BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. – Like so many relationships, the Fire’s courtship of Nery Castillo began with a coffee.
The year was 2008. Fire technical director Frank Klopas and front-office executive Javier León arranged a sit down with Castillo – then with Manchester City – and his agent. The sides went out for a coffee, networked and went on their way.
“That’s where that relationship started,” Klopas said on Saturday. “We were able to have a coffee and just meet. Obviously he was a very young player and we felt that down the road … it would be great for someone like him to be a member of the Fire.”
Two short years later, Castillo is indeed a member of the Fire. The team announced that they signed him to a Designated Player contract on Saturday. No one at the coffee date would have predicted Castillo would be in Chicago so soon.
“We’re very excited that we have an opportunity to bring someone like Nery to the Chicago Fire,” Klopas said. “Obviously, this was something that’s been in the works for over a couple years. As an organization we identify certain players that we feel potentially could be DPs and Nery’s been one of them. We’ve been building our relationship over that time and… it’s great to finally have Nery be a part of the Fire.”
Klopas, who played professionally in Greece for several years, said he spoke with some of his Greek contacts about Castillo, who played at Greek club Olympiakos from 2000-2007.
“Soccer, as big as it is, is still very small,” Klopas said. “I know a lot of the people the he knew while he was playing at Olympiakos and [I liked what they said about him].”
Klopas partially credits the Fire’s signing of Castillo – who reportedly had European suitors – to the positive relationship that began with the coffee and continued through to last week’s signing.
“It’s always about relationships,” Klopas said. “It’s about getting your name out there. This relationship building is important any time we’re looking at DPs or just players in general.”
Sam Stejskal covers the Chicago Fire for MLSsoccer.com. He can be reached at sam.h.stejskal@gmail.com.
