Franco Ibarra was quoted on Twitter confirming that he has signed with Atlanta United.
Ibarra, 19, joins the Five Stripes from Argentinos Juniors in his native Argentina.
Atlanta United has yet to confirm the signing.
The team has two defensive midfielders: Mo Adams and Eric Remedi. It chose not to re-sign Jeff Larentowicz after three seasons.
The defensive midfielder position is important in new manager Gabriel Heinze’s system because they are tasked not only with breaking up counterattacks, denying service to strikers, but also with starting counterattacks with well-placed passes.
Ibarra, who is unproven, with just 11 appearances for his club, has a market value of less than $100,000, according to transfermarkt.us.
Ibarra will occupy an international slot.
Adams, 24, made nine starts as part of 13 appearances last season. When he began to earn consistent starts, he started to show his potential with an ability to play with the ball in tight spaces and to cover a lot of ground. However, he is prone to the poor giveaway. He completed 90 percent of his passes last season. Adams successfully tackled 25 percent of dribblers last season.
Remedi, 25, made 12 starts as part of 18 appearances last season. He scored one goal with one assist. Remedi isn’t a great tackler, successful on just 5.9 percent against a dribbling opponent last season. He completed 84 percent of his passes last season but was successful on 74 percent of passes longer than 30 yards.
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