Swiss press reporting that Alain Rochat is in Zurich and about to sign with BSC Young Boys

Update: Deal is done, Alain Rochat sold for $500k. In possibly related news, United has acquired Luis Silva from Toronto FC for allocation money. New post soon.

Two news sites in Switzerland are reporting that Alain Rochat, the Swiss left back who was recently traded to D.C. United, is in Zurich negotiating a contract with BSC Young Boys. Rochat played for Young Boys from 2002 to 2005 and is rumored to still be angry about the way that he was treated in his trade from the Vancouver Whitecaps to D.C. United. One site says that the deal might be signed as soon as tomorrow; while that may or may not be true, the fact that there is smoke makes it seem that something is at least under discussion.

While some might take this as a sign that people do not want to play for D.C. United, I take it more as Rochat railing against the Whitecaps in particular and MLS in general. He was traded across the continent as his wife was about to have their fourth child, to a team that is not very good. To be fair to the league, however, players should know that these types of things can happen and are not that different in effect than transfers in other leagues, just different in the specific form. And while Rochat is a good player, his loss would allow either Chris Korb or Taylor Kemp to play on their preferred left side and allow us to know if these are players that United should keep going forward.

But perhaps Dave Kasper could have avoided all this with a simple phone call to Rochat before the trade was made. As we know, no one from United or the Whitecaps talked to him beforehand. As always, we will keep you updated as we find out more.