Defiance midfielder Chris Aquino moves to FC Juárez
Chris Aquino has completed a move to Liga MX side FC Juárez, Sounder at Heart has confirmed. The 18-year-old Defiance midfielder bid farewell to the region and thanked the Seattle Sounders for giving him the opportunity in an Instagram post on Friday.
Aquino, who first signed with the Defiance in 2023, is coming off an impressive season in which he had 11 goals and two assists in less than 1,300 minutes, including the playoffs. Only seven MLS Next Pro players with at least 500 minutes had a better goal-contribution rate than Aquino. Not only was he the first player in Sounders organizational history to score 10 goals in a season as a teenager, no one else had even scored 10 professional goals before turning 20.
Although there is apparently no up-front transfer fee, the Sounders organization does have some upside baked into the deal. If Aquino breaks into the first team, there are some performance escalators based on playing time and a “significant” sell-on percentage if he is moved on.
The Sounders are likely looking at this transaction as a sort of proof of concept, as they’ve never received a transfer fee for a player directly from MLS Next Pro. As good as Aquino has played at times, there just aren’t a lot of good comparisons of teams paying transfer fees for third-division players.
Juárez are one of the newer teams in Liga MX, having started in 2015 and gaining promotion to the top flight in 2019. They are coming off consecutive 12th-place finishes, but are currently seventh in the table which could put them in the Liguilla playoffs for just the second time in their history. Playing time certainly won’t be guaranteed, but on a team that has just one consistent scorer it seems like there’s a reasonable pathway.