TRANSFER TRACKER STATUS: Signings
The Vancouver Whitecaps have signed a pair of young players to Homegrown contracts, the club announced Thursday.
Center back Gianfranco Facchineri, a 17-year-old Academy product, is joined by midfielder Patrick Metcalfe as the 20th and 21st Homegrown signings in Whitecaps franchise history.
Facchineri played for Vancouver's U-17 side in 2018-19 and the Developmental Squad in 2019. He's also featured heavily in international play, suiting up for Canada's U-17s at the Concacaf U-17 Championship and the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2019 and was the 2019 Whitecaps FC BMO RESP Academy Male Player award recipient.
"Frankie is a player who has worked hard and grown since joining our club," Whitecaps coach Marc Dos Santos said in a club release. "We really like his mindset, especially his approach to training and commitment to learning. He is still young, he will have time to develop and is someone we want to have close to the first team even if there is the possibility of him continuing his progress with the U-19s and Development Squad."
Metcalfe, a 21-year-old midfielder, joined the Whitecaps Residency program in 2016 before getting signed to the club's former USL Championship affiliate Whitecaps 2 in 2017, making four appearances. He spent 2018 with TSS FC Rovers of the Premier Development League before joining the Whitecaps Development Team last season.
The pair join goalkeeper Thomas Hasal and midfielder George Mukumbilwa as Development Squad players who have made the leap to Vancouver's first team in the last year. The Whitecaps' most notable Homegrown to date, of course, would be winger Alphonso Davies, who was sold to Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich for a then-record transfer fee in 2018.
