Veljko Paunovic has a new weapon for the battle in and among the trees that make up many MLS backlines.
David Arshakyan, a 6-foot-4 Armenian striker, was announced as the club's latest international signing Wednesday, the final day of MLS’ secondary transfer window. Adding a dimension previously lacking for the Fire, the Armenian international brings a back-to-the-goal presence and aerial threat to the team's attacking playbook.
Tickets: Chicago Fire vs. Orlando City SC
Tickets: Chicago Fire vs. LA Galaxy
"Looking at the players today, you can decide a profile of the player you want," Paunovic said Thursday. "I believe that David is, for us, the right fit because of his size, because he gives us something that we didn’t have before, and the most important thing of all for me is that he’s a very good soccer player. He has soccer in his feet. He scores a variety of goals from different situations. He’s a guy who can play, who can serve, who can assist our strikers, but he can also create his own plays in order to score goals. This is what we value a lot in him and this is why we believe also that he will help us improve.”
Still shy of 22 years of age, Arshakyan comes to Chicago following 18 months with Lithuanian first division side FK Trakai, where his versatility and nose for goal caught the eye of Paunovic and likely the attention of his home federation's national team setup.
LISTEN: Nelson Rodríguez teleconference
"Discovering David is interesting and a full credit to Pauno himself," said GM Nelson Rodríguez. "I don't even know how to quantify the number of games and the number of countries that Pauno watches over the course of a week, let alone over the course of a month or a year. Pauno's also very bright, so even though he's played in (MLS) he's taken new learnings from his time this season and started to look in other leagues that he thought players could easily adapt from. In doing that, he found David. He started to watch video, he made calls to connections he has in that part of the world, we scouted David in person...so I give Pauno 100 percent of the credit on this one."
Arshakyan's skill-set, along with that of fellow deadline day acquisition Luis Solignac, could have significant ripple effects on the rest of the Fire attack. While Michael de Leeuw has of late been deployed as a lone striker in Paunovic's 4-2-3-1 setup, Wednesday's signing could allow Arshakyan to lead the line and the versatile de Leeuw to drop underneath to his preferred "nine-and-a-half" role, spending more time on the ball and facing goal.
Arshakyan is the latest in a small fraternity of Armenians to ply their trade in MLS, becoming just the fourth in league history and the first for the Chicago Fire. As with any international signing joining MLS, there will be questions as to how quickly Arshakyan will be able to adjust to new surroundings and a league with well-documented challenges for newcomers, most notably a physical style of play and a vast geographic footprint.
Admitting those trials, Rodríguez and Paunovic feel strongly that Arshakyan has the tools -- not the least of which is a firm grasp of the English language -- to expedite his integration upon receipt of the necessary visa and paperwork.
"What we are convinced of," Rodríguez said, "is David's mentality, his approach to this path, his desire to want to showcase himself as worthy of this stage and in his mind even more. In the end you always make judgments as to whether you think a guy is ready, will fit or not fit. We feel really good about this one. It has a higher degree of risk, yes, but we also think it might have a higher degree of reward."
