Josef Martinez’s time with Tijuana in Liga MX was brief and inconspicuous.
After signing on a free transfer with Xolos in January ahead of the Clausura, Martinez scored just once in nine appearances and 247 minutes. Needless to say, this wasn’t exactly a match made in heaven.
But with the former Atlanta United great reportedly available after parting ways with the club, would a reunion with both Tata Martino and Miguel Almirón make sense?
“I know that forward is a player where we have numerous players under contract. We have (Emmanuel) Latte Lath as a DP, we have Sergio Santos, we have Cayman (Togashi), we have Alexey (Miranchuk) who also plays in that position. So it is a position where we are quite full at the moment,” Martino said through an interpreter after Atlanta’s 2-0 loss to the Columbus Crew.
“Without speaking with Chris (Henderson), it would look like it’s a position that is full, but I won’t rule out anything because we have to evaluate. Josef, we know, is a goal scorer, and he is playing in an important league in Mexico.”
Martinez’s return would be intriguing on many levels. He still holds Atlanta in high regard despite his acrimonious exit from the club. Despite a failed stint in Mexico, he is still a lethal player, scoring 14 times for the San Jose Earthquakes in 2025. There’s still something left in the tank.
But is it the right move for the club right now, Martinez’s age (33) and the performance of Atlanta’s current DPs notwithstanding? That’s the question Chris Henderson and the front office (and Mauricio Culebro, when he arrives) will need to answer. It could be that Martinez wants to close his career in Atlanta — a place he’s likened to his version of an FC Barcelona or Real Madrid — but this can’t be just a “warm and fuzzy feelings” signing. Plus, how much of his failure to make an impact with Xolos was the club and league just being a bad fit, coming in at the wrong time, or simply due to a physical decline?
So far, sentiment among the fanbase appears to be split. But Martino certainly hasn’t poured cold water on the idea. We’ll see if that ends up signaling Martinez’s return to the place where he became one of the biggest stars in the league, or if he resumes his decorated career somewhere else.
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I didn’t buy MLS pass this year because United sucks, but I’d honestly buy it if Josef came back.
#unitethefusion
Unrelated, but is it possible for Atlanta scouts to watch Uzbekistan national team practice since they are using the team facility as their World Cup basecamp? Maybe Uzbekistan has some good CBs, wingers, and strikers that we can sign for after the World Cup.
Gotta sign him. If nothing else to put people in the seats.
I’m afraid that is all it will do, and only for a little while. We gotta end the nostalgia tour and build a team.
Speculation, of course, but let’s try something. Will he possibly put more balls into the back of the net than ELL? I lean towards yes. Will there be a better connection between him and Miggy, elevating both of their play? I lean towards yes. Will this likely be his last hurrah? Likely yes.
We absolutely need to build a team, but we’ve paid too much for the people we have now and will probably need to eat it, meaning we won’t have a ton more money to build with. The next move will be to bring in veterans, young players, homegrowns, or those on short/cheap contracts. We can’t go spend $25M again anytime soon because other than Almada it hasn’t really panned out for us in the past.
^ This! As our recent experience with Galarza shows, we evidently don’t have the money to bring in team-building talent. So at least we could enjoy some nostalgia and possibly modest improvement over the current train wreck.
I believe that was a cap/DP slot situation unrelated to the depth of Mr. Blank’s pockets.
I’m pretty sure that’s what Colt42 meant. It’s never been an issue of Arthur’s bank account, it’s that our cap is maxed out, and we can’t fix it without getting rid of players using up that cap, like LL (DP slot), Berrocal, Mihaj, Alzate (TAM cap).
The only thing I disagree with is “we won’t have a ton of money to build with”. Correct me if I am wrong, but transfer fees don’t count against the cap. If that’s so, AB has really deep pockets, so it’s not like another $25M transfer fee is not doable. I’m sure he wants return on his investment, but I don’t think he can’t be convinced to spend it again. Money, in that sense, is not the problem.
We do have our max allotment of DPs, which I think is why we didn’t purchase Galarza – MLS cap rules prevented it and we either wouldn’t or couldn’t drop one of our DPs (looking at you, ELL) to accommodate a roster spot for him.
As for Josef, I’d rather not bring back a guy for one more year of somewhat better production at the expense of delaying the tear-down this team needs.
I don’t think money itself is a problem, I think we need to reset and consider what we’ve spent vs. just forking over another $20m at a player thinking it’s going to help. I see Santos/Cayman and think “in their short minutes they’ve done more than ELL has in his minutes” and think maybe that’s a good way to start pulling in players who can make impacts. Miggy/Mira aren’t going anywhere anytime soon unless we get a good price for either. Our CB’s are pretty much done for except Gregersen. And our midfielders can barely buy lotto scratchers.
Agree we need a reset, and yeah, the $20M needs to be spent wisely after we take a huge loss on ELL, at minimum. I wouldn’t be upset if we got rid of all three of our DPs. Miggy has been disappointing and Mira seems more like a TAM player than DP.
I think we have maybe 5 or 6 guys on our roster capable of starting for at least half the other MLS teams. Maybe that is a little hyperbolic, but it is still a problem.
Transfer fees count against the cap. They only don’t count in specific situations like U22 players.
Ah, okay, thank you. But at the same time, you’re saying that ELL’s transfer fee wiped out $25M in cap space? Surely it is pro-rated or spread out somehow.
DPs are another situation in where the transfer fee doesn’t count against the cap. It does however count in the number counting that determines whether they would need to be counted as a DP. All DPs count the same against the cap, regardless of how much you pay them or how much you spent on the transfer fee.
The cap space is destroyed because we spent too much money (in transfer fees and/or salaries) on our TAM players: Alzate, Berrocal, Mihaj, Saba, Muyumba, Gregersen, Galarza, and maybe on other players on the senior roster like Hoyos. The only way we can bring in strong players is to get rid of one of those players so that we can free up TAM funds.
Latte Lath is also a problem, but it’s because he’s taking up a valuable DP slot, basically a “get any expensive player without hitting the cap” slot.
So to answer your question fully (because I didn’t read your entire initial comment fully because I’m a dummy), transfer fees (and salaries) don’t matter on DPs, so assuming Arthur Blank doesn’t mind, a $25m+ transfer fee is still on the table, *if* we can free up a DP slot, which is the hard part because we either have to find someone to buy the DP or Arthur has to pay out the entire contract with one of our buy-outs.
However, the statement “we won’t have a ton of money to work with” is still true because the cap space for TAM players is all used up. Getting rid of LL won’t allow us to fix multiple slots, despite his large numbers, because all of his cost was hidden in the DP slot.
It’s like, if we can get rid of a DP, we can get one new really nice player per freed DP slot. But to get lesser slots (CB, CDM, W, etc), we can’t do it without getting rid that much in salary/transfer charge amount of TAM players, which again we have to find buyers or pay out their entire contract.
My whole point was about replacing a DP (ELL) with another huge transfer fee guy was doable because Blank basically has almost as much money as God. I see you picked up on that midway thru the above.
We could also buy out several TAM contracts for the same reason. This assumes there isn’t some silly MLS rule that says you can’t buy out more than 1 or 2 a year (as I type this, I think such silly rule probably exists).
Not the optimal thing to do, and I’m not saying we will…but we could do buyouts or sell at a large loss because of Blank’s wallet.
Appreciate you taking the time to make a detailed response.
Yeah, my bad. =)
There is, as you suspect, a rule that limits the amount of buy-outs, I think 2 a year.
I would love for us to buy out ELL, but I don’t think they would do it, since it’s basically throwing all that money away, saying “we messed up so bad that we can’t even salvage this by selling the guy, and now I’m telling my boss to spend a bunch of money to fix my mistake but also don’t fire me.” I really hope we use those buy outs on some of the tam players though.
Selling a guy for a bag of balls is essentially the same admission. But then, the truth only hurts when it should. Chris Henderson’s seat should be warm, at least.
I don’t expect Tata to be candid enough in public about any player to say “he isn’t good enough for this league or this team”, but I’d like to know if he privately thinks ELL is a lost cause, or if there is something there that can be brought out.
I realized something reading this – ELL is our punishment for having had Josef. He was not known for being all that effective before coming to Atlanta and for a guy that broke all kinds of records and instilled fear across the league, he was pretty cheap. My guess is someone had sold their soul to the devil for that to occur, and the debt has come due – ELL, an overpriced good ornament, and an albatross that has certainly soured any hope of returning to good form any time soon, is our torment. Not sure what circle of hell we’ve been sent to, but it’s not one I remember from my reading of Dante.
If he could be signed as a backup striker for $400K to $500K, then it might make sense. He was very effective in MLS last year (better than anyone we had), and could contribute in a backup role (if nothing else, to scream at players who don’t give their all). If it is TAM money, then sorry – no.
Bringing miggy back doesn’t seem to have been a great move. I doubt Josef coming back would be a good move either but it would be a fun first game back at the Benz.
Why not?!
We can’t get any worse.
Bring him in.
Kind of how I feel. I mean, he went to Montreal and was a leading scorer. He went to SJ and was a leading scorer. He went to TJ and didn’t have an impact but he also wasn’t playing much either and LigaMX isn’t the same as MLS. He thrives in MLS.
As long as the deal doesn’t break the bank and we can move people in/out, i’d say go for it. Sounds like this would be where he retires as he’s getting older and strikers at this age don’t last much longer.
That’s what people said when we fired Deila.
We haven’t gotten worse.
We haven’t gotten much better, but we haven’t gotten worse.
I would into this if he was retiring and it was a one game contract where we could have a Josef night at the Benz with a statue unveiling and Bocanegra shaped urinals
Hard pass.
It’s not 2018 anymore, and that year isn’t coming back no matter how many of the guys from that team we sign. We need to end the nostalgia tour and look to the future. We can honor the past in other ways besides giving our past heroes one last contract.
Would I take him on a low-value contract as a backup? I guess. Would he accept that? I don’t know.
For those against it, would that be the case even if he was backup striker like Togashi or Thiare? Because I don’t think anyone is expecting him to come back to be the starter.
I think even if Josef wanted to come to Atlanta, the main issue will be money. I doubt he is willing to sign for anything less than high TAM level money. Not to mention how much playing time he will want. You have to remember MLS is still a salary capped league
Here’s what I know about Josef: He always gives his all. I was watching yesterday’s game with the sound off, and there were at least two occasions late in the game when one of our players got dispossessed by a hard tackle. I legit thought the plays were whistled for fouls because everyone from Atlanta who was near the ball just stopped and watched. But, no, plays continued with Columbus advancing the ball towards our goal. It was pathetic.
If we can trade ELL for him, then yes. Even if he’s 80 percent of the Josef of old, he’s better than 100% of the strikers we have now.
If you are a true Atlanta United fan, we should be looking to improve the team for the future, not looking to the past to fix our current issues. I love Josef, but I don’t see him as a regular 90 min player anymore. It was already a mistake bringing back Almiron and Tata
probably 🤔 but the mistake has been made, might as well go ALL-IN. Besides I dont see how bringing in Josef on a short-term/low money deal hampers our ability to build for the future. I can point at 2 or 3 guys (and their salaries) that do though. 😒
Not sure I agree…just because they didn’t turn the team around immediately didn’t mean it was a failure. I’m still of the mindset Miggy isn’t a winger, Tata needs a supporting cast (which after watching this year i’m pretty sure it’s a number of pieces instead of just Deila, for example) of players who can play the system he wants, and bringing back Josef doesn’t necessarily mean 90 minute starter but does mean bringing some excitement to the team again and giving him his place to retire.
I say please yes!! This season is already a goner. Getting to see a few more games with Miggy and Josef together is about the only thing that would get me excited about the rest of the season.
Please no. We already have two failed retreads.