The San Jose Earthquakes have signed Peruvian left-back Marcos Lopez.
The player's former club, Peruvian side Sporting Cristal, made the announcement via its Twitter feed, and a league source confirmed that Lopez is headed to San Jose.
@ClubSCristal y @SJEarthquakes llegaron a un acuerdo por la transferencia definitiva del jugador Marcos López.
— Sporting Cristal (@ClubSCristal) January 4, 2019
Le agradecemos a Marcos por confiar en nosotros para su crecimiento y le deseamos lo mejor en esta nueva etapa.
Más información👇🏽 https://t.co/NbD1cN1WgG pic.twitter.com/LBmdeYoNfE
The Quakes will be hoping that the arrival of Lopez will fill a massive need at the left-back position. Last year San Jose signed Joel Qwiberg to fill the slot, but he struggled to adapt to MLS, and made just five appearances over the course of the season. The bulk of the minutes went to converted midfielder Shea Salinas, but he underwent surgery on his left foot in December. Salinas is expected to miss the start of training camp, which is set to begin on Jan. 21.
Lopez, 19, is currently playing with Peru's U20 team at the South American U-20 championship in Chile, and made his debut for Peru's senior team in a friendly last year against Germany. Last season, he made 23 appearances for Sporting Cristal, scoring five goals.