Brotherly Game Archive
Soumare Discusses His Situation On The Fire Confidential Podcast: Part 1
Transcribed quotes from Bakary Soumare's interview on The Fire Confidential Podcast. This is part one of a two part article from the podcast.
The following is part one of a two part article of transcribed quotes from a podcast interview Bakary Soumare did with The Fire Confidential Podcast.
What were your expectations? How do you feel about how things have gone?
How much did Peter Nowak have to do with trading up to pick you up? Do you think it’s something that changed because of his departure from the club?
“It’s possible. This is one of the questions I can’t answer for a fact. Yes, when I was still playing in Germany, I had an option to stay in Germany if I wanted to, but I had a long conversation with Peter. That was well before I decided to come back to the league. That was toward the end of the Bundesliga season when I talked to Peter. He said listen, he’d love to have me in Philly and he’s gonna do whatever it takes to bring me here.
Yes, the process was intiated by Peter and Peter is the one who played a major part in convincing me to come back into the league. He, unfortunately, was let go. At the point were he got let go, was at the end of my deal getting together. He played a huge part in it. When I signed, John Hackworth was the coach. The truth is, and everyone knows, that a lot of the groundwork was done by Peter Nowak and by Diego, because they both were still there. And when I signed, Diego was actually still there as a Technical Director and he got let go the week after.”
How did the preseason go?
Were you surprised by the Union bringing in Jeff Parke?
“I wasn’t surprised that they brought in Jeff. I thought he was the right move considering we were losing our captain and center back Carlos Valdes. Obviously, they had to bring in someone else. Coming into the season and preseason, at the end of last season, I think the goal was to get Amobi to move back into his more natural position, which is him as a midfielder and me in the back with Jeff or Carlos, if he had been here. At least that was what I was told, at the end of the season and the preseason.
Even the last game, leading up to our first game, which was against DC, which was the last preseason game, it was how we played. We played with Jeff in the back and Amobi in the middle. Amobi is really good in both spots, you’ve gotta give him that credit, but I thought that’s what we were going to start with. Literally two days before the first game against Kansas City, that’s when I found out that I wasn’t going to be playing and that we were going to go back to a different center back pairing because they felt like that was the best for the team, I guess. I didn’t expect it at all, though.
This one I really got blindsided by. That’s my seventh season as a pro. Decisions have been made. I’ve been on the bench a couple of times, but this, I really got blindsided. I didn’t expect this at all.”
Are you willing to move out of MLS? Would you prefer to move back to Chicago if given the opportunity to do so?
Has Philadelphia been in conversations with Chicago? Or other clubs?
