Innoncent Emeghara was officially introduced at a press conference Monday afternoon as the club's third designated player at Avaya Stadium. Joined by head coach Dominic Kinnear and general manager John Doyle, Emeghara revealed why he chose San Jose, his high hopes for the American game and what he feels he brings to the pitch.
John Doyle:
“On a lot of levels, this is a great day for us. One, we’re here in the stadium. It’s very special to be here and be able to welcome a great player into our family, into our team and to have a place to do it. In the past, we never had that before, so from that side, it’s special. For the staff, Dominic, myself, the coaching staff, ownership, Dave Kaval: Everybody worked hard to get this done. It just doesn’t happen as easy as it seems. You see the player, you like the player, you sign the player, and a lot of stuff has to happen behind the scenes. We were fortunate this year that were able to get ahead of it, and that was made possible by Dave and ownership, giving us a nice budget to be able to go out and get the player we had our sights set on. I want to welcome that player; Innocent, welcome to San Jose, we’re happy to have you.”
Dominic Kinnear:
“I want to thank you for all being here today. Like John said, it’s nice to be able to have a press conference to introduce a player in our stadium with a nice media room. I also want to go on record and thank ownership. We had a good conference call in the preseason to kind of lay out some groundwork on what we can and can’t do in regards to designated players. Dave Kaval was involved with that, so I want to thank him, and I also want to thank John, he’s been very hands-on during this process. I also want to thank the coaching staff for spending a good amount of hours and days to make sure that it was a thorough study of the players and then on top of that, I want to thank Innocent for coming here. If you know the story behind the scenes, you know he had some opportunities to possibly go somewhere else, but with John’s persuasion, he chose to come to San Jose, and I think he’s happy with that decision and so are we. It fills a position of need for us. He’s a forward with good pace, and if you look at his highlight film from over the years, he’s not running away from boys, he’s running away from grown men. We’re very happy to have him here. We had a good training session today on his first day – hopefully that continues, and I wish him good health and success here in San Jose.”
Innocent Emeghara:
“First of all, I want to thank everyone who made it possible for me to be here today. It was not an easy decision for me to make, but after all the possibilities I had, I made this decision, because for me, it is very important to be in a place where I feel at home. I’m very happy to be here and I look forward to it and I’m very motivated to join this team. I look forward to the days ahead where I can help my team the best I can. I also want to thank the coach and John for giving me this opportunity to be here.”
IE:
“I played five years in the top leagues of Europe, so I have a lot of experience there. I have experienced many leagues and I think for me, in the U.S., it’s motivation for me to come here, because the football here is different and the level is also very good. I think the league here is the future for the world, so I’m very happy to be a part of it.”
DK:
“There are scouts within the league who try and help teams find players. When you go to the league, they kind of blanket you and ask what you’re looking for, on top of what’s going on with our own scouting. The profile we were looking for was a forward with pace. Innocent’s name came across, along with many others. We did our due diligence as far as scouting goes, and the one thing that we all said when we were watching the games of his is that this guy’s going to help us. Within that, John had a really good conversation with him. It wasn’t just one person who said let’s do this – we all felt comfortable with it. We asked ourselves: Is this a guy who’s position we’re looking at? Yes. And do we think that he can help us in this league? We all said yes. Like I said, Innocent had opportunities as far back as last week to go somewhere else, so for him to pick San Jose and MLS over La Liga or a team in Germany, it’s a risk on his part, but I think he understands our ambitions as a club and our ambitions as a league. I think he sees the growth of soccer in America and wants to be a part of it.”
IE:
“This was also a reason why I came here to take that next step, because for me it’s like a new beginning. After my years in Europe, it’s like a second part of my career, so I want to take this part very seriously. I’m looking forward to the days ahead.”
IE:
“I am a kind of player that brings everything to the field. When I’m on the field, I try to help the team to defend, help on offense, I try to score, I try to give assists. I’m the kind of player that tries to do the best I can on the pitch. I think my strongest quality is that I’m a very fast and intelligent player. For me, I love to score and I love to see my teammates score. Just to win the game for me is like the best thing.”
JD:
“It’s probably harder for a player to describe himself, but when we looked at everything, there are a few things you want to look at, and in an ideal world, all of those things come together. With Innocent, all of those things come together. He’s the right age - he’s not 38 years old where you’re worried about his health in the twilight of his career. He’s 25 years old. You look at what leagues he’s played in – he’s played in the top leagues around the world. You look at the fact that he speaks English for us is a very important thing. It just makes his life easier to get around and settle in. The fact that he wanted to come to us is great. I was fortunate enough to fly to Zurich to meet him and spoke to him, sat down and showed him everything about Major League Soccer and what the league’s about. I just had a good feeling that he was a player that wanted to come to us, and it wasn’t about this being the end of his career and having one more pay day: he’s come here to work hard and be successful. The things we see as a staff, he can get behind players, he’s a good soccer player and he didn’t say that about himself. It’s not just a mindless guy who’s fast, he’s a good soccer player. Eight days ago, he was playing against Manchester City and he was playing against Frankfurt, and you’re watching the qualities he has, and for us, that kind of sealed it. As Dominic said, we all looked at what we need and we were all in an agreement that he’s a type of player that checks all of the boxes for us.”
DK:
“It helps that he can join in preseason to meet the guys, to understand how the team wants to play. I think for us, we want to get off to a good start this year and want to have the strongest start possible, so that was the reason why the intensity of our search to get a third designated player was thrust upon us. Even saying to him today, ‘How are you feeling? Do you want to take time off for the rest of practice?’ He said no, I want to play. That shows you thing willingness he has to blend in right away and obviously shows to the team that he cares to be here. The timing is wonderful because we have five weeks of preseason to get to know his teammates and to get to know this league, because as you know, starting this week, we have three games against MLS competition, so it will give him a first little glimpse of what’s ahead.”
DK:
“I think that what you always want on the field is speed. When you look at what we’ve down in the offseason here with the additions of Marvell Wynne and Sanna Nyassi and Leandro Barerra, it adds to your team’s speed. Obviously, with the addition of Innocent, it continues that trend. It’s not like we just have a track team out there – we have some good soccer players who on any given day can give team’s problems with their pace.”
IE:
“I come here and it’s different. I understand when my teammates speak, and language is very important. For me, it’s an advantage. I think that the players are very friendly and opened minded. It’s different compared to Europe, because the people here are more open, more polite and friendlier. In Europe, it’s another mentality, honestly speaking.”
IE:
“When I was in Nigeria, I wasn’t playing with a professional team. Then I moved over with my mother in Swiss and I tried to play football. I went to school in Swiss. I grew up playing football in Swiss, so I couldn’t go back to Nigeria and play for Nigeria. I think for me, that’s not fair. Swiss gave me everything I needed to improve my life and to do the best job in the world. That’s the reason why I chose to play for Swiss and I think that mentality too is very different.”
Quakes introduce Innocent Emeghara at press conference
