By CAITLIN MURRAY
The Colorado Rapids have added their second designated player in club history.
Argentinos Juniors midfielder Juan Ramirez will join the Rapids this season, pending his international transfer papers, the Rapids announced Friday.
“Juan is another important piece in our club’s long-term vision,” technical director Paul Bravo said in a statement. “We believe that this is the type of young, talented and attack-minded player that can develop into a real difference-maker for the club in the coming years.”
Ramirez, 21, comes stateside after three years with the Juniors, which play in Argentina’s first division. He has made 81 appearances for the club, tallying five career goals.
The Buenos Aires native has already joined the Rapids, having arrived to the club’s preseason training camp in Arizona earlier this month.
“Juan is very dynamic with a lot of attacking attributes,” said Rapids coach Pablo Mastroeni in a statement. “He looks to take players on and, with his change of pace, he’ll bring the type of attacking play that Vicente Sanchez has added to Colorado Rapids in recent seasons. He will give an instant spark to the group.”
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What do you think of this signing? Think Ramirez will be a difference-maker for the Rapids? How do you see him fitting in?
Share your thoughts below.
Rapids have quietly had a nice offseason, like the way they are building the squad.
Cautiously optimistic about them but a low playoff spot is possible.
All of you asking for a big name DP; id much rather teams have a full roster of quality players before dropping a world class player in the middle.
Andrewaw
February 21, 2015
I understand what you are all saying, but I disagree. I was very excited also to see Torres signed, and saw a lot of talent. I too think he is a “good player” but that is about all. he has scored a total of 6 goals in two seasons, numbers I would not call spectacular.
here is the issue I have with a DP. I see it in two different lights: 1 is to bring talent to a team, talent that is above the average talent in the league. yes there are some amazing players in MLS that are not DPs, but one of the original ideas behind this (Beckham) was to bring unusual talent to the league.
Equally as important is that a high profile big named DP puts butts in seats. The rapids ranked 17th in league attendance last year, behind only san jose and Chivas (who obviously don’t exist anymore).
As Expansion Geek stated, there is a difference. Is a big name signing guaranteed to bring victories? NO of course not, but a big name signing is much more likely to sell tickets, which is a component of a teams viability. The teams that are thriving and exciting to watch (in my opinion) like the galaxy, NYRB, sounders etc all have big names. There are teams certainly that are doing well without, but I think we are seeing a lot of disparity in money spent on DPs, and the teams that are not willing to spend bigger money are going to get left in the dust (again, my opinion).
I am a 6 year Rapids Season ticket holder, and I love my team, but just want an improved product is all.
Sometimes we can not look the other way and have tunnel vision. In my world, everything connects, art to politics.
In this case, soccer fans in the US have gotten smarter and more sophisticated, in way that MLS fans have catch up to Garber and the team owners.
Do galaxy, sounders, fans hate their owner, no. Those teams have gone for Beckham DPs and don’t look bad and do magic for their fans. ( Toronto has jump their wagon too)
Look at the other 17 teams, their owner doesn’t care or doesn’t know about soccer obviously and they don’t cater to their fans.
With all respect, for those who said, drogba or a beckhamDP won’t come to Houston or Philly or San Jose, I think they are wrong.
The DP will live in a mansion in the nice part of the city, not the bad side, RIGHT.
Of course LA , NYC, Chicago, Miami, Seattle will have an advantage since they are well known cities around the world, but if I was messi, I wouldn’t care if would go to Dallas or Denver ,as long as they give the money I want. MLS teams don’t do good marketing on their city, and MLS has plenty of cities to offer which are better than the ones in Mexico, Germany, Spain but MLS owners suck at advertising their market.
If I was Columbus crew owner, I would first make a new stadium but I would bring in dps and give them a tour of the city, the suburbs, the nfl-nba-mlb team arena or stadium, where they would live and specially a tour of the charter schools and universities.
What’s so difficult about that? Cater to them and advertise your city like never before.
I hear ya, and am glad that you are a loyal Rapids supporter — I wish badly that there were a team close enough to watch live on a regular basis. It seems like Colorado could use more fans like yourself. The only point I was making is that I think this signing does make your team better. It’s not a huge name, but it is a positive addition. Good luck to your ‘pids.
In respect the teams who use their DP spots and money, but reality is that there is a difference with signing a DPbeckham to a DP-who just came to MLS to make it if not, he will go back to South America or ligaMX.
By saying that, I would love MLS teams to pursue those big dps first and try hard,not just say we tried and he didn’t want to come.
Look at drogba, Forlan, ronaldinho when they were younger, they could of come 3 years ago but galaxy and sounders can’t do it all.
Even red bull has become cheap and the only teams who go after big dps are galaxy and sounders and some are trying for the first time.
Look at sounders,they failed with their no name dps and learned the hard way, now they have Dempsey, martins.
MLS team owners need to try hard and not use their DP spot just for the fun. What’s even worse, let’s say this DP that rapids got is very talented, but he will dislike his teammates or the coach since they are below average compared to his other teams, and he will leave to ligaMX.
Yup, just like Diego Valeri and Javier Morales left.. Wait… they didn’t? There goes that argument.
As a Rapids fan, I am excited. In denver, we are not about the big names, we are about putting the most effective team together.
Love this kind of signing. It’s fantastic that the league is increasingly seen as an option for young, talented players
As a rapids supporter I must say “who”?? Our first DP Torres has hardly lit the league on fire. Kroenke seems to out not refuse to spend real money at this team. With attendance numbers falling, this is not the ” big splash ” I feel is needed….
You would have said the same thing for Diego Valeri, Javier Morales, Fabian Castillo, Mauro Diaz, Pedro Morales, Boniek Garcia, Fredy Montero, the list goes on and on. Judging a signing by name recognition is a silly method of evaluation. Very few of us know much about the good up and coming Columbians, Argentinians, etc. Many players have come to this league without big names and become huge contributors. I have no idea about this guy, but 81 appearances for an Argentinian first division club before the age of 22 is a pretty good sign. Let’s judge this signing at the end of the year.
Gabi Torres is a really good player and now you are complaining about the addition of a 21 year old Argentine with three years of top flight experience just because you have never heard of him. wow…
I know right. You get a know aging star people complain. We get a young unknown could be star people complain. What people need to realize is that it takes both kinds of DPs to push this league.
I understand what you are all saying, but I disagree. I was very excited also to see Torres signed, and saw a lot of talent. I too think he is a “good player” but that is about all. he has scored a total of 6 goals in two seasons, numbers I would not call spectacular.
here is the issue I have with a DP. I see it in two different lights: 1 is to bring talent to a team, talent that is above the average talent in the league. yes there are some amazing players in MLS that are not DPs, but one of the original ideas behind this (Beckham) was to bring unusual talent to the league.
Equally as important is that a high profile big named DP puts butts in seats. The rapids ranked 17th in league attendance last year, behind only san jose and Chivas (who obviously don’t exist anymore).
As Expansion Geek stated, there is a difference. Is a big name signing guaranteed to bring victories? NO of course not, but a big name signing is much more likely to sell tickets, which is a component of a teams viability. The teams that are thriving and exciting to watch (in my opinion) like the galaxy, NYRB, sounders etc all have big names. There are teams certainly that are doing well without, but I think we are seeing a lot of disparity in money spent on DPs, and the teams that are not willing to spend bigger money are going to get left in the dust (again, my opinion).
I am a 6 year Rapids Season ticket holder, and I love my team, but just want an improved product is all.
All you need to do is look at the size of the contracts of these high profile DPs and what it actually takes to lure these guys here and you will understand why so few of these guys are signed. They make more money than the Rapids can possibly ever conceive of recouping. You’re basically asking the Rapids to flush all their money down the toilet. The Rapids don’t need a high profile DP, they need to make the playoffs and win some matches.
fundamentally you are right. I argue though that as the league’s higher profile teams spend more money on players, they are going to outshine the teams that won’t, like the rapids, and we will sadly not make the playoffs. Just like any other business model, you need to take risks and spend money to get big returns, right?
Depends on your situation. Some teams like RSL are in markets where they really need to be efficient and do a lot of buy low sell high type deals and develop guys whereas LA and NYCFC need to sign big names to compete against all the other things competing for the entertainment dollar. Other teams need to generally be financially responsible and build from within for a few years then spend some big money for a couple seasons in order to make a push for a title.
Seems like everyone is using multiple DP slots this season (except for NYRB – a complete reversal from the state of the league several years ago). That shows some real progress and should contribute greatly to the overall level of play. I wonder if they’ll add an extra DP in collective bargaining.