Union: 'There's no deal' for Colombian goalkeeper

Union fans were set atwitter today by this report in the venerable German soccer magazine Kicker that the club has made a deal to sign Colombian national team goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon.

But a spokesperson for the Union told me this afternoon that "there's no deal" to bring Mondragon, who plays for FC Koln in Germany's Bundesliga, to PPL Park for the second time in his career.

I don't speak German, so I ran the story through an automated translator to get at least some kind of idea of what the story says. The key phrase is that the "deal with Philadelphia should be already fixed." Furthermore, Mondragon had reached an agreement with former Koln general manager Michael Meier that he could leave the club during the Bundesliga's winter break on a free transfer.

Meier was sacked at the end of November, but it sounds like Mondragon still has the ability to leave the club.

Now again, that's just an automation, so if one of you speaks German, please feel free to email me and let me know what you think it says. Or leave a post in the comments.

The other notable phrase in the story is that Mondragon's interest in Philadelphia stems from Colombia's friendly against the United States at PPL Park last October. Mondragon speaks English, and I interviewed him after that game. You can listen to the interview here.

It's also probably fair to think Mondragon has also heard good things about the Union from the club's two current Colombians, Roger Torres and Juan Diego González.

Having said all that, the Union told me they've had discussions with a lot of players this offseason. When the conversation turned back to Mondragon specifically, I was told: "There have been discussions, but the deal isn't there."

Stay tuned to this one.