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Mexico’s Andres Guardado open to an MLS move

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A prominent Mexican international is open to making the jump across the Atlantic Ocean to MLS.

Andres Guardado, who has been linked with a move to Atlanta United and Los Angeles FC in the past, is still open to joining the league.

Guardado came very close to joining LAFC last summer, but chose to sign a deal with Real Betis in Spain instead. He talked about the possibility of a stateside move on “Six Dreams”, an Amazon Prime documentary focussing on him and five other La Liga players.

“I have it clear, if we qualify for Europe I stay one more year to play with Betis. If not, I would look at the option again and go to the United States. I already wanted to leave, they offered me a good contract and apart from everything I would be closer to Mexico, and after so many years and I said good, I’m leaving,” said Guardado on the show.

Guardado, 31, has won 150 caps with the Mexican National Team winning two Concacaf Gold Cups in his time with El Tri. Domestically, he has seen time with Atlas, Deportivo, Valencia, PSV and most recently Betis.

Comments

  1. “Guardado, 65, is looking forward to retirement but believes he could sneak in one MLS season before he does….”

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    • As much as Josef Martinez has shown signing young mediocre European players can be beneficial, Zlatan and Rooney have shown signing reasonably priced old men from Europe is also fruitful.

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      • Yes, Josef Martinez was so young and mediocre he also scored against Juve in the All-Star Game.

        Martinez wasn’t “mediocre”, he was miscast. In Europe – and with his national team – he always played under a target man, more as a 10…Tata saw him as a finisher, changed his game some, and converted him to an outright 9, and that’s when the goals started flooding in.

        The next time he goes to Europe, it won’t be as a 10…and it’ll be for a boatload more money and a much better team than he played for last time.

  2. dear don garber and mls board,

    are you listening?

    so maybe this player will say, “i only want to play in city x or for club x.” this is possible, yes?

    but please, no more back room coin flips (jermaine jones). there is a process for this situation (you created it). the allocation order. we must use it equally. for all mls teams. and for all incoming players (no matter how special they are).

    so like jermaine jones, like zlatan ibrahimovic, i “get” that mls, for many reasons, would probably LOVE to have this guy sign with the league, play in the league. you guys would probably be willing to move heaven and earth to do that.

    but what i’m saying is please don’t. there is a system already in place. the allocation order. please respect it.

    my two cents: the team at the top of the top of the allocation order should be compensated if they do not get this player. give that team cash and/or garber bucks. be fair. give that club fair compensation if they do not get this player.

    thank you for listening.

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    • my two extra cents: it’s REALLY important that you do this. because, obviously, nearly all of these incoming special players are going to say they only want to play in ny or la. you HAVE TO give the club at the top of the allocation order some garber bucks or something or else ny and la will get all the special players and clubs in smaller cities will lose out, time and time again.

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    • I agree. The “slaps” against the early version of the league were (a) promotion of superteams, (b) players getting to pick destinations, and (c) seemingly forced trades if a player didn’t want to be in a town. IMO the hard cap era that followed was the fairest, although it crimped style a little bit in terms of big name signings. If you’re going to bend rules to allow big name signings then at least enforce the spirit of the rules. Unlike some I have no interest in this turning into some Big Club xerox of England where less than a half dozen teams decide the title amongst themselves each year.

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    • Two Cents you are actually describing how the system does work. Guardado is not subject to allocation because he is not an American but he would go through the discovery process. Any team could list him as a discovery player (I’m sure he is on someone’s list right now, but the lists are kept secret from the public). If say Guardado doesn’t want to sign with Salt Lake the team that he does want to sign him must pay RSL TAM money (Garber bucks). Also, RSL has to be willing to make a reasonable offer in order to put Guardado on their discovery list, for example, if they say they would offer Guardado 750,000 a year MLS would reject their discovery bid because its way too low.

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    • Ha, ha.

      Guardado is a class player and should be welcome anywhere in MLS.

      Any Austin MLS team is so hypothetical that it’s hardly worth discussing. Note that Texas summer weather is so harsh that even Dallas and Houston cannot come anywhere close to filling their stadiums. Note also that Austin has proved unable to support even a USL team.

      There are many MLS opportunities outside of NY or LA. But that doesn’t mean they are ready to support top-class international players. Common sense should prevail.

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      • There will be a team in Austin because Garber wants there to be one. It doesn’t matter if it makes sense or not. I’m not sure Precourt has the kind of money to throw around to attract Guardado or not though. Likewise I don’t think many other MLS franchises do either. You are correct there are opportunities and clubs that could use him, but ones willing to pay what he would bring on the open market are few.

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