Hi, I'm Grant Wall, and welcome to the Planet Football Podcast.

Today, S. I. Brian Strauss joins me to talk about Atlanta's MLS record 15 million dollar

purchase of Argentine teenager Ezekiel Barco, the transfer swap of Alexis

Sanchez and Henric Nicotarian, the Defiance Tour of Bruce Arena and Sunil Gulati,

whether North America's World Cup 26-bit is in doubt, and the parade of US

soccer presidential candidates in Philadelphia over the weekend.

Oddward! Let's dive in now. Brian Strauss joining me from Washington, D.C. I am in New York.

Brian, welcome. Hey man. Good to have you on. Lots to talk about.

So let's just dive right in here.

I want to talk about what to me was the biggest news of the week in MLS

and maybe the biggest news in a long time.

Essekiel Baro signs with Atlanta United.

Biggest transfer fee in MLS history for this teenager,

15 million dollars, Arthur Blank, not afraid to spend money.

And I want to ask you, you and I probably haven't seen Esakee-L-Barko play too often.

We might have seen some of the YouTube videos playing for

Independiente in Argentina attacking midfielder.

What do you know about this guy and is this as big a deal to you as it is to me?

I don't know if it's a big a deal to me as it is to you because you love

Argentina a lot and I like Argentina and I'm lucky enough to have been I even went to an independent a game

nice when I was down there so I have an independent a scarf and have that experience

but you love like like you're super super

...