Liga MX: Diego Valdés América first reinforcement for Clausura 2022

Club América officially announced its first reinforcement for the Clausura 2022, and Diego Valdés will wear América´s jersey for next season. The águilas board of directors announced the signing of the Chilean on social networks after Santos Laguna reported his departure from the institution on Wednesday. 

"América y ya ¡Bienvenido Diego Valdés a #ElMásGrande!", announced the Azulcrema Club on their social networks, to communicate their new reinforcement, while they also shared a couple of photos of the player, one of them with his new jersey and another where he is signing his new contract.

Valdés will wear his third shirt in Mexico after joining Morelia in 2016 from Audax Italiano.

Why did it take América so long to sign the midfielder?

Although the arrival of Diego Valdés in Mexico City was reported on December 11 to arrange the final details before joining Coapa, there was a fundamental reason that held up the official announcement by the directors, that was, the vacancies for players not formed in Mexico.

One of the medium-term plans in Liga MX is to reduce the number of places for players not formed in Mexico in order to give national youth players a better chance to stand out in the First Division. During the 2020-2021 season, the maximum number of places for such players was 11 in the entire squad, while in the lineup there could be nine. For this year the number was reduced to 10 and eight, respectively, so Valdés did not have a secure place.

"Clubs may only have a maximum of 10 (ten) players Not Formed in Mexico among those registered in their Liga MX squads and their U-20 Basic Squad affiliates″, states Article 27 of the General Competition Regulations of Liga MX for the season corresponding to the last semester of 2021, as well as the first semester of the year 2022.

Currently, in the Coapa team, Sebastián Cáceres, Bruno Valdez, Emmanuel Aguilera, Pedro Aquino, Álvaro Fidalgo, Nicolás Benedetti, Richard Sánchez, Renato Ibarra, Roger Martínez and Federico Viñas are the players who occupy the Non-Mexican Formed places. Thus, the board would have to wait to negotiate and finalize the departure of one of these players before confirming Diego Valdés.

The 27-year-old South American midfielder has been one of the main references of Club Santos Laguna in recent seasons. However, the departure of Guillermo Almada from the sidelines would have allowed the board of directors to negotiate his departure from the team. In the most recent semester, he played 15 games, 13 as a starter, and scored five total goals.

América likes Santos Laguna players

Diego Valdés is not the first player to leave Santos Laguna to play for the Azulcremas. In recent seasons, players such as Oribe Peralta, Darwin Quintero, Christian Benítez, and Jorge Sánchez have reached their highest levels with Santos Laguna side and then joined the team with the most titles over the Liga MX.