Here’s my quick debunking of Inzaghi's claims regarding his rejected MLS transfer to Red Bull New York.

AC Milan's Filippo Inzaghi was quoted claiming the following about his "rejected" move to the City That Never Sleeps: (Inzaghi Rejected MLS Move) "Furthermore, I would have had the possibility of challenging David Beckham and his LA Galaxy team, and they would have covered me in gold."

Umm, I think it's quite unlikely that Inzaghi would be covered in any more gold than AC Milan is currently giving him. As evidence, bear these facts in mind:

Inzaghi's Place Among the Current Crop of Designated Players

Inzaghi is 33 years old, to turn 34 in August. To compare him to the other designated player signings so far, which he would have to be to have anything like a good old-fashioned American soccer gold shower:

• Beckham: 32 (bio)
• México's Cuahtémoc Blanco: 34 (bio)
• Colombia's Juan Pablo Ángel: 31 (bio)
• the only American in the group, New Jersey/UVa's Claudio Reyna: 34 (bio)

Of the "Beckham Rule" signings so far, Inzaghi could realistically only compare himself to those not married to a former Spice Girl. To put it simply, he's not as high-profile of an attacker as former Italian greats Christian Vieri or Francesco Totti, nor a current defending World Champion member of the Azzurri arguably just past his prime but with plenty of jump still in his legs like Marco Materrazi or Fabio Cannavaro, or even simply as well known here as long-time goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon (not that we need to import quality goalkeepers anyway).

How Much is That Striker in the Window?

First a quick caveat regarding the reliability of the numbers listed below. Major League Soccer doesn't report the financial details of any signings, but the MLS Players Union releases salary figures annually to keep the pressure on management to pay players at the small end of the scale more, eventually enough that Developmental players don't have to work two jobs (MLS Player Salaries). Transfer fees paid, except free transfers, are less precise, so should be taken with a suitably sized grain of salt. European figures have the additional problem of needing currency conversion, and a time machine to get what would have been correct at the time of the transfer signing.

Of the two players New York signed, Reyna and Angel, Reyna makes a cool $1 million with $250k incentives that takes him to a guaranteed $1.25 million guaranteed. Angel commands a slightly higher $1.5 million salary with $100k incentives for a guaranteed $1.6 million.

Blanco, being Mexican in a country with a huge number of recent Mexican-American immigrants, both legal and illegal, makes $2.5 million with $100k incentives to get a guaranteed $2.6 million.

All of the DP signings, including Beckham, are either confirmed or believed to be free transfers.

Inzaghi's most recent salary at AC MIlan was thought to be 4.5 million Euros per season, roughly $6.2 million. Further, his transfer in 2001 from Juventus to AC Milan resulted in a contract that with extensions now runs through June 2008 and cost 17 million UK pounds at the time, roughly $35 million at the current exchange rate. Angel's contract with Aston Villa also ran through 2008, but apparently the Red Bulls agreed to pay the remainder of his reported $2 million contract instead of paying a transfer fee.

Italian Inzaghi Versus Mexican Blanco

Blanco is the closest comparable player to Inzaghi in terms of the fanatical support and devotion he receives from club and national team fans. And just like Inzaghi, and Beckham to some extent, that devotion has at times turned into revulsion as he quite naturally periodically disappoints by seeming absent in some high-profile games, particularly at the international level versus the US Men's National Team away from the comforts of México City, and being injured, the bane of aging players everywhere.

Unfortunately for Inzaghi, America at the turn of the 21st century is not the America of the mid-point of the 20th century, meaning the noteworthy ethnic group that is undergoing the rituals of assimilation into our culture is now generally Latino, especially Mexican, rather than Italian.

While characters like Joe Dimaggio and Frank Sinatra had to break down barriers back in the 40's and 50's, resulting in fanatical devotion from recent Italian-American immigrants fighting the very same prejudice and xenophobia in their everyday lives, being called "greasers", "dagos" and "wops", terms completely archaic and some almost unknown to people born in the last 40 years.

Today that role is being played by A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez) and J-Lo/Jenny from the Block (Jennifer Lopez), who are clearly showing the way for Latinos and Latinas to be both authentically Latin and American.

There are many, many Americans of Italian descent, but they have been for the most part long since assimilated and no longer follow the games from the old country. For every exception to the rule shouting "Forza Milano!" for the Rossoneri of Inzaghi's AC Milan, there are dozens of others who couldn't even name a single current player in Milan's lineup.

I'm not claiming that anywhere near all Mexican immigrants follow soccer, but many still do as the ratings of multiple over-the-air and cable Spanish-language media outlets can attest, to say nothing of the crowds the big clubs and perennial "coulda been a contender" Mexican national team regularly draw to American stadia. Particularly to many immigrants from parts of México outside of México City, following their futból team is an important and nostalgiac tie to a recently departed hometown, carried North like Midwesterners who take their college and local baseball affiliations to the big cities out East and West.

Furthermore, Blanco for all of his faults has still been a more consistent day-to-day player over the course of his career, and is already plenty familiar with the United States, walking into a very extensive support structure in the tight-knit Mexican-American community.

Public Relations Gambit to Capitalize on Champions League Glow?

Putting this all together, how are we supposed to take Inzaghi at his word of the riches promised to him?

To summarize, a team that wouldn't pay a transfer fee for Juan Pablo Angel, a player 2 years younger, likely with more years left in his legs, who scored 7 goals in a shortened, and what many considered a disappointing season last year, is going to receive less than Inzaghi, a player who scored a measly 2 goals in 20 Serie A games last year, plus another 6 in European play, which notably included 2 in the Champions League Final versus Liverpool?

Before anybody takes too much note of that Man of the Match performance in the Final, you have to remember that it occurred presumably after the offer was made since at the time of the game in May of this year New York had already signed Angel in April and thus had no more DP slots available by then.

To my mind Inzaghi has always been a sporadic performer, albeit one who can occasionally perform in a big match, as also evidenced by his 25 goals in 55 appearances for Italy's national team, good enough for joint 6th place on Italy's all-time goal scoring charts. If he plays for your team, you love him when he scores one of those big goals, but much of the rest of the time he merely frustrates with his inconsistency.

He has never really come close to scoring the 24 goals he netted for Atalanta in the 1996-97 Serie A season. The closest he came was actually the 18 he scored the year immediately following that season, when he was transferred to Juventus for that enormous fee. Since then he has generally been in the very low double digits, with the previously mentioned exceptions for European and International play.

Inzaghi only played one game in the 2006 World Cup, scoring an insurance goal against the Czech Republic in their final group round game, a goal which made him tied for 3rd best scorer on the Italian team in the tournament. And not just tied, but tied with 7 (!) other Italians, all of whom had scored less than the two apiece from Marco Materrazi and Luca Toni.

Given that the Red Bulls don't play in Europe or internationally, I fail to see how anybody could have justified any such promised largesse. Just how dumb does he think we are?

The only conceivable scenario to get Inzaghi to his claimed rejected gold-plated New York future would require him to make significant performance bonuses from MLS, and as the other DP signings amply demonstrate that's not the sort of thing many 33/34 year old field soccer players this side of former players Preki and Cameroonian legend Roger Milla are capable of without either incredible discipline, significant luck, or a lot of help, likely needing a combination of all three. Beckham is known to possess the first trait, and generally gets both of the latter 2, but Inzaghi?

My best guess is that Inzaghi is nearing the end of his professional career, already past the end of his international career, and being a smart businessman is trying to do what is in his control other than his on-field performance to increase his perceived value and try to get a little more cash. It's a pretty transparent attempt at that, but given his intended very local audience and the presumed sophistication of their understanding of the workings of American professional soccer, a pretty safe one. If it's successful, he can possibly get another year or two extension on his current AC MIlan contract, or get a quick transfer out of another Serie A club.

Filippo Inzaghi, you're no David Beckham, nor even a Cuauhtémoc Blanco. Coming to America for the big bucks? No chance.

Inzaghi could have played for NY: Red Bull New York Big Soccer thread