FC Dallas snare Villar
Former Austria Salzburg star Ricardo Villar has joined FC Dallas.Schellas Hyndman, manager of the Major League Soccer (MLS) side, announced today (Thurs): “We’re very happy to have Ricardo as a part of FC Dallas. He’s a player that comes in with great experience, having played in Germany and Austria.”The FC Dallas boss praised the 31-year-old who scored two goals in 21 league appearances for Salzburg in the 2004/2005 season for his “good technical ability and great vision”.Villar who was born in Sao Paolo joined Salzburg from the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. He went on to play for German sides 1. FC Kaiserslautern and SpVgg Unterhaching and other clubs. The Brazilian played for the youth squads of Sao Paulo FC where Hyndman was engaged as manager of the senior team between 1976 and 1977.FC Dallas officials did not reveal how much they transferred to Unterhaching to secure the attacking midfielders services.Austria Salzburg was turned into Red Bull Salzburg (RBS) when the energy drink producer acquired the clubs Bundesliga licence six years ago. RBS has since won three league titles but failed to qualify for the main stage of the UEFA Champions League as many times.Meanwhile, RBS defender Douglas da Silva will be out of action for half a year after suffering a torn cruciate ligament in a test match against Czech side FC Slovan Liberec (2-1) last Saturday. The 26-year-old Brazilian joined the team of ex-Schalke 04 manager Huub Stevens from Israeli league champs Hapoel Tel Aviv FC only last month.RBS, who face Wacker Innsbruck in the first Bundesliga round after the nine-week winter break on Sunday, have still not heard back from UEFA officials over whether Robert Vittek, 28, may join them.Turkish club MKE Ankaragücü agreed with RBS to transfer the Slovakian striker, but the decisive fax arrived one minute too late to meet the European transfer period deadline.Officials at the Austrian club said they hope European football authorities will nevertheless give the green light to the transfer.The Bulls also signed right-back Laszlo Bodnar. The Hungarian played for the Salzburg-based side for three years until 2009. Strikers Louis Ngwat-Mahop, Robin Nelisse, midfielder Thomas Augustinussen and keeper Alexander Walke left the team in January.The Austrian Bundesliga table after 19 rounds:SV Ried, 37 pointsSturm Graz, 33Red Bull Salzburg, 33Austria Vienna, 32Rapid Vienna, 30Magna Wiener Neustadt, 28Wacker Innsbruck, 26Kapfenberg, 23SV Mattersburg, 12LASK Linz, 10