NEWSFLASH--Dipsy Selolwane acquired by RSL

[SoccerPrime]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/writers/grant_wahl/11/30/us.qualifying/

From the SI article:

Which foreign players is Real Salt Lake interested in signing, and what is the Clint Mathis situation?
-- Sean Anguiano, Salt Lake City, Utah

The only player currently counting toward RSL's limit of four senior international players is Dipsy Selolwane, the Botswana forward who was acquired in a trade with Chicago this week. (Selolwane, who had two goals and five starts for the Fire last season, surprisingly is tied for the goal-scoring lead in African World Cup qualifying with five.) Other RSL players such as Costa Ricans Pablo Brenes and Erick Scott (youth internationals) and Jamaican Andy Williams (green card) don't count against the league's four-foreigner limit. My sources in Salt Lake tell me that their remaining international signings will likely have a CONCACAF flavor, though there's a chance they might go for an eastern European player in the tradition of expansion Chicago signing Peter Nowak, Lubos Kubik and Roman Kosecki in 1998.

RSL's pursuit of Mathis is still up in the air. Mathis' German rep met with Bundesliga teams this week to discuss a possible transfer from his current club, Hannover 96, but it's still possible that the talented American will return to MLS. If he does (and I'd say the chances are 50/50), expect him to go to Salt Lake, not to San Jose as the allocation for Donovan. RSL clearly wants Mathis (and has one of the first two allocation picks along with Chivas), so the only way the Quakes would get him is through a trade.

[SoccerPrime]

Let me add Dipsy's MLSnet bio
http://chicago.fire.mlsnet.com/MLS/players/bio.jsp?team=chf&player=selolwane_d&playerId=sel474619

[clarette]

*insert bad joke about a Chicago "fire sale" here*

Did they happen to mention exactly what this trade entails?

[SoccerPrime]

Supposedly, MLS, RSL and Fire will announce details later today.

Probably a Draft pick.

[Loyal1]

Wow!

I didn't get online today at all at work. I had about 45 minutes to kill before a gig this afternoon not far from RSL headquarters. I stopped by; they had invited me before so I took them up on it.

When I asked "what's new?" all I got was Stewart from Chivas.

Maybe the deal isn't finalized? (on my way to mlsnet etc to check)
Maybe I got stonewalled!

Pastorino did confirm however that I will not be an assistant coach.

[SoccerPrime]

Pastorino did confirm however that I will not be an assistant coach.

Tell me its not true!!!
I still haven't got anything more on Dipsy...

[SoccerPrime]

I did find this:
http://thefirealarm.matchnight.com/tfadefault.cfm?page=ARTICLE&show=612

[Jim Umber]

So when are they going to tell us... now that the secret it out. Or is it all smoke & mirrors and they're actually playing a deeper game. Are they just getting him to trade on? Maybe they have something better lined up that we haven't heard about yet? Hmmmm.😉

[Jose Luis Luviano]

Originally Posted by SoccerPrime

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/writers/grant_wahl/11/30/us.qualifying/

(Selolwane, who had two goals and five starts for the Fire last season, surprisingly is tied for the goal-scoring lead in African World Cup qualifying with five.).

Maybe he'll turn into the Botswanan Eddie Lewis. (For a while, the only place where Lewis did anything was for his national team, but then he changed clubs & started doing better on the club level.)

Originally Posted by SoccerPrime

My sources in Salt Lake tell me that their remaining international signings will likely have a CONCACAF flavor, though there's a chance they might go for an eastern European player in the tradition of expansion Chicago signing Peter Nowak, Lubos Kubik and Roman Kosecki in 1998.
.

In theory, Ellinger has a hidden treasure trove of young CONCACAF studs who will work cheap that he found out about during Under 17 qualifiers.

Maybe we could land a Bosnian? There's a big Bosnian community here & I sure hope that MLS pays better than the Bosnian league.

[SoccerPrime]

In Wahl's article he indicated that RSL might go after Eastern Europeans for their TI/SI picks. Bosnia would match that.