Chicago Fire President John Guppy showed up at the press conference beaming, after Chilean legend Marcelo Salas completed his first highly publicized workout with the Chicago Fire on Thursday. The 32-year-old Salas accepted an invitation from Guppy to train with the Fire with the possibility of securing a contract.
”He’s obviously in good shape,” Guppy said of Salas, rating him as highly as the L.A. Galaxy’s David Beckham in terms of skill. Never mind that they’re completely different types of players, and never mind, too, that the Chilean, who’s the same age as Becks, was recently dropped from a club in his own country, while the restored England international is leading Real Madrid’s charge the La Liga title.
Salas said the prospect of playing alongside Cuauhtemoc Blanco, who should arrive sometime in July after a long tour of national team duty with Mexico, was part of the reason he decided to tryout with the Fire. ”It’s good to see a player like Blanco join the Fire. “I left Chile to come here to witness things first-hand and to explore my own options, which remain open,” Salas said. Guppy, too, obviously likes of lining Salas up alongside Blanco, too: ”It’s no secret that we’ve struggled on offense, so we’re looking to add offensive power,” Guppy said. He’s not kidding: the Fire has scored eight goals in nine games and has taken just a single point from its last five games.
Correction: In Thursday’s Section 2 story on Cuauhtemoc Blanco, we misstated Fire GM John Guppy’s first name.