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MLS Ticker: Negotiations ongoing with Robinho; Nguyen suspended; and more

RobinhoACMilan1-Livorno2014 (Getty)

By DAN KARELL

Kaka may very well have a Brazilian Designated Player to team up with next year for Orlando City SC.

AC Milan forward Robinho has been the subject of plenty of transfer speculation recently and a number of reports in Italy believe his next destination is in MLS with Orlando. At a press conference on Friday, AC Milan CEO Adriano Galliani said that negotiations are underway with Orlando City but Robinho is still a Milan player for now.

“Robinho wants to go to MLS,” Galliani said. “The negotiations with Orlando have begun. They want Robinho, but we’re not close to concluding the deal. The relationship (we have) with Robinho remains excellent though and it is just one of the many negotiations that are ongoing.”

Since moving abroad to Real Madrid in 2005, Robinho has never quite lived up to the superstar expectations, though he’s managed to make a solid career for himself in Europe. In four seasons with Milan, he’s scored 25 Serie A goals, but has only scored five in the past two seasons, playing a spot-starting role.

If the 30-year-old Santos product did sign with Orlando, he’d likely spend the fall months on loan with another club, similar to Kaka, before returning when Orlando begin preparing for their inaugural MLS campaign.

Here are some more stories from around MLS:

NGUYEN SUSPENDED FOR STAMP ON RSL’S STERTZER

The New England Revolution will be without arguably their best player so far this season when they take on the Chicago Fire on Saturday.

The MLS Disciplinary Committee handed down a one-match suspension and fine to Revolution midfielder Lee Nguyen for “endangering the safety of an opponent and bringing the game into disrepute.” Nguyen stepped on the back of Real Salt Lake midfielder John Stertzer while the latter was on the ground in the 57th minute of RSL’s 2-1 victory on July 4.

Nguyen was not shown a card when the incident occurred during the match. You can watch the incident here.

GALAXY END LOAN DEAL WITH SAMUEL

The Los Angeles Galaxy have decided to end their loan agreement with Samuel, sending the Brazilian forward back to Fluminense ahead of the resumption of the Brazilian league season.

Samuel was acquired prior to the start of the 2014 MLS season but only made 12 appearances in all competitions, including four starts in MLS. He scored once for the Galaxy, in their 1-0 victory against Club Tijuana, though the Galaxy were knocked out on goal differential.

The departure of Samuel opens up an international spot for the Galaxy to use and gives Rob Friend a chance to permanently win the starting job alongside Robbie Keane.

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What do you think of these reports? Do you see Robinho moving to Orlando City for next season? Agree with the Nguyen suspension? What did you think of Samuel’s time in LA?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Opinion:

    Get Robinho and Kaka signed, put them on loan with Chivas USA for the rest of the season and get the star power in MLS today.

    Chivas will be “something else” next season, so it shouldn’t matter if the first time we see them is with Chivas, as there will be no Chivas to point to next year.

    Reply
  2. By the way, did Lebron just did a soccer move. For sure he watch the World Cup and started crying for Cleveland because of the soccer passion and heart. I would bet my savings that the World Cup made him select Cleveland, he wants to be a messi in Cleveland and he knows it.
    I’m pretty sure, any person who watch the World Cup and saw Brazil sing their anthem or the argentines chant and jump in their seats, have change their sport life.
    Lebron in 10 years, I was sitting down at my Cleveland house watching the World Cup, and it hit me there, and I had to come back home. Watching messi, neymar, Rooney, Howard, I told myself I will bring that to Cleveland.

    Reply
      • Yes, Lebron, Kobe, Nash, tony Parker, garnet, gasol, ginoboli, Minnesotas spaniard dude, play with a soccer heart. They like soccer and know what soccer is and Lebron for sure saw those fans crying, the USA fans chanting, the brazilians crying, neymar video toward the fans.
        Say what you want, but World Cup Brazil helped Cleveland get Lebron back.

      • OK sure… that and…. the fact that he sees the writing on the wall: that Miami needs a complete overhaul with no bench, a broken down Wade, declining Bosh and little room to improve and give him a max deal. While CLE can max him out, has young underpaid talent/ 3 straight first picks on the roster giving heaps of cap space. Not to mention he gets to run the team and look like the returning hometown hero come to save the day. While it’s a nice heartwarming story for the sentimental, make no mistake, it is a highly calculated move based on his options, his brand, his legacy and his pocketbook.

      • Talk about vanity….counldn’t LeBron have kept his silly decision until after the World Cup? James and his large ego are now hogging all media coverage

  3. Wow, I wonder what ronaldinho is thinking right now. I wonder why galaxy don’t get ronaldinho by selling Gonzalez to a European team now. If Gonzalez doesn’t leave MLS by January of next year, he will be stuck in galaxy as a DP and to me that’s a fail for galaxy and Gonzalez.
    Also, red bull have tons of money and Henry is getting older, Cahill needs help and maybe ronaldinho can go to red bull.
    Ronaldinho would only go to Miami, LA and NY, so what is galaxy and red bull waiting for.
    Another big fact, there is no number 10 in MLS, a creative 10 and MLS desperately needs a desperately number 10.
    There is sneijder, ronaldinho, Xavi, open for MLS is money is thrown at them and those are creative soccer players that MLS need.

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    • As a RBNY fan, I certainly don’t want Ronaldinho. Incredible player in his day but I’d rather RBNY sign a younger player, and preferably a defender, rather than pull some publicity stunt by signing a dinosaur.

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      • Xavi is another publicity stunt dinosaur. Sneijder would be good but I think he wants to continue in Europe a bit longer.

      • As a Galaxy fan, I very much agree about Ronaldinho. The prospect was exciting when first spoken of 3 years ago, but that ship has sailed. I disagree about Xavi though. His level has decreased to where he is no longer a standout at the apex of the sport/within the top 5 clubs in the world, but he certainly has 2-3 years of being a top shelf creator in MLS in him and I’d be happy to see him in our league.

      • I agree ship has sailed on Ronaldinho; he should have come 2 – 3 yrs ago when LAG offerred $10 M or whatever and he didn’t want anything less.

        That was a big, big miss by MLS.

      • Ronaldinho can still play, if he comes to MLS, he will respect the league and even loose weight. Brazil should have taken kaka and ronaldinho to the World Cup.
        So what’s the difference with ronaldinho and Donovan?
        Same age right?
        Ronaldinho would be even bigger now, since MLS is bigger now and MLS would benefit more than before. All those fans who watch the World Cup, would go crazy for ronaldinho.

      • Declines often come pretty quick. I doubt Xavi will stick around more than another 12-18 months. No reason that last payday has to be in MLS. DP spots can be more wisely utilized.

      • I highly doubt that he’d play more than 2 years as well. but…. although losing a step hurts at the very very top level, Xavi isn’t a player that ever heavily relied on physical prowess to begin with. His mind being 3 steps ahead, he’d have no problem excelling in MLS or any number of leagues/teams below Barcelona’s scope whatsoever.

    • ” I wonder what ronaldinho is thinking right now”

      Maybe he is thinking he’s glad he was not selected for the World Cup team.

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    • Ronaldinho won back-to-back World Player of the Year awards – a decade ago. It’s been five years since he’s looked like a top player. He is not what MLS needs to move forward.

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  4. I expected NYCFC to have all this BuZZ not Orlando!! But i hope they don’t for get to capable defenders & Tim Howard.

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    • If they get Howard i would hope it wouldnt be a DP, which then i see it unlikely for him to come. Plus im not a fan of using goalies as DPs

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  5. Orlando would pack that stadium. Disney, outlet shopping, and take in a game with Kaka and Robinho? Brazilian travel agents phones are starting to buzz already.

    Reply
    • I think they’ll be able to do well. However, teams succeed because of season ticket holders and other local fans. They don’t want to have to depend on tourists, even in a tourist haven like Orlando… or Las Vegas.

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      • Season ticket holders are great, but the real money in big time sports is in TV contracts. For example, the LA Lakers get in the neighborhood of 200 million a year from Time/Warner. The LA Angels started their spending spree as a result of a 150 million a year TV contract. The gap between these numbers and what our soccer league is getting is enormous. Single teams in other sports are out earning the entire league by a large margin. When MLS can start talking in these terms, we’ll get somewhere. The day soccer fans in this country support/tune into their own league we can maybe even start thinking about it as a remote possibility. For those who bemoan the inconsistency between how small market expansion teams are courted vs NY and Miami…. this is why. The potential reward/return in TV dollars to the league isn’t comparable.

      • I wonder, does the fact that MLS operates as a single entity hinder the negotiations of such TV contracts? I imagine that Seattle and Portland could drum up decent ratings with their fanbases.

  6. Wait Rob Friend is “foreign” MLS is a bi-national league, I did not think that Canadians counted as foreigners? Is Bradley a foreigner on Toronto? It seems kind of silly.

    Reply
      • No, US law is the one doing the screwing. MLS is bound by the same laws as every company here.

      • MLB teams operate with mostly American players. Also, the majority of foreign players are Dominican, Venezuelan, Mexican, Japanese, and Puerto Rican, not “Central Americans” though there are a handful of Nicaraguans, Panamanians etc.

        Still I don’t see why having a roster full of Canadians would violate any US employment laws.

      • I’m not positive but I believe the law states that you can give preference to Americans but you can’t give preference to potential employees specifically for being a citizen of a different country.

      • You can’t give preference to us citizens over a foreign citizen with a green card. Unless there’s some sort of national security issue, of course.

  7. Get Wesley Scneijder! If we are going to spend money for big name Europeans why not get a guy that is creative, not totally over the hill and speaks perfect English. I also think he has a smart soccer brain and would make the guys around him better. Just a thought.

    Reply
    • Scneijder still wants to play Champions league and has that opportunity. Robihnio doesn’t have that opportunity and probably would enjoy being in a place where he is just recognized as a good player instead of a disappointment.

      I think it’s a good strategy for MLS to bring in a lot of recognizeable foreign talent in that 30-34 range. These guys can still play on a very high level (mid to europa level teams in top leagues) so they raise the level and quality of play for MLS, have some star power, and give good peoiple for younger american and concacaf players to learn from.

      MLS long term goal should be to continue to develop the academies and be a league that sells young talent abroad to subsidize the purchase of older talent to keep the level of the legue high enough to keep selling the young talent. If MLS ever crosses over into the US mainstream sports culture (soccer is probably just about there but it’s focused internationally and not on the domestic league) then the whole model and goals for the league should changes as MLS will quickly become one of the most wealthy soccer leagues in the world.

      Reply
      • Agree completely,
        I think it great bringing these guys in who maybe are a little past being able to play for a Champions league contender, but just one level below that. Look at Jermaine Defoe, Robbie Keen, Henry, It brings the Technical level of the league up even if those guys have lost a step vs the absolute best players on the worlds best teams.

        I think MLS could go to 4 DPs at this point with the interest that has been generated recently.

      • Being a selling league is just not ambitious enough. If the league can just fix the TV ratings problem, some of which I think stems from being on weird channels at weird times, MLS can start getting some serious money for TV rights. Once that happens, MLS will absolutely be in a position to challenge top European leagues for talent.

      • “If only they can fix the TV rating problem.” You make this sound like they are just missing one little piece and then this league takes off. We are a decade away from this problem being fixed. Sit down. Standing for that long will wear you out.

      • +1
        Yeah, all MLS has to do is raise TV ratings. Piece of cake. Why didn’t they think about it sooner?

      • That’s cute but I don’t mean they need huge ratings, just not have them be pathetic. I think a lot of that can be solved with better channels and scheduling, as I mentioned in my letter. Thanks for your self-satisfied and snarky responses. Too bad you don’t have something better to do with your time.

      • Depends what you mean by “takes off.” Compared to what this league was say ten years ago (ten teams, the league paying to have its games shown on TV, etc.), it’s already “taken off” beyond what most people thought was realistic.

    • Get him too. That would be your 3 DP’s. I thought Sneijder was going to be in MLS two years ago.

      MLS needs to capitalize on all the available players by raising the DP level to 4 and not let American players count as DP’s (donovan, gonzo, dempsey)

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      • I agree with upping the number of DP’s but why can’t US players be DP’s? That makes no sense to me.

      • I think he means they wouldn’t count toward the DP maximum, but would still be given the salary cap exemption? Maybe.
        Maybe they could have a special salary cap number for USMNT players, plus international DP’s.

      • How about this? Three “open DP” slots to use on any human on the planet. Two “domestic DP” slots to use only on US or Canadian citizens. So, theoretically, there could be 5 American DPs on any given team someday…granted, way in the future…but in the meantime we can have 5 where only 2 have to be from North America. That’s what I plan to do once Don finally gives me the keys to MLS 🙂 C’mon Uncle Don!!

      • Brilliant, that way we can keep our rising stars like Gonzales and still allow teams like LA to go get the Star power that brings in the crowds.

      • The Australian League has something setup like this. modeled off of MLS, but gives a slot to spend a lot on an Aussie. I like it.

      • I would prefer we up the DP’s to 5 and take their salaries OFF THE BOOKS all together. That would leave the 3.1 Salary cap to cover the remainder of the 30 Man 1st team roster. That would allow for a significant raise to more than a few players.

        If you took the DP’s off the books you could lock the cap at 3.25 for a couple of years w/o hurting players who need a raise and keeping a bit more developing talent from bolting to Europe.

      • Well, it’s illegal, that’s strike against it. Under us labor law (gosh, I feel like I write this post weekly sometimes) you cannot discriminate on the basis of nationality. (This is why Canadian players count as foreign slots in the us, but us players don’t in canada) you can discriminate between ‘needs a work visa’ and ‘doesn’t need a work visa’ but not otherwise. This is why players with green cards don’t count as foreign players, no matter what their citizenship may be.

      • I agree with this.

        I think also Homegrown signings should not count to the cap, this will increase the initiative to play HG’s, and be bale to negotiate a contract that is feasible the organization and the player.

        For example, I’m sure Yedlin would stay in Seattle, but one of the main things that will sway any players mind is the money they are offered.

        This way the best young NA talent stays in the league.

      • I prefer homegrown over DPs to be honest.

        1. It’s cheaper.

        2. Increased Incentive to develop your own players.

    • he still has a year on his contract with Gala and the buyout clause is $20M or 20M Euros, can’t remember. Manchester United are linked with him and Gala don’t seem to be interested in just releasing him. i think he’ll end up in MLS, but given his contract situation, probably not yet.

      Reply

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