Just a few hours before the Chicago Fire lost 2-1 at home to Atlanta United, Spanish outlet AS published a report claiming the Fire were closing in on signing Atletico Madrid striker Fernando Torres. The report claims the Fire have club representatives in Madrid right now, working on getting this deal completed.
Torres has made it official that he will leave Madrid at the end of the season, but his next destination is still currently unknown. The former Chelsea and Liverpool man has been linked to Chicago quite often in recent weeks, as Major League Soccer revealed that the Fire own his internal league rights.
Additionally, the Fire are managed by Torres’ former teammate at Atletico, Veljko Paunovic, who had extensive praise for the 34-year-old Spaniard during a recent interview. However, Paunovic could neither confirm nor deny whether his club was in pursuit of Fernando Torres.
He took a similar stance tonight, saying that he was not aware of any negotiations. He was asked about the story claiming the Fire currently have representatives in the Spanish capital negotiating for Torres during his postgame news conference.
“I just transported myself to Chicago, I’m here,” Pauno joked.
“I don’t know anything about it,” he continued.
“Like I said before, we can never stop the rumors, we have a team capable of bringing in and attracting great players and superstars, and everything is possible, but I’m not going to say that we are doing anything at this point- as you can see I’m here.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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