If everything had gone as expected, Samuel Armenteros wouldn’t be a Portland Timber right now. He’d be 5,000 miles away playing for Utrecht in the Eredivisie. But, as Armenteros says, “Soccer can change.”



It was only six months ago he signed a deal with Utrecht and then waited for the official word that his loan from Benevento Calcio in Italy to the Dutch club had been approved.



“I had my clothes packed, my furniture was taken care of—I cleaned the whole apartment,” Armenteros says. “I was just ready for the phone call, and it didn’t come.”



Instead, he eventually got a different phone call. His agent told him: “You’re not going to believe this.”



Before Armenteros transferred to Benevento, he played 45 minutes for the reserve team of his previous club, Heracles. He just wanted to get match-fit before he arrived in Italy and asked to get some playing time. But little did he...