Not every team in Major League Soccer can build the right package to lure Thierry Henry. Instead, for most teams, there is a complex set of variables that need to align in just the right fashion to lure a higher-priced player from abroad.
Sometimes, teams have to target guys like Branko Boskovic, who “is expected to leave Rapid [Vienna] for a team in the United States despite his fear of flying,” according to the Austrian Independent.
Could he be the kind of guy that D.C. United is looking for? Let’s see if he fits the profile.
1. Attacking midfielder? Check.
2. Out of contract? Think so.
3. Currently residing in a place recently visited by United technical director Chad Ashton? (He stopped in Germany, Switzerland and Austria on his recent European scouting trip, according to a source, and Ashton himself said last weekend that he did see guys face to face.) Check.
4. Fits the mold of a pseudo high-priced European signing, which includes, among other variables: a) A decent pedigree, including one stint or another in a top European league or Argentinian club; b) Likely headed toward the back end of his career (late 20s, early 30s) and c) probably not coming off his best season? Check.
There are certainly questions remaining, starting with the obvious: finding out if Boskovic’s intended destination is Washington. But it will be interesting to see if he is unveiled here or somewhere else in MLS in the coming weeks.
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