FRISCO, Texas (Wednesday, July 22) – FC Dallas has signed Argentine midfielder Ezequiel Cirigliano on loan from River Plate, the club announced today. Cirigliano will be added to the roster pending receipt of his International Transfer Certificate and P-1 Visa. Per league policy, further terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Targeted Allocation Money was used to acquire the player.

“(Cirigliano) is a ball winner. He’s physical and aggressive, but he’s also skilled and can find someone at the point of attack 40 or 60 yards away,” said FC Dallas Technical Director Fernando Clavijo. “I think he’s going to complement what we have in place. We were looking for someone young who we could build around and have for many years. We did that with Fabian (Castillo), Mauro (Diaz), all of our younger players. This team is getting younger and younger, but at the same time getting better and better.”

Cirigliano, 23, began his career in 2009 with River Plate. From 2009-10 to 2012-13, he started 47 times and made another 12 appearances as a substitute for the Argentine powerhouse. The midfielder played in Italy with Hellas Verona during the 2013-14 season. Cirigliano made 13 appearances for the Serie A side before returning to River Plate last season.

“What excites me most about (Cirigliano) is he’s a very high octane guy who moves around well, is aggressive, technically sound and has a great soccer brain,” said FC Dallas President Dan Hunt. “This is a kid who has shown a lot of promise – a ball winner with great feet, a good passer of the ball – we’re all very excited to bring Ezequiel Cirigliano to Dallas.”



About Targeted Allocation Money

Major League Soccer announced on July 8, 2015, that each club will receive $100,000 per year for the next five years ($500,000 total) in additional funds to invest in its roster outside of the player salary budget. These funds, referred to as Targeted Allocation Money, are in accordance with the new Collective Bargaining Agreement concluded prior to the start of the 2015 season.



Full Name: Ezequiel Cirigliano

Hometown: Caseros, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Date of Birth: Jan. 24, 1992

Height: 5’7”

Weight: 157

Position: Midfielder

Country: Argentina