According to Canadialand, we have O’Brien

By: Melissa | February 26th, 2008

I’m holed up in my new “office” at work (don’t ask) so I’ll make this brief. Reports from GolTV confirm we’ve just traded some allocation money and next year’s first round draft pick for Ronnie O’Brien. Soccer Spin has, of course, been on this all day and to any Quakes fan, if you are not regularly checking their site, then please please please add them to your bookmarks or rss feed or whatever immediately.

At first, it seems like a strange trade. Since last year, O’Brien primarily played on the right side in the midfield and our Shea Salinas has been doing very well in that position so far. But after more thinking and reading other peoples’ comments, O’Brien could very well find himself paired in the middle with Corrales or even on the right and Salinas over on the left. Either way, isn’t it great we’ve got enough games in that we can start making maybe baseless but seemingly legitimate predictions on player positions? And the season hasn’t even started yet. But in all seriousness, it looks like O’Brien is coming in as an attacking midfielder and to that, I say yay! Offense!

On another note, I have to share this little tidbit from O’Brien’s Wikipedia entry:

In August 1999, Time Magazine in the United States conducted an internet poll to find the Person of the Century. Mischievous friends in Bray sent an e-mail urging Irish people to vote for Ronnie O’Brien. O’Brien vaulted his way to the top of the standings, beating out such notables as Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King and Bill Clinton. Then there was a computer crash, which Time said was a result of too many people voting online at once. Instead of being named Person of the Century, O’Brien was taken out of the running, because Time officials said not enough people had heard of him. The official rules stated, “whimsical candidates will not be counted.”

Similarly, O’Brien was also voted Juventus’s best ever player, even though he never played a game for the club. An email was sent around between Irish students who propelled O’Brien to the number one position in the poll. He received 32% of the vote

I think this guy is going to very quickly become my new favorite Quake.