Jonathan Bornstein has Some ‘Splainin to Do

So let’s say you’re in the front office at an MLS team. It’s the off-season. Your players are off doing their own thing.

You open up a paper, or turn on your computer or TV, and you see, out of the blue…

Photos of one of your star players on trial with a foreign team?

That’s what Chivas USA saw with leftback and sometime USMNT player Jonathan Bornstein.

The 2006 MLS Rookie of the Year sent a ripple of shock and surprise from across the pond when rumors surfaced about a purported interest from an Israeli side in Bornstein, who is Jewish.

The only snag was Bornstein went it alone, without the knowledge of club officials. …

For Bornstein, the trip to Israel was not about switching clubs — the UCLA product called the excursion “window shopping” — but with no contact with club administrators and coaches or even U.S. national team officials, nearly everyone found out about Bornstein’s trip to Israel the same way, through Israeli media reports.

Oops. And it didn’t help matters that he Benny Feilhaber was also kicking the ball around in Israel while he was there. Feilhaber is by all accounts unhappy with his lack of playing time at Derby County and probably is looking to move.

Next step? Damage control and ruffled feather-smoothing and lots of “but I love MLS!” heinie kissing.

“I’m happy to be here. I have no intentions of going anywhere,” Bornstein said. “It was just kind of a little vacation for me and my girlfriend.”

Uh-huh.

So all’s well that ends well, and Bornstein is back with the team and saying that he’s not leaving, nope, nuh-uh, no way, and also saying that if he ever does leave it will probably be for a bigger league.

Now the only issue remaining for Chivas is to find centerback Shavar Thomas, who has apparently gone missing over “visa issues” in Jamaica.

(Thanks to Alex for finding the link.)

Category: MLS

Tags: Benny Feilhaber, Chivas USA, Jonathan Bornstein, MLS, Shavar Thomas, World Football

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