TRANSFER TRACKER:Trade
Minnesota United announced on Thursday the club has acquired goalkeeper Adrian Zendejas via trade from Nashville SC for a 2021 4th round MLS SuperDraft pick and up to $100,000 in General Allocation Money if Zendejas meets certain performance-based metrics.
The move gives the Loons another goalkeeping option, with starter Tyler Miller out recovering from season-ending hip surgery and No. 2 Greg Ranjitsingh currently unavailable with a knee ailment.
Zendejas joins 23-year-old Dayne St. Clair and 16-year-old Homegrown Player signing Fred Emmings among the Loons' healthy goalkeeping ranks.
"While we’ve got loads of faith in young Fred Emmings, we didn't want it to be, you know, if the situation arose that we put him under that much pressure," club manager Adrian Heath said Thursday during a conference call. "Obviously with Tyler going down and Greg having a minor operation on Friday, we we didn't feel we could go into the rest of the season with two young goalkeepers. and we you know we wanted to bring somebody in should we need them."
St. Clair, only 23 and a member of the 2019 Generation Adidas class, has started Minnesota's last three games, earning two wins and keeping one clean sheet.
"We've been really pleased with Dayne so far," Heath said. "He has played three games, we’ve won two of them. I think he's kept the goal really really well. So, he will keep that position. But, you know, it wasn't ideal going into it with just the two keepers, the two young ones."
Expansion Nashville had acquired the 25-year-old Zendejas ahead of 2020. He has appeared in only one MLS match, for Sporting Kansas City, but had 46 starts over four seasons with Swope Park Rangers, Kansas City's USL side.
