On the day before today’s highly-anticipated home opener, the Portland Timbers made a splash of a different kind on Wednesday.
The first-year Major League Soccer team announced the signing of its first designated player, 25-year-old Colombian midfielder Diego Chará.
Per MLS rules, terms of the contract, and the transfer price MLS paid to Chará’s Colombian team Deportes Tolima, were not announced.
Chará will not be available for tonight’s home opener at Jeld-Wen Field against the Chicago Fire. Timbers general manager/technical director Gavin Wilkinson said the team hopes to have Chará on board within 10 days.
Wilkinson said he and head coach John Spencer first saw Chará in person in October and were both struck by his impact on the match.
“The best description is he’s a box-to-box midfielder who is going to outwork the other team and over course of game create numerous problems for opponent” by using his quickness to get forward on the attack, Wilkinson said.
A significant factor in the team’s interest in Chará was his connection with Timbers’ forward Jorge Perlaza. The countrymen were teammates in 2006 with Quindío and again in 2010 with Tolima, where they were a dynamic combination, Wilkinson said.
In addition to the on-field connection, having another Columbian teammate should help both Chará and Perlaza become more comfortable living in Portland and playing in MLS for the first time, Wilkinson said.
Spencer believes the 5-foot-8, 150-pound Chará, like Perlaza, is a young talent with the opportunity to thrive in MLS.
“I believe that he will not only make us a better team, but once we get him accustomed to the league, culture and system, I believe he could be one of the best midfielders in the league,” the coach said.
MLS veteran Jack Jewsbury, the Timbers captain, has started each of the Timbers first three MLS matches at one central midfield slot.
Peter Lowry started twice and James Marcelin once at the other inside midfield position, and Adam Moffat also has experience in the middle of the park.
MLS teams can have as many as three designated players. Only the first $335,000 of a designated player’s annual salary counts against the team’s salary cap of $2,675,000. The team owner, not the league, pays the balance of a DP’s salary.
Friday is the last day unti8l mid-July that MLS teams can add players from outside North America. The midseason international transfer window runs July 15-Aug. 14.
