Chivas USA loses Kljestan, gains opportunity.

Sacha Kljestan: Belgium-bound (Photo courtesy Chivas USA).

Coach Martin Vasquez acknowledged today that Chivas USA is in the market for a striker and attacking midfielder once the international transfer window opens in mid-July, just as star midfielder Sacha Kljestan gave a farewell news conference before heading Wednesday to Belgium's Anderlecht..

"We need someone who is going to make a difference, especially up top," Vasquez said, in something of a familiar refrain.

General manager Stephen Hamilton laughed and said "sure" when reporters jokingly asked if they were interested in the likes of former West Ham striker Guillermo Franco, who is with Mexico at the World Cup.

"We have to find someone of his qualities, his strengths," Vasquez said.

Incidentally, Vasquez dismissed reports linking Jonathan Bornstein with Mexican club Atalante as "just speculation."

Kljestan looked at ease and clearly ready for a new challenge armed with high school French (it's a French-speaking club, not Flemish) at a breakfast press conference at Home Depot Center strategically timed between World Cup games.

He has the fortune of going from the last place team in the Western Conference to the reigning national champions who are loading up for next season by making Kljestan one of four new signings already, he said. (Here's the story of his signing on the Anderlecht Website today, incidentally.)

Preseason training started today and the Huntington Beach native leaves Wednesday for Brussels with his model girlfriend coming later.

"I hope to be in the starting lineup from the first game of the season," Kljestan said. "I feel I have to prove myself as if I was nobody."

Kljestan, who was set to make $238,000 this year in figures released today by the MLS Players Union (more on that in a later post), will make considerably more than that in Belgium where he will become the first American to play for Belgium's biggest club. The deal will give him financial security, Kljestan said.

It's the culmination of an 18-month courtship between a "club I was always interested in" and one that had "followed my career," but never quite put in a formal bid.

"The general manager who has been trying to sign me for a long time said he liked my mentality and he liked my athletic ability to run up and down the field all game, so I think they see me as more of a box to box midfielder, helping control the game, but also making a lot of runs off the ball as well."

"It's always been a goal of mine to play in the (UEFA) Champions League. I didn't think the first club I joined in Europe would be a Champions League team, but it had also been a goal of mine to go to a smaller league, and not go to one of the top five leagues in Europe just because I'd like to get a lot of playing time."

Kljestan is joining a club on the up: Anderlecht is adding 10,000 seats to its current 26,000-capacity stadium and is also opening a new training facility early next year.

Kljestan already knows plenty of players in Europe: former Chivas USA striker Matt Taylor is playing in Germany, Charlie Davies is in France and former Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan is in England a "train ride away." He also talked to U.S. teammate Gooch who said Anderlecht was the best club in Belgium - and that Kljestan was now a "sworn enemy" of the former Standard Liege player who played for Anderlecht's biggest rival before joining AC Milan. Assistant U.S. National Team Coach Lubos Kubik also talked up the Belgian league as "underestimated" and better than the Dutch league.

The domestic season opens in Belgium the second week of August, while before that comes the Super Cup (between the league and cup winners) and the third qualifying round first leg of the UEFA Champions League.

Kljestan conceded the disappointment of not being picked up by Glasgow Rangers Celtic (mea culpa!) after going on trial last year there was more sharply felt than he had previously acknowledged publicly and that only increased the urgency to make a move. He was in the last year of his contract and told Vasquez of his desire to move on, turning down the offer of an MLS contract extension in the process.

"It was a tough situation coming back from that. You try not to get your hopes up. It happens. ... You can't really change the way you feel.

"I felt I've been ready (to move) for about a year now," he added.

"I think it was time to go and it will increase my chances of playing with the national team," he said. "Another door opened a week later after having had all that heartbreak of not going to this World Cup. Who knows? Maybe if I had gone to the World Cup this move would not have come through this summer. Everything happens for a reason."

Kljestan's tip for the midfielder who could take his spot with Chivas USA: Gerson Mayen

As for Chivas USA: "I hope they can turn it around," he said.