Zidane to Fire? Amazingly, this is not a completely unsubstantiated internet rumour!

By: Tom | April 22nd, 2007

Zidane Honestly, I hate the transfer rumour mill and I hate relating unsubstantiated nonsense found on internet messageboards. But when AEG’s president and CEO Timothy Leiweke says the Fire are pursuing a “second international star” and the quote is from the New York Times (not that the Gray Lady has been too interested in veracity in recent years), it’s worth mentioning. Here are his words:

“We are working on a deal right now,” he says, before suggesting whom he is trying to snare. “There are only four players that move the needle: Ronaldo. Beckham. Zidane. Ronaldinho.”

We can presume Ronaldinho would not come to MLS – Ronaldo is more plausible. But really, this must be about Zidane, given AEG has been known to be negotiating with him, though many presumed he was headed to the Galaxy in some kind of Galacticos redux.
AEG, of course, own both the Galaxy and the Fire, but I’ve ignored blogging the possibility if Zidane coming to the Fire for a while since, as I said, I hate to feed the rumour mill.

The Fire did pursue Zidane aggressively earlier this year. Following the Blanco signing, I think it was assumed the Fire have their star for now, and were done. The Fire would have to trade for a second Designated Player spot from another team to accommodate Zidane’s salary demands, which would cost them a good player and a lot of money (though they’ve already made back the Beckham investment, which might have encouraged them further to pursue a second superstar). On balance, it still seems a touch unlikely.

Yet there would be a logic to it. The Fire have just invested a lot of money in Blanco and have ensured thousands of Mexican soccer fans will be at Toyota Park this year. Blanco does not have much appeal to non-Hispanic fans: indeed, his signing might even be counter-productive for some fans, given the hatred he attracts amongst U.S. national team supporters. My sense is the Fire need an extra fillip to give the team a buzz for people who are not Blanco fans, and cash in on the enthusiasm his fans will bring to the stadium.

Imagine, then, a team with Blanco and Zidane on it. Every game would be sold-out, and audiences around the world would see a raucous Fire stadium atmosphere composed of lively Club America fans, enthusiastic European soccer fans, Section 8 going nuts, and the plain curious general sports fan. The Fire would make a real impression in the national and local media, on Sportscenter, in the Hispanic media, and around water-coolers across the city. Almost everyone has heard of Zidane: Leiweke is quite correct in that he’s one of a handful of soccer stars known to the casual sports fan in the United States.

And good god, let’s not forget the footballing possibilities. Take two of America’s best young forwards, both blessed with creative ball skills (Mapp and Rolfe) and play them alongside the best Mexican playmaker of the past decade and the best playmaker of the past decade from any country – it would be a great spectacle, and a potentially brilliant carwreck (Zidane headbutting Blanco after one of his bunnyhops, anyone?).

I am almost too dizzy to type thinking of watching that combination week in, week out. And like Blanco, Zidane’s skills aren’t the kind that atrophy rapidly with age. Only this morning, I randomly watched half an hour of Brazil-France from last year’s World Cup – if the orchestrator of that game, Monsieur Zinedine Zidane, were to grace a Fire uniform mere yards from me I might well become the first case of spontaneous human combustion at an MLS game.

Note: Hat-tip to I PINCH! at Bigsoccer for finding this nugget in the NYT originally.