Making Sense of “Drogba to Seattle” Rumors

So, #DrogbaWatch is a thing now. Let me explain how it became a thing, and what it might mean for the Seattle Sounders.

This morning, I was heading into an all-day work session at my non-sports-related job. I get a DM from a friend of mine in Turkey, whom I won’t name quite yet.

This DM says that a source of his who is “extremely close” to Turkish league club Galatasaray claims that famed 36-year-old striker Didier Drogba is on his way to the Sounders.

My reaction: “Wow. Seriously? Are you serious? Is this legit? Seriously?” As you can imagine, it would be hugely unexpected for the Sounders to bring in a player of Drogba’s status, and it would even more unexpected, given the current state of the club’s roster.

Obafemi Martins is in camp and doing just fine by all accounts. Kenny Cooper is slated to step into Eddie Johnson’s vacated role. Clint Dempsey is coming back from Fulham in the near future. Ozzie Alonso has a new DP contract.

It doesn’t make any sense. How on Earth would the Sounders fit Drogba under the current salary cap? How reliable is the source of my heretofore unnamed friend?

Well, I asked. And he said this source called every one of Galataseray’s other January moves with uncanny accuracy. Again, the source stressed that this seems entirely legit … but they didn’t go as far as wanting to attach their names to this rumor just yet.

All this happened while I was in a five-hour-long work meeting. Making matters more complicated, our office internet died and I lost all non-phone connectivity.

In the meantime, a little tweet of mine kick-started #DrogbaWatch:

From reliable friend: Extremely trusted sources close to Galatasaray have confirmed Drogba's move to Seattle at end of season #Sounders

— Mike Standish (@MikeStandish) February 4, 2014

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All I can figure is that Drogba’s addition to the Sounders can only happen in three scenarios:

1. MLS suddenly and without any notice decides that teams can have 4 DPs.

2. The Sounders have enough allocation dollars stored up to buy down Ozzie Alonso’s DP contract.

3. They ship out Oba, who spent a chunk of the winter trying to find a deal in Turkey anyway.

Given that Oba is in camp, and seemingly happy, a departure for him doesn’t seem entirely plausible. So that leaves options 1 and 2.

Both those options sure seem appealing to this Sounders fan.

Oba. Clint. Drogba. Pappa. That’s some goals, eh?

I’m going to go to file this story and go to sleep now. Let’s see if #DrogbaWatch goes the same way as #DempseyWatch. More unlikely things have certainly happened before.

(image courtesy of Getty)