Didier Drogba has been linked with a move to Major League Soccer's Chicago Fire, but a new development may alter those plans. The Montreal Impact have put in a bid to the MLS League Office to transfer those discovery rights away from Chicago. According to Jeremy Filosa on Twitter(@j_filosa), if the bid is accepted, Montreal would owe the Fire $50,000 in allocation money for the rights.
Rumors have swirled for the last few days
Last week Canadian sports network TSN reported that the Chelsea legend was in talks with Montreal about a potential move to the Canadian side instead of Chicago. They noted that Chelsea arrived in Montreal on Friday for preseason training before heading back to England for the start of the Barclay's Premier League season. American fans of Chelsea should be well aware of the three preseason friendlies the defending Barclays Premier League champions have scheduled in the United States. They will face the New York Red Bulls of MLS before facing Ligue 1 winners Paris Saint-Germaine and La Liga winners Barcelona.
If Drogba somehow winds up in Montreal, the Impact will have found yet another aging striker from Europe that appears capable of making an immediate splash for the club. Marco Di Viao, recently retired from Montreal, was another older European star who enjoyed an Indian Summer with the Impact in MLS.
What makes this potential transfer difficult?
At this time, the procedures for the Impact to attain the Discovery Rights and even the legitimacy of the claim are in question. This situation has not occurred before in Major League Soccer. Since Chicago holds discovery rights, they get the first attempt at signing the Ivory Coast international. It makes sense that no other team could make an offer to Drogba until an agreement is officially off the table. However, if MLS follows the trend set with "free agents" when a viable offer is made, that player must return to the club or look outside MLS for employment. If the league follows this model, Drogba would have to accept the Fire's offer if he wishes to play in MLS. This seems like a bit of a harsh conclusion and against the best interests of the league.
What is the precedent, and how will it affect the outcome?
Given the precedents sets by the Designated Player Rule for the Los Angeles Galaxy to sign David Beckham and the new Target Allocation Rule that has allowed Giovani Dos Santos to sign with LA as well, some sort of compensation and transfer of the discovery rights, as mentioned by Mr. Filosa, would be in order.
The second scenario seems like the likely conclusion to those following www.hottimeinoldtown.com, SB Nation's Chicago Fire bloggers, as they believe he will wind up in Montreal. Several sources are indicating the Drogba would prefer to play for the Montreal Impact instead of the Chicago Fire, but ESPN FC reported that Drogba mentioned a potential offer from Italian giants Inter Milan and that the right compensation could keep the Ivorian in Europe and halt any more to the United States or Canada.
Stay tuned to VAVEL USA's Major League Soccer coverage for more details as events unfold. As Drogba and Major League Soccer continue to discuss, VAVEL will bring you the latest information. What is still to be determined is how MLS will handle the Discovery Rights claim Chicago has and what options would be available to Montreal should the Fire refuse to drop the claim. In the past, dropped claims have been made by way of trade, but the Fire are not obligated to accept any trades or drop their claim. For now, the entire MLS community awaits the decisions of several key players for what could be the biggest signing of the transfer window.