FC Dallas have signed Argentine midfielder Ezequiel Cirigliano on loan from River Plate, the team announced Wednesday.
The team noted that the newly-introduced Targeted Allocation Money mechanism was used to acquire the 23-year-old Cirigliano. He will be added to the roster pending receipt of his International Transfer Certificate and P-1 Visa.
“Cirigliano is a ball winner. He’s physical and aggressive, but he’s also skilled and can find someone at the point of attack 40 or 60 yards away,” said FC Dallas Technical Director Fernando Clavijo in a statement provided by the team. “He’s going to complement what we have in place.
“We were looking for someone young, who we could build around and have for many years. We did that with Fabian [Castillo], Mauro [Diaz], all of our younger players. This team is getting younger and younger, but at the same time getting better and better.”
Cirigliano began his career in 2009 with River Plate. From 2009-10 to 2012-13, he started 47 times and made another 12 appearances as a substitute for the Argentine powerhouse. The midfielder played in Italy with Hellas Verona during the 2013-14 season. Cirigliano made 13 appearances for the Serie A side before returning to River Plate last season.
At the international level, Cirigliano has played for both the Under-17 and Under-20 national teams of Argentina and played in both the 2009 U-17 World Cup and 2011 U-20 World Cup.
“What excites me most about [Cirigliano] is he’s a very high octane guy who moves around well, is aggressive, technically sound and has a great soccer brain,” said FC Dallas President Dan Hunt said in a statement. “This is a kid who has shown a lot of promise – a ball winner with great feet, a good passer of the ball – we’re all very excited to bring Ezequiel Cirigliano to Dallas.”
