As of yesterday (6/25/15) Moises Hernandez, Tesho Akindele, and Mauro Diaz will all remain FC Dallas players for the immediate future.
Homegrown left back Hernandez inked a new four-year contract, as did Argentine trequartista Diaz. Akindele settled for three more years with the club.
If anything this is a statement of intent, potentially to ward off scouts and other clubs alike from the team’s young, core talent. Fabian Castillo first agreed to a new contract in 2015 (February, to be precise). As his year has carried on (with the midseason lull in mind) he is on pace to garner more and more eyes and open more checkbooks as 2015 presses on.
But keeping Diaz, Tesho, and Hernandez is just as ominous for the club. It isn’t like they all simultaneously would fly off the shelf in Frisco in one season, but this will keep them under the Pareja’s watch while still young in their professional careers. They also represent players in which Oscar Pareja puts tons of stock, and are effectively “his” players. Hernandez couldn’t be even more emblematic of that, serving Pareja on the FC Dallas academy side prior to signing a professional contract.
Given that a vast majority of FCD’s 25-and-under crowd have just received contract extensions, one for Victor Ulloa must be on the horizon. His current contract expires at the end of 2015, and is invariably a must-sign, being molded in Pareja’s development academy for one, but secondly and more importantly being rock solid since his breakout last year.
This is overall a grand gesture by the club and hopefully a core that other homegrowns like Coy Craft and Alejandro Zendejas can join in years to come.
Now, let’s work on some immediate solutions for the depth in center midfield.
