Baky's Back, But For How Long?

Ives is reporting that an unnamed French club in Ligue 1 has made an undisclosed offer for Fire defender Bakary Soumare.

Note that no one is reporting any sort of European interest in the Fire defender Ives is voting to the All-Star match. Just sayin'.

I knew this day was coming, but I didn't really think it would happen in the July transfer window this year. Winning a starting spot for Mali, who currently holds the second spot in their qualifying group behind Ghana, may have a lot to do with it. European clubs are much more likely to keep an eye on African qualifying than, say, CONCACAF.

For the Fire, Austin Washington has been stepping up lately in SuperLiga matches while Soumare was still playing for his national team, and C.J. Brown had been regaining his form before he left the Chivas USA SuperLiga match with an injury. If Brown's injury isn't bad, I think the Fire might be able to absorb the loss of Baky this season, although it will suck to see him depart so soon.

UPDATE: Sam Stejskal at ChicagoNow has talked to the front office, and if there have been any conversations, they've apparently just been between Soumare and his agent. Which doesn't rule anything out, really.