[1:23 pm] From today’s GSP.ro:

E Toja! Jucătorul şi-a dat acordul, iar Becali i-a anunţat ieri prin fax pe americani că e de acord cu preţul fixat, 500.000 de dolari pentru un transfer definitiv

Cine e jucătorul despre care Gigi Becali a spus la finalul amicalului cu Beşiktaş că “va fi ultimul transfer al Stelei în această vară”? Surse din club au dezvăluit că este vorba despre columbianul Toja, aşa cum Gazeta a anunţat încă de acum două săptămîni (foto).

8 străini va avea Steaua în lot după aducerea lui Toja, jumătate dintre ei fiind extracomunitari: Zapata, Emeghara, Dayro şi Toja

A urmat un schimb de faxuri între gruparea din Ghencea şi cea din Dallas. Americanii au solicitat 500.000 de dolari în schimbul fotbalistului, iar Gigi Becali a cerut termen de gîndire. Apoi li s-a cerut părerea celorlalţi columbieni din lotul Stelei, Zapata şi Dayro Moreno, despre Toja. Referinţele au fost dintre cele mai bune, cei doi sud-americani spunîndu-le şefilor că ar fi o investiţie excelentă, aşa că Steaua a trimis oferta oficială în America. Zilele viitoare vor fi semnate actele, iar Toja va ajunge la Bucureşti.

[1:39 pm] Got a real, live Romanian native speaker to help me translate:

It’s Toja! The player gave his approval, and Becali let the Americans know [yesterday, meaning July 16, 2008] by FAX that he agrees with the $500K price for a permanent transfer.

Who is the player that Gigi Becali has said at the end of the friendly with Besiktas that “it will be the last transfer this summer for Steaua“? Club sources revealed that it is the Colombian Toja, as our paper [Gazeta] announced even two weeks ago.

Steaua will have eight foreigners on its team after bringing Toja, half of them being from outside the EU: Zapata, Emeghara, Dayro, and Toja.

An exchange of FAXes followed between Ghencea and the Dallas clubs. The Americans requested $500K for the footballer, and Gigi Becali requested time to think. Then the asked the other Colombian players from Steaua, Zapata and Moreno about Toja. The references were only the best and the 2 South Americans told the bosses that it would be an excellent investment, so Steaua sent the official offer to the U.S. In the next days, the papers will be signed and Toja will arrive in Bucharest.

Many thanks to Finley Lacatusu, Los Toros’s official translator of bad news!

[4:39 pm] Buzz reports that Toja’s staying put:

“As far as I’m concerned Toja is a FC Dallas player,” said Hyndman. “Unless of course the numbers are so crazy we can’t not do it. Juan Toja is a very valuable member of this team. He’s going to the All-Star game. All teams want to get better and he’s a good player so people want to sign him. We’ve had trade offers from several MLS teams for him and quite a few teams from other countries have made offers.”

That’s enough foray into mls-rumors.net terror-itory for one linguistically-inclined Toro. Although I’m fully aware that Becali is crazy enough to throw crazy money at FCD, I’m going to sleep well tonight knowing that JT (at least the ‘08 edition) is safe at home.

As reported by both Goff and Ives (and if both those two had reported there were WMD in Iraq, even the Vatican might have jumped into the Coalition of the Willing).

I ain’t gonna complain, as an alternate selection due to US Olympic Team call-ups, he probably won’t be playing too many minutes, which is a good thing.

Here’s hoping he demolishes the Hammers and their stupid Blowing Bubbles song even worse than he dismantled Celtic last year. Maybe he’s got a nice bonus in his contract for this too.  In retrospect, I can’t complain about Celtic losing, and here’s a reason why.

Asian News International reported today that a new brand of condoms named after David Beckham is taking the Chinese prophylactic market by storm.

From the article:

Although the Beckham contraceptive is not being endorsed by the former England captain himself, its makers claim that the users will score in the bedroom like David does on the pitch. This brand now sells more than any other brand in the country.

I can see the sales pitch now.  Buy a box of Beckhams! You’re guaranteed to look good and get lots of attention, but sadly, you’ll be too sore to score!

Nathan wrote the comment above earlier today.  Los Toros sources in the area of LA are confirming that this is a done deal.  Our confirmation comes through a friend who knows a guy who apparently is close enough to the situation to know.  (Is that enough to get me off the hook if I am wrong?)

What do you think of this move?  Is the LA Polish community going to occupy the remaining 3,000 seats (based on average attendance) at the HDC?

Also, this intrigues me for another reason.  Birds have been whisperings the potential of a three team trade between LA, Dallas, and SJ that would see Ruiz back with the Gals and Donovan return to the Quakes.  From what I have heard from several non-Dallas sources there was a variety of potential compensation coming to Dallas, most of which emphasized allocation money.  Does the seemingly certain addition of Zurawski void the need for Ruiz?

 An even bigger muse is what does LA expect to gain from letting go of Donovan…if they eventually pursue this?  It has to be for nothing less than a DP slot.  What will to use the other DP slot for? Zidane? Ronaldo? This could get interesting!