All the buzz around the Chicago Fire right now is obviously the signing of Bastian Schweinsteiger, but general manager Nelson Rodriguez offered a hint at another player that had their eyes on.
During this week's Fire Weekly, Rodriguez talked about landing impact offensive players in regards to Schweinsteiger and said the club was looking at multiple different players.
"You carry simultaneous tracks on a lot of players," Rodriguez said. "We looked at a different form of impact offensive player than Basti is. Some of those we lost out on. One we lost out on to China when he signed for $84 million. We're just not going to swim in those waters. There's no rational sense to that contract."
Naturally there aren't many players that signed for $84 million anywhere, let alone in China. By process of elimination, Rodriguez sure makes it sound like the Fire made some effort to acquire Carlos Tevez. The 33-year-old Argentine striker signed a huge deal with Shanghai Shenhua in December that was reported to be worth 84 million euros.
This isn't the first time Rodriguez has dropped a hint about other players they've targeted. At the team's season kickoff luncheon on Feb. 27, Rodriguez said the team had looked at a few players to fill the team's open designated player spot, which Schweinsteiger has now occupied.
"Two of the players that we had on our list, we didn't make offers for so I want to be clear the two players we were tracking, one signed in Mexico with a big club in Mexico and one went to China for big money so they're off our list," Rodriguez said then.
Speculation remains open as to who the player that signed in Mexico was, but what Rodriguez said on Wednesday indicates that Tevez was the player who went to China. This also indicates that the negotiations didn't progress very far if the Fire never made an offer to Tevez, but it does sound like the Fire at least 'looked at' adding Tevez.