STEPHEN IRELAND IS reportedly going to sign for the New York Red Bulls in the summer, and Michael Ballack is not one bit happy about it.
Ballack is coming to the end of his career and fancies one last, big pay-day Stateside when his deal with Bayer Leverkusen winds down.
However, his agent Michael Becker revealed that New York general manager Erik Soler wants to sign Ireland from Aston Villa instead, and branded the Cork man ‘a no-name player who no one knows.’
“Michael would love to play in New York,” Becker told Goal. “However it seems that Soler already made massive promises to Stephen Ireland in October.
“This is an unbelievable incident.
“There are a lot of places where Michael believes he would be a good fit, but in New York with Thierry Henry and Rafael Marquez, that’s a title-winning team, in his mind.”
Then, turning his disaffection on the 25-year-old Ireland and paying scant regard to recent Aston Villa teamsheets, he blasted:
“Why would you go for a no-name player who no one knows, who hasn’t started in months, when Michael Ballack is available?”
This, we find, is a suitable response…
