There have been rumors swirling out of Poland that 23 year old left back Krzysztof Król is headed to the Chicago Fire for a little while now, but the deal is becoming more of a reality it seems every day. From a rough translation of this article it seems that Król is 99% sure that he is coming to Chicago from his Polish Ekstraklasa club Jagiellonii Białystok. The article goes on to quote Król saying that a loan deal has been worked out between the two clubs and is only awaiting paperwork to make it official. It also appears from what I gathered from the piece that he was recently in Chicago and Canada.
The 6 ft 1⁄2 in fullback was a reserve player for Real Madrid and was promoted to the second team in 2007, but never made an appearance for the club. This past season with Jagiellonii Białystok he played in 30 matches for the 8th place club. Former Fire striker and Jagiellonii Białystok teammate Tomasz Frankowski gave the Chicago Fire his blessing telling his fellow countrymen positive things about the club and MLS.
The addittion of Król would provide cover for the Fire after losing Gonzalo Segares who recently signed with Cypriot team APOEL F.C.. Segares put in some good years for the Fire, but was often injured the final two years in Chicago. You can't feel sorry for Segares though as I'm sure he's making good money and will likely be playing in the Champions League as APOEL F.C. is traditionally one of the best teams in the Cypriot First Division.
Perhaps in the coming days we shall hear more about the validity of these rumors from the Fire brass. Frank Kloppas has said recently that the Fire are still looking to add a central defender, attacking midfielder, and striker to the roster for the 2010 season. The Fire have the 13th, 29th, and 45th overall picks in Thursday's MLS SuperDraft so it will be interesting which of those needs the Fire will meet.
The advantage of signing Krol over drafting a left back to replace Segares is in the fact that the Polish defender has already been a professional for some time and would not experience any symptoms of being a rookie in MLS. The next few days should certainly be very interesting for the future of the Chicago Fire.
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