TRANSFER TRACKER STATUS:Signing
The Portland Timbers announced Friday they've utilized Targeted Allocation Money to sign forward Samuel Armenteros from Serie A side Benevento Calcio on a season-long loan with an option to buy.
The 27-year-old Swedish national joins Portland six months removed from arguably the best season of his career, when he scored 22 goals in 32 appearances across all 2016-17 competitions in a return to his boyhood club Heracles of the Dutch Eredivisie.
That led to a move to newly-promoted Serie A side Benevento, where he scored once in nine appearances in their 2017-18 campaign.
Armenteros also has previous UEFA Europa League experience with Dutch side Feyenoord and Azerbaijan outfit Qarabag, and has earned two caps for Sweden.
“Samuel Armenteros has a proven track record of scoring goals, and we will look for him to help bolster our attacking corps for the 2018 MLS season,” Portland GM Gavin Wilkinson said in a statement. “It was a priority of ours to bring in another attacker who can help influence games for us. As we looked to strengthen our group this season, we believe that Samuel has the proper mindset and characteristics to have a positive impact with this club.”
Armenteros will likely compete for time with Nigerian striker Fanendo Adi, who is returning to play under new coach Giovanni Savarese after it briefly appeared he might make an overseas move. Also age 27, Adi has 42 league goals across the past three seasons, including 16 each in 2015 and 2016 before hitting 10 in an injury-obstructed 2017 campaign.
The Timbers were in the market for attacking depth after they traded Darren Mattocks to D.C. United this past offseason.
“We are pleased to add another quality attacker to our team," Savarese said. "Samuel is a player with good technical ability that can bring others into the game and has proved to be a prolific goalscorer. We look forward to building Samuel into the squad during the remainder of preseason, and having yet another solid attacking option to rely on for the upcoming season.”
