After a months-long odyssey, the Portland Timbers have finally landed a marquee forward: 24-year-old Argentinian Brian Fernandez, leading goalscorer for Liga MX’s Necaxa, for what is reported to be a record-breaking transfer fee.
To accommodate Fernandez, who will be the club’s third and final Designated Player, the Timbers announced Monday morning that they have bought down the salary charge of Lucas Melano with Targeted Allocation Money so that he will no longer count as a DP.
Melano, when he arrived four years ago from Lanus, was the club’s record signing at $5 million. Reports out of Mexico have indicated that the Timbers paid at least double that — $10 million — to ink Fernandez.
It’s a big, twofold bet: first that Fernandez is worth the considerable investment, especially after the Timbers were linked over the winter to players like Eduardo Vargas and Julian Quiñones, and second that an elite attacking player is what the club needs to put it on the road back to MLS Cup.
To bet number one, as the Melano signing goes to show, these big money moves are not sure things. But this acquisition, however you spin it, is one of the most exciting the club has ever made.
Fernandez tore up Liga MX in his first and only season with Necaxa, scoring 16 goals in 30 appearances with the club and 12 in 15 just-completed Clausura — trailing only Club Léon winger Ángel Mena for the competition’s Golden Boot.
Before he arrived in Mexico at the end of last year, Fernandez was similarly prolific in a single season in Chilean football, scoring 11 goals in 12 appearances while on loan from Argentina’s Racing Club at Unión La Calera.
Now, Fernandez will be coming to his fifth different country in the space of three years — signed to produce like he did with Necaxa, where he exhibited most everything you want to see in an undersized forward: pace, power, finishing ability, and some remarkable inventiveness and instinct with the ball at his feet.
At its best, his game is in some ways reminiscent of Sebastian Blanco’s. Fernandez lined up in several different attacking positions during his year in Mexico, and his ability to play in multiple spots is in itself a significant plus for a club that already has an emerging center forward on its books in Jeremy Ebobisse.
Timbers manager Giovani Savarese highlighted Fernandez’s that point in his prepared statement on the Fernandez’s arrival, saying that “while we view him as a forward with our immediate group, his versatility and ability to play in different positions and systems gives us further tactical flexibility and options.”
Indeed, the Timbers’ biggest attacking positional need right now is not at forward, where Ebobisse leads the team in goals, but on the wing opposite Blanco.
Savarese favorite Andrés Flores has made four straight starts in that position in place of an underwhelming Andy Polo, but Flores — who one goal and two assists in his 33 MLS appearances over the last two years — is not viewed as a longterm answer there.
Wherever Fernandez plays, his arrival should again give the Timbers one of the most fearsome front fours in MLS. If he can gel with his compatriots Blanco and Valeri like Blanco did with Valeri when he arrived at the start of 2017, they are going to score a ton of goals this summer.
Fernandez also, if his time with Necaxa serves as any indication, is particularly lethal in transition. If the Timbers continue to favor that style, as he has in recent weeks, he should feel right at home.
If there is a significant red flag with Fernandez, it may be his past behavior off the field. Fernandez tested positive for a banned substance as a 20-year-old in Argentina and served a suspension during 2015; much more recently, he was sent off in his final game for Necaxa and then handed a three match ban for spitting at a fan while leaving the field.
According to The Oregonian‘s Jamie Goldberg, the Timbers are awaiting word on whether that suspension will carry over to MLS play.
If it does not, Fernandez will be available starting this Friday in Vancouver. If it does, his first availability will likely be on June 1 — the date of the club’s eagerly awaited home opener against LAFC.
That is going to be a unforgettable day — and the hope and expectation is that this will be an unforgettable signing.
In splashing out this kind of money for a forward, especially with the club’s central midfield and central defensive units in such tenuous shape, that is unquestionably what the Timbers are aiming for. It’s what they’ve been aiming for since the end of last season.
Now, they’re are all in on Brian Fernandez. What happens next will be well worth watching.
