Who’s NYCFC’s next Designated Player?
By John Tolis
After the departure of Frank Lampard, NYCFC has now one spot open for another Designated Player. Who will it be?
Typically the soccer world opens up the new year with the transfer window, it’s the best time for teams to make some wild signings. In the MLS, the off-season is about half way done, but there’s still some signings to be made.
For Patrick Vieira and NYCFC, they’ve made some acquisitions after the signings of goalkeeper Sean Johnson and striker Sean Okoli. While these are supposedly big signings, they’re non comparable to the future Designated Player signing that NYCFC will make.
With a DP spot open, all the big names are coming into the conversation. Iker Casillas, Fernando Torres, Bastian Schweinstager and many more, but all of those names seem very unlikely to join.
In my belief, NYCFC’s next Designated Player spot should go to a world class defender, a player willing to make the jump to this league. NYCFC has got the upper hand when it comes to attracting the best talent due to it’s financial and geographical situations.
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The one player that could make the move is currently playing for NYCFC’s sister club Manchester City, Yaya Toure. The 33-year old midfielder has been linked with NYCFC in the past and now it can be a real possibility. And even though he’s not a true central defender, I’m sure Vieira would not mind Toure anchoring his line.
After Pep Guardiola’s take over, Toure has fallen out of the pecking order with a total of 10 appearances, so for the idea of Toure coming over is not that crazy and would be a major boost for this club.
Another name that would seriously make NYCFC title contenders is Juventus’ lock defender Giorgio Chiellini. The 32-year old’s appearances have been dwindling down over the years, but for him to put on the bright blue is a mere fantasy.
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It would be nice to see Chiellini and Pirlo in action once again, but to persuade someone like Chiellini to move from Italy maybe the biggest challenge of all.
Even though the year just kicked-off, Vieira needs start thinking about the 2017 kick-off and taking care of this open DP spot should be his main priority.
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