Though the move won't officially take effect until the international transfer window opens July 15, Major League Soccer's Chivas USA announced the signing of Venezuelan forward Giancarlo Maldonado Thursday.
Maldonado will join Chivas from Atlante in Mexico's Primera Division, where he scored 32 goals in 72 games, starting 58, from 2007 to 2010. He led them to the 2007 Apertura championship by kicking the game-winning goal against Pumas UNAM and was the second-leading scorer in the tournament after scoring 18 goals in 20 games of the regular season.
Also that season, he was named the winner of the Golden Boot of the Americas as South America's best player.
Maldonado also played for Atlante during the 2009 CONCACAF Champions League.
He is his country's all-time leading scorer on the senior national team with 19 goals in 48 games after playing on their U-20 and U-23 national teams.
He began his career in the youth system of Uruguay's River Plate before moving back to Venezuela to join Nacional de Tachira, who he led to a title in 2001-02.
After stints in Venezuela with Mineros de Guayana and Union Atletico Maracaibo, he played for O'Higgins in Chile in 2006, scoring 21 goals that season.
Maldonado's first game with Chivas could be July 24 when they face the defending league champion Real Salt Lake at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, UT.
0 comments:
Post a Comment