A second rumour has now surfaced regarding the imminent right back on his way to the Whitecaps via trade and this time it has emerged from a very unlikely source: from Craigslist. It seems that someone, somehow, somewhere noticed the following Craigslist ad regarding furniture being sold by a professional soccer player with the Red Bulls who had just been traded.

A poster on Twitter then surmised (adding two disparate rumours together) that it could be Canadian National Team member Karl Ouimette (hat tip to Thomas Brown on that one) on the move with the destination being the Vancouver Whitecaps and that seems entirely plausible. Even the age of the furniture would seem to coincide with Ouimette’s trade to the Red Bulls in March of 2015, approximately 10 months ago….And there is the strange parallel to what happened with Felipe just prior to him being traded to the Red Bulls last year about this time where his trade was basically leaked through baby furniture and sports equipment Facebook ads (see below).

Ouimette, a former Montreal Impact player and Montreal Impact Academy product, going to the Whitecaps makes sense for a number of reasons. While he is mainly a centre back he can also play right back comfortably and has done so for the Canadian National Team as recently as the recent World Cup qualifier against Hondurus in Vancouver at BC Place. Ouimette would count as a domestic player so no international roster spot taken, he would be fairly cheap, he’s young, and has a fair bit of MLS experience. He also apparently has had at least one spat with Red Bulls star Dax McCarthy previously (maybe they don’t like each other?) and maybe its time for him to move on from the Red Bulls? His adding to the roster would also placate for at least a bit the “Whitecaps hates Canada” mantra of a certain soccer pundit back East.

What would be going the other way? Not sure at this point but Ouimette to the Whitecaps does seem at least plausible. Is the rumour true? Know knows? Given that the Red Bulls loaded up on defenders in the draft, there is all of a sudden a wealth of riches in the back line for the Red Bulls and the Red Bulls might be looking to move an asset such as Ouimette, especially since Ouimette was not in the first team for a good portion of last season. If we could only find out if Ouimette has a thing for micro-fibre couches and mahogany furniture then we’d know for sure that we’ve found our man. And as an aside, maybe this whole trade announcement via Craigslist will be a whole new thing? Dunno. Given the Whitecaps recent luck with trades and transfers breaking prematurely via Twitter etc., it would just figure if the Whitecaps latest trade was to break this way.

Update: A variety of sources on Twitter and Reddit have indicated that the individual selling the furniture is not in fact Karl Ouimette at all but is in fact former Red Bull Jonny Steele who recently signed with the Ottawa Fury for next season. Is that in fact the case? Dunno. Strangely though, if it was Steele, why would he say he was traded in his ad rather than just moving on as he appears to have been signed in Ottawa as a free agent? Surely Steele would know the difference. Why would he say traded from the Red Bulls when the Red Bulls weren’t his most recent team? Also, Steele is known for his abundant tattoos (he is after all known as the “Ink Man”), yet the person in the photo in one of the ads has no tattoos on their arm. The plot thickens…LOL. Good fun this. The Reddit page for this is hilarious BTW.

Update to the Update: And here is the apparent final word on the matter from someone who actually responded to the ad. What a total spoil sport. Far more fun to just sit around and idly speculate.

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