It's been rumored for a long time, and on Tuesday afternoon it finally came to fruition: FC Dallas announced they have sold Homegrown goalkeeper Richard Sanchez to Tigres UANL of Liga MX.
A product of the FC Dallas Academy, Sanchez signed a Homegrown contract with MLS in 2011 at age 17.
Now 20, he's been a mainstay on Mexico’s youth national teams in the intervening years and spent the majority of the last few seasons on national team duty, helping the Mexico Under-17 national team to a World Cup Championship in 2011 and representing the U-20 squad as a starter for all four matches at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2013.
In MLS Reserve League action, Sanchez went 2-1-1 with a 1.50 GAA for the 2012 FC Dallas Reserves. The following season, he joined the Fort Lauderdale Strikers on loan, starting 14 matches for the NASL side and finished with a 5-6-3 record, 1.428 GAA and three shutouts.
In 2014, Sanchez logged 135 minutes of Reserve League action with one win, a clean sheet vs. Montreal to start the season.
The move to Tigres does not come as a surprise, as Sanchez played for the Monterrey-based side in a recent friendly vs. the San Antonio Scorpions of the NASL and was in Mexico for a physical last week. Sanchez, who was born in Los Angeles and holds dual citizenship with the US and Mexico, will join fellow Americans Herculez Gomez and Jose Francisco Torres on the team.
Sanchez is not officially cap-tied to Mexico as of yet.
Per team and league policy, terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
