After going back to his native England for three years, Simon Dawkins has returned to the San Jose Earthquakes as a Designated Player.
Dawkins was a part of the Earthquakes team that won the 2012 Supporters’ Shield, scoring 14 goals over his two-year tenure with the club. His spell in MLS has been the most successful time in his career.
“We’re delighted to welcome Simon back to San Jose,” said general manager John Doyle. “He has a tremendous amount of experience in England as well as internationally. Simon is also proven player in Major League Soccer and helped the club win the Supporters’ Shield in 2012. He will be a key part of our attack.”
The 28-year-old left winger, who represents Jamaica on the international level, returned to England in 2013 and featured for Aston Villa in the Premier League and Derby County in the Championship. In total, Dawkins made 78 senior team appearances over five seasons and four teams in the English game, scoring just seven goals in that time.
The move comes one week after the Earthquakes signed free agent forward Chad Barrett.
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What do you think of this DP signing for San Jose? Is Dawkins worth the money? Will he return to the peak form he saw in his last stint with the team?
Share your thoughts below.
All DP’s are not that highly paid. Based on his salary Perez Garcia was a DP in name only because he made $240k last season. Dawkins value is tba at this point, but he’s a known quantity to the club and was very good in the last half of 2012.
He also had some good spells with Derby a club has been on the verge of promotion (playoff in 12/13) while he was there. His lack of minutes with Derby now is down to a managerial change. He’s wide player with decent but not great speed which means that many managers don’t know how to us him. The other problem is that he picks up knocks.
See this is funny. You have a team adding a solid player who would cost more then your average mls player and you get people who complain. Then if you get a superstar aged player people complain. What do people want. We ate nor attracting superstars in their prime. And no Givinco and Giovanni don’t count. One was a bench player and the other a super star in his own mind.
I don’t think anyone complains about him being brought in. People (including me) complain about him being brought in as a DP. He might be overpaid in UK because almost everyone there is, but he is a squad player for Jamaica, not any more important to them than and not standing out among other MLS’ers such as Kemar Lawrence, Giles Barnes, Darren Mattocks, Je-Vaughn Watson. WHy is he getting paid that much by San Jose?!
I want to see MLS teams get good value for their money.
A guy who is essentially a championship wash out is not good value. What he did 3 years ago isn’t all the relevant… the league has evolved and he isn’t the same player.
I am not a San Jose fan
Agreed!
Good signing, he was an important part of the supporters shield run. If he’s playing at the same level he’s definitely worth DP money.
None of you remember how well he played for SJE 3 years ago?! Unless he has had an injury bring him back.
They already have the DP’s don’t they?- MPG, Wondo, Innocent. Does this mean one is leaving? Dawkins was good when he was here, just hurt a lot.
Championship wash-up is worth DP money?
Doesn’t seem like a good use of resources
Totally agree! The most underwhelming DP signing in a long time!