MONTREAL – Are we witnessing Marco Di Vaio’s last hurrah as a professional player?
MLS’ leading goal scorer, who picked up his second Player of the Week nod of the season with a brace against the New England Revolution last Sunday, repeated on Wednesday morning that he was still pondering his future as a Montreal Impact player. Di Vaio’s contract will expire at the end of this season, but the Impact hold an option to bring him back in 2014.
Italian newspaper Corriere di Bologna reported on Wednesday that Di Vaio could go back to his former club as player-executive in late November, but quoted no one. While Di Vaio didn’t address this report specifically, he has always maintained that it was family issues that forced him to go back to Italy in July. Now, the situation – an illness to a relative, Impact president Joey Saputo told reporters on August 26 – might lead him to retire from the sport.
“Maybe [I’ll retire], because it hasn’t been easy for me,” Di Vaio told the media on Wednesday. “I decided to come here with my family, and my family's not in Montreal anymore. It changes things a lot. Of course, if my family were here with me right now, I’d keep going one more year. But now, it’s a family situation. I have two little children, and they need their dad.”
Di Vaio insists, however, that he is fully committed to playing every game with the Montreal Impact and doing his best. Decision time will likely come when the Impact’s season comes to an end.
“We’ll make a decision together: the family and the club, but mostly the family,” Di Vaio said. “It’s not easy right now, because I’d like to keep going for sure. But there are lots of things to consider. We'll see.”
