Orange County SC announced the signing of three new players for the 2017 USL season on Saturday, defender Juan Pablo Ocegueda, midfielder Kevin Jeon and forward Gustavo Villalobos.

The headliner among the trio is Ocegueda, a Southern California native and former U.S. youth international (featuring in the 2013 U-20 World Cup) who has spent his entire career to date in Mexico, with Tigres UANL, Chivas de Guadalajara’s reserves, and second-division Alebrijes de Oaxaca. The 23-year-old has been rumored to be coming to the U.S. to play professionally for years, and he finally gets his chance, as he’s officially on loan from Tigres for the season.

Jeon, 23, is a winger who has been playing in Europe, first in Spain for fifth-division side CD Santurtzi and then in Germany for the fifth-division club Blau-Weiss Friesburg. From Irvine, Jeon, like Ocegueda, appears to be returning home to play professionally for the first time.

Villalobos is the senior member of the trio, a 25-year-old striker. After playing collegiately at Cal State Northridge, he played in Sweden for fourth-tier club Ange IF, then in Malta for a pair of first-division teams, Qormi FC and Pembroke Atleta, before signing with USL side Tulsa Roughnecks during their inaugural 2015 season, and playing the last two seasons there. He scored one goal in 18 regular season appearances for Tulsa in 2016.

All three players seem like likely candidates to be in the sights of Orange County SC’s MLS partner, Los Angeles Football Club, for the upcoming season to see if any are candidates to make the jump to the MLS team’s roster in their inaugural 2018 season. Perhaps, but first they need to show what they can do at OCSC.

Orange County now has six players announced for the 2017 roster, and the season starts March 25 against Reno 1868. There’s sure to be many more signings in the weeks to come, and we’ll have all the coverage.

What do you think? Leave a comment below!