KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Twitter may have brought Chad Ochocinco to Kansas City, but only Ochocinco could convince Sporting manager Peter Vermes that his intentions were pure.
After being pestered for nearly a week about the possibility of bringing Ochocinco in for a trial, Vermes finally relented on one condition.
“The communications department came to me and said that he was interested in trying out,” Vermes said. “I heard that for like five days, and I finally said ‘Look if you are serious, the only way that it would a remote possibility was if I talked to him first.’”
Unsurprisingly, Ochocinco was extremely convincing.
“I directly asked him if it was a media thing because I know he’s a media junkie,” Vermes said. “I don’t mean that in a negative way. It’s just what he is. He said ‘No. I’m totally serious. I love the game. I’ve always wanted to play soccer. That’s the sport I love the most.’”
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With those words ringing in his ears, Vermes put his stamp of approval on a four-day trial for the 33-year-old wide receiver that will begin next Wednesday and stretch until Saturday. If Ochocinco manages to impress the coaching staff, the trial could be extended.
On one hand, the move is a brilliant public relations ploy for an organization that has made plenty of splashes during the past year. On the other, Vermes hasn’t been shy to give players a chance on trial, and none have the athletic pedigree Ochocinco does.
The media-savvy wide receiver has been resolute in his love for soccer over the years, visiting elite clubs throughout Europe and voicing his desire to give his sport of choice a try should the NFL labor situation deteriorate.
Now that the NFL finds itself in labor limbo, Ochocinco has the legitimate shot he’s been waiting for. What he can make of it remains to be seen.
“Out of all the guys that we’ve had in, 99 percent of them don’t have the physical tools that he has,” Vermes said. “Now the question is, can he play the game? That’s what we will find out pretty quickly.”
That’s an exciting prospect for Sporting’s players and the fans and media that make it out to training next week.
Sporting’s resident king of Twitter, striker Kei Kamara, invited Ochocinco to come train with the team last year via the social networking site but never thought he would actually see the All-Pro wideout lacing up his cleats at the team’s Swope Park training complex.
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Kamara said he’s been a fan of the Bengals' receiver since college and was anxious to see if the hype would actually parlay into real ability on the soccer field.
“I just really want to see because there has been a buzz about how many soccer skills he’s got,” Kamara said. “I want to see what the buzz is all about. I’m sure he is going to come in and act like a professional, which is good. We’re just going to be playing, but at the same time there is going to be a little bit of competition here and there.”
One place there is no competition, however, is on Twitter, where even Kamara acknowledged Ochocinco’s superiority.
“It’s no competition, man,” Kamara said. “He’s the best at what he does.”
Now, Ochocinco has the ideal opportunity to back up all that talk and all those Tweets, even if the odds are against him.
“It’s a long shot,” Vermes said. “To say that it wouldn’t be would be crazy.”
