shape or very good anymore. On the other hand, the Fire could use some…firepower.
Thanks to Bob Morocco at the Section 8 messageboard for the original find. He also linked the below video, which does excite me just a bit about this possibility.
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Marcelo Salas viajó con pasajes y todos los demás gastos pagados, en una nueva demostración de los esfuerzos que el Chicago Fire está haciendo para formar una escuadra competitiva. La escuadra roja ya fichó al delantero mexicano del América Cuauhtemoc Blanco.
My translation (which is, in my opinion, more idiomatic, though I’m keeping out “Men in Red,” as you wouldn’t like it in there):
Marcelo Salas traveled all expenses paid in another example of how the Chicago Fire are attempting to put together a competitive side. The red squad has already signed the Mexican forward from Club America, Cuautemoc Blanco.Posted from
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Thanks for that, Fuegofan. Hopefully Salas will bring the goods if he’s getting all expenses paid!
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He scored 35 goals in 68 games for Chile. At one time he was a stud. It will be interesting to see if he has any game left in his body.
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His record is certainly impressive. I’ll have a post later on his history, and recent release – seems it was more to do with the troubles of his team financially than his form.
I wonder how much he’s asking for.
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great another washed up player to make their way to the MLS. Keep them coming, before we know it, the league requirements are going to be that you are at least 30 years old and at the end of your career.
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Well, they are younger than the last crop of int’l player to come to Chicago.
Hristo and Nowak were further along in their 30s than Blanco and Salas.
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Who are all these washed up players you’d rather not see in MLS, David? Beckham – starring for Real Madrid and recalled to England? Blanco – led America to the Clausura final and the Copa Libertadores semis? Angel, dominating MLS?
Salas might not be in their class anymore, but I’ve got to think he’ll have more of a clue of what to do with the ball around the penalty area than Chad ‘Excuse me while I try to run directly through two defenders bodies’ Barrett.
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I see no point in waisting money on players that are in the twilight of the career, when we can’t even support our own players. The majority of players in the MLS are making horrible wages that are not indicative of their playing potential. Further, why spend so much money on these “stars,” rather then thinking about the youth systems which will provide more future talent and thus long term stability.
All of the players that have been brought in are just short term remedies. What is going to happen when these guys retire in three years? I would rather have seen an MLS team try to go after Nani and compete with ManU for one of the top talents in the world.
If this continues, we are going to only be seen as a retirement league or place where older players come to scrape up their broken careers.
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If an MLS team signed Nani, they’d be bankrupted. I understand where you’re coming from, but MLS also need to sell tickets and improve the level of play in general right now. And individual teams want to win games. Investing in Blanco or Beckham makes sense in all those areas. They pretty much pay for themselves due to the wonders of modern marketing and commerce.
Older players than Salas or whoever else you’re referring too long ago used MLS as a retirement home, the current generation at least seems younger to me.
It would be a shame if the likes of Carr or Barrett never got a chance due to older players blocking them, for sure. But the fact is, the Fire need an established attacker right now to actually win a game, which at the end of the day is the aim of playing, and if Salas can help I’m all for it.
The Fire’s current crop of young forwards have been too injured or too ineffective and I can’t blame Fire management for making a move to address that.
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I see where you are coming from also and I understand about the necessity of getting players so that we can fill the stands. But at the same time, I see this as only being a quick fix. Beckham will only be around for the next 3 years, so what is going to happen after that? Maybe I would be a little more supportive of these moves if the MLS projected an exit plan, or at least what they are planning on doing once these players retire. At the moment, it is great and all that the MLS is picking these players up, but I have seen no great spike in attendance or more coverage in the media. The only thing I have seen is a decline in MLS soccer and a constant media frenzy over Posh Spice and her husband. This is some media exposure, but not the type of exposure I think the league really wants.
I know, I am becoming negative again, but I am also trying to look at the reality of the situation. OK, so maybe Nani was not the best of examples. What about Cam Weaver? Why the heck didn’t the MLS throw everything at him so that he would stay here, instead of going to the Netherlands? I would rather have seen Cam Weaver playing for an MLS team than Becks or Blanco. Weaver would have been a better fit for the MLS, as he has tremendous amount of potential. Understandably, he is not a ticket draw, but he sure is player the MLS could have used.
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I agree with David…I think that Beckham and Blanco, while great for the league, not so great for the respective clubs they belong to. I would also had advocated the spending of less money for younger less known players with more potential, and with THAT being said, let’s get some SERIOUS momentum behind the get-Andy-Herron-the-HELL-back-from-Ohio Movement!!!! Think about it, good proven player, won’t cost us a DP spot, and knows the team he’d be playing with. Also, what exactly do we plan on doing with all of these strikers? We’ve been playing two a game, and if I counted right we’ll have six by the time Blanco shows up?
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Will respond in more detail later to David and Guiseppe, have to take care of academic business right now.
But just wanted to say, in terms of having six strikers, it’s at least more fun than having six defensive-mids.
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Hey, if they can actually put it in the net, we’ll take some of your excess strikers off your hands!!
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Article and photos of Salas in Hoy today. The man definitely has some miles on him. Funny to see that his nickname is “El Matador.” Hope he does better for us than an identically nicknamed man did for LAG.
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I think I have solved our striker problem….Giuseppe “Beppo” Signori, Italian international…let’s see, he’s 39 years old a year older then Paolo Maldini-who still kicks ass, and i’d say due to his age we can actually get what we pay for for once…but this guy was once the Italian leading goal scorer for Serie A, and wants to play about 5 or 6 more months before retiring….so how do we get him over here?
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Hello, im Chilean and thought i might share some of my knowledge of Salas. He is by far one of the best players i have seen, scoring amazing goals (against Italy in ‘98 world cup and England in Wembley) and being one of the most complete strikers we have produced in a long time.
He is about 30-31 years old, even though this could not be a problem with some players his carrer has been full of injuries, though he is now fully recovered from them, but as always injuries never go away completely.
He wasn´t released by his former team Universidad de Chile, he left because the team went bankrupt and they couldn´t pay his salary anymore, and is now more of a businessman than a football player. But the talent never goes away. When he was fast enough he used to play as a striker, but right now he is playing better as a second striker or “mediapunta”. (the position Zidane played in the world cup). If he doesn´t join your team he will surely be back here because his former team want´s him back, and he has several offers from other leagues, such as the Argentinean.
I say he still has one more year from good football to offer, and right now his function is more of a ball deliverer (could feed Blanco). If your teams signs him you will be getting a real quality player, and i think he might adapt extremely well to your league.
Cheers
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Diego, thanks for giving us the Chilean take. Sounds like it would be interesting if he played with Blanco, as he’s also lost a bit of pace and seems to like dropping deep and feeding the ball too.
Not sure how that’d work out, but I’m not too upset about the prospect of a pair of world-class forwards suiting up for the Fire, even if a bit past their prime.
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