New York Red Bulls Sign Socceroo Tim Cahill

Australian International Tim Cahill in his first MLS training session

This particular deal has been rumored for the last few days, but it is finally official.  The New York Red Bulls have signed Australian International and former Everton mainstay Tim Cahill as their third designated player.  For my Australian readers, the designated player rules is similar to the A-League's marquee player rule, basically allowing a club to spend more money than would usually be allowed to bring in a big name player.

As per MLS policy, terms of the deal were not announced.  Rumors earlier in the week placed the transfer fee paid to Everton at around one million dollars.  This has caused some controversy in MLS, as last week the league supposedly blocked the signing of of Swedish defender Olof Mellberg by Toronto FC.  Mellberg is a big center back who had the highest win percentage of aerial duels in the Champions League while playing for Greek Champions Olympiacos last season.  Last night at the all star game Don Garber denied blocking the Mellberg deal, but did say that it "wasn't in the best interest of the league."  This has lead to the inevitable speculation that MLS doesn't want to spend big money on defenders.\

Let's get back to Cahill now.  He scored 68 goals in 278 appearances for Everton.  However, last year his influence greatly diminished as he only tallied 3 goals and 3 assists.  Still, nobody will question the 32 year old's massive work rate and effort.  He also led Millwall to the FA Cup final before joining Everton.

 

Cahill is a distinguished player at the International level as well.  He has 55 caps for Australia scoring 24 goals in that time for the Socceroos.  He represented his country in the 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cups, becoming the first Australian to score in the World Cup finals with his goal against Japan in 2006.

As pictured above, Cahill has already begun training with the Red Bulls, however the deal is still pending his visa and international clearance paperwork.  However, given the Red Bulls defensive woes this season, perhaps they should have gone after Mellberg.