Fire Sign Ousmane Doumbia from Lugano
The Fire have signed Doumbia.
No, this isn’t FIFA 13. And no, it isn’t the same Doumbia… that’s his brother.
On the surface, this is a head-scratcher. Ousmane Doumbia is a 31-year-old central midfielder from Swiss sister club Lugano, and he’ll occupy the Fire’s third and final Designated Player slot for 2023.
To make things even more confusing, he’ll reportedly be a “Temporary Designated Player,” meaning that while he’ll be a DP this season and presumably be on a DP-level salary, he won’t be next season.
This summer transfer window is the final chance for Sporting Director Georg Heitz, who is in the last year of his contract with the Fire, to make a splash before he comes up for renewal. Since the Fire have failed to reach the playoffs in all three previous years since he took over, have missed on most DPs, and have built some poorly-constructed rosters, it seems unlikely that he’ll continue in his current position. While there’s speculation that he could remain within the Chicago/Lugano family in some other capacity, one would imagine he won’t be in control of the Fire’s transfers much longer as things stand.
Doumbia is a signing who is supposed to help the Fire – and Heitz – change their fortunes in 2023. The team is certainly still in the playoff race, and while there’s a lot of work to do to reach the point where that becomes a very tangible possibility, the season is not over yet. The central midfield duo of Fede Navarro and Gastón Giménez has been very good this season and has been a particularly good value for money since Giménez was dropped from a DP to a TAM player, and that’s not necessarily the area of the field that was the most pressing need.
In an interview with the Athletic, Heitz said earlier that the staff has discussed the idea of shifting the focus of the third DP slot from a center forward to a central midfield earlier this Spring under Ezra Hendrickson. When Jhon Durán left at the end of last season, it was clear that the team’s most pressing need was a reliable DP #9, and with Giménez and Navarro performing well in the middle, nobody else really considered the possibility of the DP slot being used there.
In the same interview, Heitz noted that he was happy with the three first-team strikers on the roster, namely Kacper Przybyłko, Kei Kamara, and Georgios Koutsias. Yes, Kamara has exceeded the expectations of many, but at 38, he isn’t getting any younger and is best in a limited role off the bench in the second half. Koutsias is showing promise, but he isn’t quite ready yet to be the starting #9 either. Przybyłko is perceived as the starter right now, and he’s been very underwhelming. He has been slightly better than he’s getting credit for, to be clear, but hasn’t scored very many goals, and that’s what you would expect from a striker. It sounds like it will be these three for the rest of the season.
In some ways, this is a good thing. One could imagine a world in which Heitz signs a DP forward to a long-term deal, and if he isn’t back in 2024, he’s tied the hands of the next sporting director. That does mean that some ambitious targets – including Pumas goal machine Juan Dinneno and others from Europe – have been put on the back-burner, but it does give more room to maneuver for Heitz’s potential successor. Doumbia is a DP, but he won’t be next season, so the next sporting director would have at least one slot open.
The question remains, however, as to why that “temporary DP” needed to be a central midfielder. Navarro and Giménez are a perfectly good duo at the MLS level, and while more depth would be nice, a DP is expected to start is be a key piece. The Fire’s two other DPs, Xherdan Shaqiri and Jairo Torres, are also midfielders, meaning that all three DPs are nominally central players, in addition to Navarro and Giménez, who have U22 and TAM tags, respectively, and Brian Gutiérrez, who is at his best when utilized as a #10 through the middle. With Chris Mueller on the Season-Ending Injury list, there’s a spot open for a winger, and Heitz did say they’ll be looking to fill that spot… perhaps if it isn’t for the striker, the investment would be better placed on the wing?
Only time will tell. There are still several weeks left in the transfer window, so there’s plenty of time for that winger to come in. The Doumbia deal doesn’t restrict the capacity of the next sporting director to make moves too much, and the Fire are still adding a quality midfielder from the Swiss league, albeit unproven at a higher level like MLS.
