Houston Dynamo acquire Ezequiel Ponce in club-record deal

Ponce has 92 goals and 19 assists in 308 professional appearances, highlighted by his stints with AEK Athens (Greece) and Spartak Moscow (Russia). From the Argentinian club Newell’s Old Boys, he joined AS Roma (Italy) in 2015 and also has stops in Elche (Spain), Granada (Spain) and Lille (France).

While playing at AEK Athens, Ponce was coached by former San Jose Earthquakes manager Matias Almeyda.

“Most importantly, Ezequiel and his family were very motivated to come to Houston and play an important role in our project,” Onstad continued. “He impressed us at every step of our evaluation process. We are thrilled to have Ezequiel, Martina and their young family join us in Houston and look forward to achieving great things together.”

This season, Houston has scored 20 goals, the lowest in the Western Conference. Ponce should help remedy that, joining a team led by midfielders Héctor Herrera and Coco Carrasquilla – hoping to build on last year’s Western Conference final and U.S. title. Open Cup.

With the arrival of Ponce, Houston could look to shed DP forward Sebastián Ferreira. The Paraguayan international and previous club record has scored 13 goals in 2022, but has yet to quite settle in under head coach Ben Olsen – scoring once in 16 appearances for Dynamo over the last few years. last two seasons while also being loaned to Brazilian Vasco da Gama.