Thursday, January 29, 2009

Refuerzos mexicanos?

Chivas USA has one Mexican-born player on their roster and he's on the wrong side of 40. But that may not necessarily mean the club will begin the season with only Claudio Suarez the only player that calls Mexico home.

In camp - but not on the preseason roster because why bother putting that info out there? - is Salvador Sanchez, who has plied his trade in the Primera A Division. Sanchez, 24, has spent parts of six seasons in Mexico's second division. He started with Alacranes de Durango and spent two seasons with Santos Laguna's Primera A affiliate. His best season was the 2008 Clausura, when he played 1,031 minutes over 13 games and had one goal. He played as a defender with Santos and is just under six feet tall so he could add some depth to the backline.

It still remains to be seen whether Sanchez will catch Preki's eye. Given Preki's history with players from Mexico - Jorge Barrera, Roberto Nurse come to mind - Sanchez has his work cut out for him.

With regards to any possible players joining Chivas USA from the mothership, Mural reported that Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez and Jesus "Gringo" Padilla are still being mentioned as options for the club. According to Mural, Hernandez is open to joining Chivas USA because all he wants is to play but Padilla is not quite as enthused. Mural claims that Padilla is asking for the club to double his salary in order to joing Chivas USA. Not sure what he makes as a player for Tapatio but double his current salary probably would put him well over $100,000. Mexican soccer players get compensated well, even second-division guys that can't get any playing time with the first team like Padilla.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wasn't this the idea since 2005? Preki needs chill on his anti-Mexican stance.

Prejita Lopez, for example, could have been a force last year.

Anonymous said...

Parejita was very excited to be here last year while training and could have helped us a lot. It is very unfortunate that Preki didn't give him, or Nurse for that matter, an opportunity.


Michoacano