Marco Pappa Has Signed with MLS, Now Goes through Allocation Order

Chicago Fire midfielder Marco Pappa (16) and Houston Dynamo defender Jermaine Taylor (4) in action during the first half at BBVA Compass Stadium. The Dynamo won 1-0. (Thomas Campbell-USA TODAY Sports)

Marco Pappa, a midfielder who previously played for the Chicago Fire, is headed back into the MLS ranks. After spending time with the Dutch Eredivisie club Heerenven, Pappa has now been signed by the MLS, assuming he can pass a physical and produce a receipt of his visa and ITC. The next step will be putting Pappa through the allocation ranking, a ordered list of MLS teams that get a chance to claim him.  

The allocation ranking currently assigns the Seattle Sounders the rite to grab the Guatemalan. If they refuse though, it will be Toronto’s option, and if they refuse, it just keeps on going down the line. As you can see in the tweet above, it goes Seattle, Toronto, Columbus, and then Dallas, and honestly I don’t see it going even that long.

Marco Pablo Pappa Ponce, or M3P as I’ve just started calling him, is a 26-year-old prominently left-side midfielder or winger. He spent the past two years with Heerenven, but only played in 12 games while scoring no goals. Before he was playing in Europe, M3P was a member of the Fire from 2008 until 2012. He did quite well for himself as he had 26 goals and 16 assists. Let’s not forget that in 2010 he was elected for the MLS All-Star Team and won the Goal of the Year Award.

According to Columbus Dispatch writer Adam Jardy, Columbus is not interested in Pappa…

I’ve been loving all the additions that the league has made this offseason. Not only do the new players add more to the league, but the depth also get better. Teams are starting to have backups that can come in and make serviceable appearances without leaving gaps.

And in case you Fire fans were wondering, Chicago is seventh in the allocation order.