FRISCO, Texas - In signing Thiago Santos and Fafa Picault, FC Dallas made key acquisitions that addressed gaps in its squad. But those weren’t necessarily the most important moves made this off season. Dallas penned five crucial players to long term contracts extensions over the last few months: Jesus Ferreira, Jesse Gonzalez, Matt Hedges, Ryan Hollingshead and Paxton Pomykal. While fans unsurprisingly clamor for more, high-profile international signings, locking down these five core players is vital for the seasons ahead.
These five players were all among Dallas’ top performers in 2019. And in Ferreira, Gonzalez and Pomykal, FCD has three of MLS’ most promising young players in their positions. The new contracts are an investment and a signal that Dallas sees this core as the spine on which to build the team around.
“I think it’s important to value the players that are here and performing well—especially the Homegrowns,” FC Dallas Technical Director Andre Zanotta told 3rddegree.net. “They’ve been loyal to this club and growing throughout our system and developing. We believe we they had a very good year, so it was a no brainer that we wanted to keep those guys here for a longer time.
“We rewarded them with a better contract which extended the term and increased their salary and they all deserved that. It’s important for us to recognize what they’ve been doing for the club."
The philosophy of building around a certain core of players is familiar to Zanotta. He helped assemble Gremio’s squad that won the Copa do Brasil in 2016, the Copa Libertadores in 2017 and Recopa CONMEBOL in 2018 by locking down key performers and adding additional pieces to complement them.
Zanotta believes the same strategy will prove successful in MLS.
“We’re building a new team here, and all those new players that we signed we want to keep them as a strong foundation for the team. And then adding players like Fafa (Picault) and Santos we feel (they) will be very important for us next season.
“I feel confident in what we’re doing here. We’re working on what’s the best for us. The league is growing, the product is getting better—attracting better and better players. We’re confident that we have a stronger roster than last year and hopefully we fight for something more than just reaching the playoffs.”
