Portland Timbers winger Ishmael Yartey arrived in the Rose City on Friday and participated in Timbers training for the first time Monday morning.

Yartey is on loan with the Timbers from FC Sion of the Swiss Super League. The 25-year-old is a versatile winger that can play on either side of the field.

"He's quick," Timbers coach Caleb Porter said. "He's technical. They had him playing one touch (in practice), so you're not going to see his dribbling today, but that is a side of his game that we liked as well."

Yartey said that the passionate fan support in Portland was a big reason why he wanted to join the Timbers.

"I heard a lot of stories about Portland, how passionate their fans are," Yartey said. "I had the opportunity to speak with the coach and he spoke very well with me and told me how the team plays and how he would like me to play. Basically, I was very happy with the way he spoke with me and the style of play, so I decided to join the club."

Yartey described himself as an attacking player with pace that will look to get behind defenders and go up against defenders 1v1.

"I love to score goals and also create goals," Yartey said. "You definitely need to score to win a game, so I always try my best to create goal scoring opportunities for my colleagues and try to score goals as well."

Porter said that the Timbers will evaluate Yartey's fitness this week, but are hopeful that he will be available off the bench when Portland takes on Orlando City SC Sunday.

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg