updated 7:42 p.m. ET July 21, 2007

CHICAGO - As Chicago Fire coaches and executives talked over beers that night, anything seemed possible — even signing Mexican star Cuauhtemoc Blanco.

“We said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we had a limitless checkbook?”’ general manager John Guppy recalled of the fantasy draft the team held when Major League Soccer was considering a designated player rule that would allow teams to go beyond the salary cap to acquire high-profile players.

A year after that night out, fantasy has become reality for the Fire.

The rule passed in November, and Blanco agreed to a three-year deal in April that will guarantee him $2.7 million this year. After finishing the season with Mexico City’s Club America and fulfilling commitments with the national team, he’s ready to join the struggling Fire.

His on-field unveiling is scheduled for Sunday, when Chicago hosts Scottish Premier League club Celtic FC. Though Blanco’s debut may lack the spice of David Beckham’s red-carpet arrival with the Los Angeles Galaxy, the Fire believe he will galvanize a Mexican community that ranks among the nation’s largest, giving the franchise a boost in the bank book and a spark on the field.

The Mexican League MVP in 2004 and 2005, Blanco was slowed by injuries the past few years, but at 34, the forward remains one of the game’s top playmakers.

“I know people questioned my play after I got injured (in 2006) ...” he said. “I don’t think that those questions exist now. I feel great, my body is in good form. I’m ready to play for Chicago.”

He’s joining a team at the bottom of the standings and one that’s starting over — just like him.

The franchise has changed coaches and is in the process of switching owners. The Anschutz Entertainment Group has a preliminary agreement in place to sell its stake in the franchise to Los Angeles-based Andell Holdings.

Though the new face of the organization is one of Mexico’s most popular athletes, he also has a history of clashing with coaches, referees and opponents.

That history includes the Blanco bounce at the 1998 World Cup in France, where he hopped past two defenders with the ball between his ankles. There was the time a year later when he simulated a dog urinating in the goal after he scored against Atletico Celaya. And in 2004, he was blamed for causing a riot by elbowing a Brazilian player during a game in Mexico City.

There was also the time in 1999 when Blanco celebrated a goal against CF Atlas by laying down in front of coach Ricardo Lavolpe, who got some payback by leaving him off the 2006 World Cup roster.

Lavolpe said Blanco just didn’t fit the scheme. Blanco responded by warning the coach — through a Mexican newspaper — that fans “may go and look for you at your house and cause problems with your family, and that’s why I hope it goes very, very well for you.”

The Fire see Blanco in the mold of other athletes with attitude — think Dennis Rodman and A.J. Pierzynski — who have been embraced in Chicago.

“To add somebody who’s a lightning rod for attention, I think it only helps grow the profile of the Chicago Fire in the community,” Guppy said.

With Blanco in town, Fire executives envision jerseys flying off the racks and seats filling up at Toyota Park, their home in suburban Bridgeview. And they saw the excitement at Soldier Field last month during the final two rounds of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, when Blanco was in town with Mexico’s national team. Team chants and the buzz of noisemakers were a virtual soundtrack, and the Mexican flag was everywhere. Some fans wore masks, but most were in jerseys, many with Blanco’s name and number 10.

They can’t wait to catch a glimpse of their superstar.

Eduardo Sanchez of suburban Alsip bought a Blanco Fire jersey and showed up for the Gold Cup with his wife — decked out in Blanco’s yellow Club America jersey — and three young children.

“Wherever he goes, I go, too,” Sanchez said of Blanco.

Osiel Lubiano made a 2½-hour trip to Chicago from Coldwater, Mich., to watch the Mexican team.

“A lot of people like how he plays,” said Lubiano, who moved to the U.S. from Mexico nine years ago.

But not everyone is a Blanco fan.

“I hate him,” said Elliot Osorio, a 15-year-old from suburban Hoffman Estates.

Osorio’s dad, Sergio, smiled. Although he roots for Blanco, he’s glad his son doesn’t.

“Most people like the fact that he is going to play for the Chicago Fire,” said Sergio Osorio, who’s from Mexico and moved to the United States in 1983. “But I also think there are a lot of people who don’t like ’Temo Blanco because of his attitude on the field.”

Blanco’s supporters see a player they can relate to, someone who remembers his roots after rising to fame from a Mexico City barrio.

At Club America’s training facility, the people who wash the players’ cars and open the gates say he is a generous tipper who always asks how their families are doing and whether they need anything. When big shoe companies tried to lure him with big bucks, Blanco stayed with Concord, a local brand that gave him free shoes when he was playing in the dirt fields.

“They supported me when no one else did,” he told a Mexico City radio station last year. “I will not leave them.”

The loyalty and concern for others is endearing, yet there’s that other side, too.

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“People’s history precedes them,” Guppy acknowledged. “A lot of that stems from the fact that he’s an incredible competitor.”

The Fire are trying to sell that competitor to a city with the nation’s third-largest Mexican population — some 565,000 in a region with 1.4 million overall, according to 2005 census figures. Most of the Fire’s advertising dollars have gone toward ads in Spanish language media and billboards in Mexican neighborhoods.

Blanco lacks the crossover appeal of Beckham, so it makes sense to target a population segment, even a group that statistics suggest does not have much disposable income.

The Fire are banking on the support of the community and fans like Donny Razo, who showed up for the Gold Cup.

“Blanco’s the best player that ever lived,” Razo says. “He’s going to make the Fire win, like, three championships. As long as he’s here, they’re gonna win it all.”

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