At this point, the rumor that Portland Timbers are chasing Australian A-League star Marcos Flores isn’t a particularly fresh one. What’s spicing up, though, are the terms of a potential deal. There seems to be some confusion among members of the blogosphere and media about what kind of contract Flores would be on, how much the Timbers would have to pay for him, and so on. The playmaker won the Warren Medal (A-League’s Player of the Year award), so it’s not tough to see why he’s the kind of player the Timbers might be interested in. So, let’s deal with this systematically.

First of all, the news that Portland were interested was first reported by Adelaide Now. That same publication ran a more recent story with Flores saying that he did not want to leave, but the choice was not his. Basically, the price tag on Flores is about $1 million. The Timbers may or may not want to pay that, and even though he wants to stay with his current club, Adelaide United aren’t in a position to turn down that kind of cash for a guy whose contract is up next year.

Geoffrey Arnold at OregonLive.com has reported today that Portland are not interested in signing Flores to a DP contract. He cites that $1m transfer figure as the rumored contract for Flores, though, so it’s possible that Mr. Arnold could be slightly confused about the rumors and MLS rules.

What seems most likely, if Flores is signed by Portland, is that he would be a designated player this year, but not in a DP contract. Much like Alvaro Fernandez at Seattle, the transfer fee would make him a DP for one year, but his base salary is likely to fall under $300k per season.