Henry (and his left hand) to NY Red Bulls confirmed

[Keano]

http://tsn.ca/soccer/story/?id=321843

The French are coming. The French are coming.

Citing two media reports, ESPN.com is reporting that French international Thierry Henry has signed to play with the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer.

The 32-year-old Henry is preparing to represent France at the upcoming FIFA World Cup in South Africa and reports indicate he would join the Red Bulls following the month-long tournament.

Henry, who wrapped up his season with Barcelona on Sunday, has one year remaining on his current contract in Spain.

[Unnamed Trialist]

Joan Oliver, Barça general manager, confirmed today that the club was in negotiation for a few players to leave, confirmed that Henry was one of them, and that the MLS rumours were not unfounded.

Considering what he makes at Barça, which is about 10 million euros before taxes, you have to wonder what the priority is for Barcelona: a transfer fee or getting rid of that salary load.

MLS cannot obviously pay that kind of money, which would correspond to the player for his last year.

Logical solution is for MLS to take on the whole salary load, understanding that half is a transfer fee and the other half the rest of the salary, and Henry settles to make half his Barça salary in MLS. Barça gets him off its hands.

So Henry would make around 6-7 million dollars a year in MLS, is that possible?. It is still about three times what he is worth as a player, he is a worse passer than almost all the Barça U-17s and has played frankly atrociously this year, no one will say freeloading but pretty damn close. Won't go any further since last year, 2009, when we won all six trophies in play, he had a pretty decent presence.

An aside: Raul is also rumoured to New York MLS. Because every world player who thinks about going to the US to play the game thinks they should go to New York, they know nothing else. No one ever wants to go to Kansas City, even the basketball players think the same, they want to go to a big city in a big market, and have no clue about what it means to play there or here. But the other teams also need to strengthen their sides, Vancouver included.

[Keano]

Joan Oliver, Barça general manager, confirmed today that the club was in negotiation for a few players to leave, confirmed that Henry was one of them, and that the MLS rumours were not unfounded.

Considering what he makes at Barça, which is about 10 million euros before taxes, you have to wonder what the priority is for Barcelona: a transfer fee or getting rid of that salary load.

MLS cannot obviously pay that kind of money, which would correspond to the player for his last year.

Logical solution is for MLS to take on the whole salary load, understanding that half is a transfer fee and the other half the rest of the salary, and Henry settles to make half his Barça salary in MLS. Barça gets him off its hands.

So Henry would make around 6-7 million dollars a year in MLS, is that possible?. It is still about three times what he is worth as a player, he is a worse passer than almost all the Barça U-17s and has played frankly atrociously this year, no one will say freeloading but pretty damn close. Won't go any further since last year, 2009, when we won all six trophies in play, he had a pretty decent presence.

An aside: Raul is also rumoured to New York MLS. Because every world player who thinks about going to the US to play the game thinks they should go to New York, they know nothing else. No one ever wants to go to Kansas City, even the basketball players think the same, they want to go to a big city in a big market, and have no clue about what it means to play there or here. But the other teams also need to strengthen their sides, Vancouver included.

off topic but hilarious username compadre.

[Cheeta]

http://tsn.ca/soccer/story/?id=321843

The French are coming. The French are coming.

Citing two media reports, ESPN.com is reporting that French international Thierry Henry has signed to play with the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer.

The 32-year-old Henry is preparing to represent France at the upcoming FIFA World Cup in South Africa and reports indicate he would join the Red Bulls following the month-long tournament.

Henry, who wrapped up his season with Barcelona on Sunday, has one year remaining on his current contract in Spain.

Massive news if true. The "if true" part is the qualifier to that statement.

I'd also like to say to my mind Thierry Henry is quiet an old 32. He may be in for a bit of a nasty surprise if he means to see the sunset of his career played in an athletic league like MLS.

Still, not many players with that type of name draw who'd be willing to join MLS at this point.

[Juby]

Because every world player who thinks about going to the US to play the game thinks they should go to New York, they know nothing else. No one ever wants to go to Kansas City, even the basketball players think the same, they want to go to a big city in a big market

that's what makes the columbus getting schletto so amazing, they have even less name power and they really did a good job with their club especially since it came with silverware (which is pretty much the be all and end all)

[Blue and White Army]

Interesting. MLS seems to quickly becoming the retirement league of choice. Look out, United Arab Emirates!

Have to wonder what sort of player Vancouver will get next year. You can bet they will want to start MLS straight away with a big-name player, and they certainly have the cash to attract journeymen mercenaries hoping for a nice little pension before fading off into the sunset. And it couldn't hurt that Vancouver hosted the Olympics earlier this year, in terms of city "brand name" recognition.

I keep hearing about Park Ji-Sung being a logical choice for Vancouver... he was absolutely crap yesterday against Ecuador, so the rumours might come true!

[tmcmurph]

Screw the big name players. Get 5 promising 20ish types from South America for half the price of one old has been and see which ones work out!

[Grizzly]

Screw the big name players. Get 5 promising 20ish types from South America for half the price of one old has been and see which ones work out!

That is the way to get a better level of play and my preference as well but unfortunately not as effective marketing. The Russian league has been doing this for a quite a while now and making good money selling them on later but with the low cost of tickets in Russia, ticket revenue isn't the money maker there that it is in MLS. Players like Henry and Beckham have a worth beyond what they contribute on the pitch. How many people were interested in LA Galaxy jerseys before Beckham played there?

[Daniel]

Screw the big name players. Get 5 promising 20ish types from South America for half the price of one old has been and see which ones work out!

You also have to deal with more problematic allocation and international roster spots when dealing with 5 foreign players.

[Blue and White Army]

Screw the big name players. Get 5 promising 20ish types from South America for half the price of one old has been and see which ones work out!

You would fit right in on the board of a J. League or K-League club.

[kyam]

And it couldn't hurt that Vancouver hosted the Olympics earlier this year, in terms of city "brand name" recognition.

At the risk of sounding cynical, the Winter Olympics does not have the same level of prestige as the Summer games outside of Canada, the United States, Scandanavia and Russia.

Just look at the type of cities that host the Summer games, major international cities like Beijing, London, Sydney... the Winter games have been hosted by mostly little known towns like Sochi, Lake Placid, Squaw Valley etc...

So I'm not sure the Winter GAmes in VanCity would do anything to attract star players. Steve Nash would probably do more than the city itself.

NYC and LA's international recognition goes beyond a few major sporting events. Its about those cities status in the media & hollywood. The glitz and glamour that big ego superstars look for.

[tmcmurph]

You would fit right in on the board of a J. League or K-League club.

MLS would do well to look at how successful teams in the j-league1 are. They get great turnout in the stands at their games. Average attendence 19,278.

I would rather watch Freddy Montero than Becks any day. Maybe it's just me but I love to watch the young talent make their mark.

[Unnamed Trialist]

At the risk of sounding cynical, the Winter Olympics does not have the same level of prestige as the Summer games outside of Canada, the United States, Scandanavia and Russia.

Just look at the type of cities that host the Summer games, major international cities like Beijing, London, Sydney... the Winter games have been hosted by mostly little known towns like Sochi, Lake Placid, Squaw Valley etc...

So I'm not sure the Winter GAmes in VanCity would do anything to attract star players. Steve Nash would probably do more than the city itself.

NYC and LA's international recognition goes beyond a few major sporting events. Its about those cities status in the media & hollywood. The glitz and glamour that big ego superstars look for.

I don't know where you think you get your information from, but you are totally mistaken. Everyone knows Vancouver, and after the Olympics even more, in Spain the recognition is almost total after the Games.

A player wants to go to a city that sounds familiar, could be attractive for family, with decent weather. They don't often think about the fact that MLS is a summer league, they are clued out. Their wives are thinking about certain things they won't get that are part of European life. But in the end they are helped along to understand that there are merits everywhere and maybe even a bit more peace in some less known cities.

[Vic]

Sorry if you're an Henry fan and it offends you (I used to be one of the biggest too - the guy had supernatural gifts) - but he's junk. Seen him live a couple of times in the last couple of years and the guy wrote the book on mailing it in.

4 goals and 2 assists in La Liga in 2010. Two assists for Barca? I think you could stand still on the field with Messi and have him use your corpse for wall passes and have more.

This is one of the classic scenes from the movie Major League:

Jake Taylor: What I was concerned with was why you didn't come up with that grounder that Rockert hit in the 9th.

Roger Dorn: It was out of my reach, what do you want me to do dive for it?

Jake Taylor: Rog, it could have meant the game!

Roger Dorn: oh come on cut the rah rah **** Taylor! Year after this I go free agent. Plus me and my agent got a couple of plans for life after baseball. So I am not about to risk major injury or displace this property for a collection of stiffs!

[earlimus]

From my experience Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal are all very well known and ... respected? as big international cities, at least in Europe. Calgary, Ottawa, etc.. not so much.

The MLS in particular however doesn´t have too much prestige, as one might expect.

Henry and his left hand.... classic.