Here is the latest from Sounders FC coach Sigi Schmid on the Mario Martinez situation. The midfielder’s loan with Seattle expired Sunday but the team has been in talks to possibly bring the Honduran national back — even if indications haven’t been good recently.
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(Any clarification on Mario Martinez? One report out of Honduras is that you haven’t been able to reach personal terms with him…) “Well, there are two issues always. There’s personal terms and there’s the transfer situation or the loan situation with the clubs. So both of those situations are ones that (GM Adrian Hanauer) is in discussions with them about. It’s also the player. Where is the player? Are you here hoping to be here discussing terms or are you there saying, ‘Well, if you give me the right terms I’ll come back up’? It’s a little bit of desire, how badly he wants to be here. I think he’s a quality player and he has a desire here, but right now we haven’t been able to resolve things at this stage.”
(For the team to move on, does this have to get resolved soon?) “We’re trying to resolve it here in the next 24-48 hours.”
(Does it start to annoy that it seems he doesn’t want to be here?) “You know players make decisions for themselves. I know it’s been difficult for him because of the visa issue, because he was in a situation where he was married, getting divorced, with another woman, had a son there. He was away from his family, so that made it difficult for him, as well. I think all those issues force people or put people into situation where decisions become made for them.”