Uruguayan Brian Ocampo could join América for Clausura 2022

Club América is still looking for a forward prior to the start of Clausura 2022, and has set their eyes in South America, as Uruguayan Brian Ocampo recently became a free agent after his contract with Club Nacional expired.

After the signings of Diego Valdés, from Santos Laguna, and Jonathan dos Santos, who played with LA Galaxy last season but became a free agent when the MLS season ended, América is still pondering its options for adding one or two more players.

Now options are closing for the Coapa team just a week before Clausura 2022 begins, and Ocampo seems the most adequate addition to Solari’s squad, who are also negotiating with Necaxa for the acquisition of Alex Zendejas.

Reports suggested that América was also interested in Agustin Canobbio, another forward who was set to become a free agent this year, but Las Águilas never established negotiations with the 23-year-old Uruguayan and he renewed contract for a year more with Peñarol, his current team.

Ocampo, who plays as a right winger, knows of the interest of the Mexican club and is interested in joining them, but before leaving he would like to help his former team to make some money, which is why he might renew with Nacional so América pays for his economic rights. América knows of the players intentions and could pay up to $4.5 million for his services.

In order for América to acquire a foreign player, they have to free up a spot for non-Mexican players, reason why they're trying to sell Leo Suárez, as he’s not part of Solari’s plans for América in Clausura 2022.

It’s worth mentioning that the winter transfer window for Mexican clubs ends tomorrow, January 3, for players that are currently in Liga MX, but if they were to acquire a player coming from another league, then they’d be able to do it until January 31, same as every other league.

International experience from a young player

Ocampo, who was born in Florida, Uruguay in 1999, has played for Nacional since the 2018/2019 season. He’s played a total of 98 games for Los Albos, and he has managed to score eight goals in his 4-year tenure.

His strength mainly resides as an assistant, as he has scored 26 assistances on that same period of time.

He has experience playing international games, as he’s played on 12 Copa Libertadores games, where he scored two goals and assisted two times, and four games on Copa Sudamericana, where he assisted on one occasion.

His numbers with Nacional caught the eye of former Uruguayan coach, Óscar Washington Tabárez, who called him to play with the senior Uruguayan National Team during Copa América, where he debuted alongside Cavani and Suárez.

Although he played only 25 minutes in the 1-0 loss against Argentina in the Group Stage, if he makes the jump to Liga MX, once he gains a starting role with Las Águilas, he could become a regular for the new Uruguayan coach, Diego Alonso, who will try to revert the bad performance Uruguay has had in the FIFA Qualifiers.

What’s in store for América in 2022?

América will start Clausura 2022 with a visit to Puebla’s Estadio Cuauhtémoc, on January 7 at 22:00 (ET), where they’ll try to beat La Franja, a team that so far has four new additions to its squad, but also lost key players during the offseason.

But the main goal for Las Águilas is to reach the semifinal stages of Liguilla, as they’ve been knocked out in the quarterfinals in the last two seasons, better yet if they can end their 3-year streak without a championship.