Marseille: Renewed Interest in Onyewu?

Back in January 2007, Olympique Marseille offered Standard Liege's Oguchi Onyewu a three-year deal which he spurned in favor of a six-month loan to Newcastle United. Gooch's roll of the dice did not work out as the Tyneside club decided not to acquire him so he ended back at Standard where he has helped the club win a championship and make some noise in European competition. This past summer, Paris Saint-Germain had taken an interest in Onyewu after the premature retirement of Lillian Thuram but no deal was made.

Now Ouest-France is reporting that Marseille is once again interested in acquiring Onyewu during the January transfer window. They are also looking at Glasgow Rangers' Madjid Bougherra Lille's Adil Rami, and Anderlecht's Roland Juhasz. They may also be looking at Marcos Angeleri of Argentine side Estudiantes. While Onyewu is reportedly still primarily interested in a transfer to England, there seems to be continued interest in him in France.

Others, like longtime expat soccer observer Keith Richardson (who is also the English translator for Borussia Dortmund's web site) would like to see Gooch playing in Dortmund alongside Neven Subotic in central defense. In this scenario, if Subotic decides to play for the USA, the USA's twin tower central defense would be playing together every week in the Bundesliga - not a bad thing for USA fans.

The question for many of these clubs is whether to acquire Gooch in January or to wait until next summer and get him on a free transfer.