At the SuperDraft last Thursday, Chicago Fire general manager Nelson Rodriguez alluded to his club's ongoing pursuit of top center back and central midfield talent on the European transfer market. Earlier in the week, he'd even noted that they are competing with UEFA Champions League clubs for one of those targets.
Now a new report has affixed an intriguing name to that pursuit.
ChicagoNow.com's Fire Confidential blog reported on Friday that the Fire are looking to sign 24-year-old Polish center back Marcin Kaminski, a standout defender for Polish powerhouse Lech Poznan. Poznan won top honors in the Polish top-flight, the Ekstraklasa, last season, earning them qualification for the Champions League.
Fire Confidential's Guillermo Rivera writes that the 6-foot-3 Kaminski's current contract expires in June, and that he “reportedly has several suitors in Poland, Holland, and Belgium,” while Poznan still harbor hopes of keeping him on board with a new deal. Kaminski has made 144 career league appearances with Poznan, and has four career caps with the Polish national team.
The Fire were one of the most active MLS clubs on draft day, selecting Jack Harrison with the No. 1 overall pick, then trading him to New York City FC, and later selecting defenders Brandon Vincent and Jonathan Campbell and attacker Alex Morrell and trading Joevin Jones to Seattle. Chicago picked up a healthy stack of allocation funds in the process, which Rodriguez said will be wielded in the pursuit of veteran savvy on both the domestic and international free agent markets.
“A significant amount of general allocation, combined with what we already have, puts us in a really good position in the international market,” said Rodriguez. “We've come to agreement with one center back. That contract is not signed, but we feel good about it and we believe it will go through. We continue to pursue another center back out of Europe – allocation money helps in that regard, again.
“Today's moves also now give us the flexibility to now start to look at central midfield positions in the international market as well ... When we're able to announce our MLS free-agent signings, you'll see some experience there, in one of those two players as well.”
