TRANSFER TRACKER STATUS: Signing
Minnesota United have signed forward Juan Agudelo, the club announced Tuesday.
Agudelo, 28, spent last season with Inter Miami and has enjoyed a long career already in MLS, with 229 appearances. In 2020 he had three goals in 14 appearances (nine starts) with Miami.
“The crazy thing about Juan [Agudelo] is, you forget he’s just 28," head coach Adrian Heath said in a club statement. "He seems to have been around for years and I go back to Juan, all the way back to the beginning of Orlando. He was going to go to England, Stoke City, and he was trying to get the paperwork through. He came in and asked if he could train for a week. Six weeks later he was still training for us, so we have got a little bit of a connection there."
Agudelo burst onto the scene as a homegrown with the New York Red Bulls more than a decade ago and earned his United States men's national team debut before his 18th birthday, breaking a record at the time as the youngest player in USMNT history to score a goal. He made 28 appearances with the national team.
"We just think he’s going to be another really valuable squad player for what’s going to be another really hectic year with the condensed program schedule, and for us to bring somebody in who we know can play in the MLS, play three or four positions, he can play through the middle, he can play wide right, wide left," Heath said. "Nothing is going to faze him. He had a really good impact last year when he played for Inter Miami. I think it’s a really good pick up for us.”
The attacker signed with Stoke City in 2014 but, due to work permit issues, never was eligible to debut for the club. Agudelo spent time with FC Utrecht on loan before returning to MLS, signing with the New England Revolution.
Agudelo is only the second forward rostered for Minnesota, alongside Foster Langsdorf after on-loan striker Luis Amarilla departed.
