On Friday, the Portland Timbers announced the signing of Swedish striker, Samuel Armenteros on loan from Serie A club, Benevento Calcio. The club used Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) to bring in the player that they will have the option to buy at the end of his loan.

Armenteros will join the club pending receipt of his International Transfer Certificate (ITC) and P-1 visa.

Career Path

Samuel Armenteros has appeared in over 200 matches in Europe for 6 teams in 4 different leagues. The 27-year-old made his debut as a 19-year-old for Eredivisie side, Heracles Almelo. The striker spent 4 years at the club totaling 100 appearances and 26 goals before moving to Belgian giants, Anderlecht.

While in Belgium, Samuel made just 5 appearances and scored just once. He was then loaned back to the Netherlands, this time, however, he would play for Feyenoord. Again, just scoring 1 goal but this time he made 19 appearances. Next season, he joined his third Eredivisie side, Willem II where he would improve his goal output scoring 11 times in 29 appearances.

Then, to switch things up for the 2015-2016 season, Armenteros decided to join Qarabağ FK in the Azerbaijan Premier League. This time, the Swede was not on loan and he scored 7 goals in 23 total appearances in Azerbaijan's top flight. Then, ahead of the 2016-2017 season, Armenteros decided to move back to the Eredivisie as he went back to the club where it all started, Heracles Almelo.

Armenteros in a Europa League game with Qarabag. | Photo: Lionel Cironneau/AP
Armenteros in a Europa League game with Qarabag. | Photo: Lionel Cironneau/AP

Once again, the striker had a good spell at the club as he went on to score 19 goals in 29 games, an impressive goal ratio. However, Armenteros decided to move yet again as he joined Serie A side, Benevento Calcio for the 2017-2018 season. After just 6 appearances and 1 goal for the club, Samuel has decided to move west and join the Portland Timbers.

Quotes

The Timber's General Manager, Gavin Wilkinson said: “Samuel Armenteros has a proven track record of scoring goals, and we will look for him to help bolster our attacking corps for the 2018 MLS season.” The General Manager followed that up with “It was a priority of ours to bring in another attacker who can help influence games for us. As we looked to strengthen our group this season, we believe that Samuel has the proper mindset and characteristics to have a positive impact with this club.”

The compliments didn't stop there as Portland Timbers new Head Coach, Giovanni Savarese said “We are pleased to add another quality attacker to our team. Samuel is a player with good technical ability that can bring others into the game and has proven to be a prolific goal-scorer.” Portland's new head coach followed that up with “We look forward to building Samuel into the squad during the remainder of preseason, and having yet another solid attacking option to rely on for the upcoming season.”  

Quotes via Timbers.com

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About the author
Jay Stucchio
Sports journalist based out of New York. Writing about the beautiful game worldwide. Editor at Vavel USA.