Red Bulls Swipe Chicago’s Osorio

By: Laurie | December 11th, 2007

Fire smolders over theft of Osorio. – OR –
New York inflames Fire by stealing coach. –OR–
Red Bulls hope former Chicago Coach can Light a Fire Under Losing Team.

Okay, okay, I’ll stop now.

In the MLS game of Coach Musical Chairs, former Chicago head coach Juan Carlos Osorio is apparently about to take the spot in New York which was involuntarily vacated by Bruce Arena at the end of the season. And this happened even though Osorio had not yet coached a full season with Chicago.

Not sure why he’d want the job, though. It seems to be cursed. The franchise is twelve years old, and Osorio will be its eleventh coach. The odds are not in his favor. But perhaps he is The One, and things will all work out. Basing my thoughts only on the adorable family picture above, I hope so.

According to Luis Arroyave at the Chicago Tribune:

In exchange for Osorio, who was under a multiyear contract with the Fire, the team will receive draft picks, salary-cap allocation money and cash from the Red Bulls.

“Obviously, we didn’t want to see him go,” Fire general manager John Guppy said. “We did everything we could to keep him in Chicago, but he couldn’t stay for personal reasons.

Because a boatload of money is about as personal as it gets.

Or not. Maybe it really is personal.

According to Guppy, Osorio’s family was unhappy in Chicago. With Osorio, a known workaholic, often at the office until at least 7 p.m., his family likely wanted a life that Chicago couldn’t provide. “His wife has family in New York,” Guppy said. “They lived in New York before, and there’s a huge Colombian population in New York — way more than there is in Chicago.”

But I’m sure the money doesn’t hurt. Last year Osorio’s estimated salary was “greater than $200,000,” but most estimates are that it wasn’t much greater, and it probably didn’t come close to RBNY coach Bruce Arena’s $600,000 a year.

Unfortunately, this leaves Chicago scrambling, trying to replace a guy who seemed to be able to put it together for the team. He came in mid-season to replace Dave Sarachan after Chicago went 4-7-4 in the first half of the season, then got them as far as the semifinals.

Hey, Chicago, I hear Bruce Arena has a bit of spare time these days.