Sporting KC Signing Chilean Diego Rubio as a Young DP

Robb Heineman and Peter Vermes have been talking about the club signing a new young forward to help with the load up top for Kansas City. Today reports started coming out of Spain that Kansas City was negotiating to bring in Chilean forward, Diego Rubio from Real Valladolid. Tonight, Heineman confirmed the signing was coming in the next day or so and later in the evening Sam McDowell from the KC Star confirmed the reports from Spain that KC was signing Rubio. According to McDowell, the 22 year old Rubio will be a young designated player.

Rubio will be joining KC after just signing for Valladolid in the past year, appearing 13 times for the club since signing in August. Before that Rubio had been on the books at Sporting Club de Portugal. He'd been with the club since 2011, but had only appeared in 11 games for the first team. Instead he'd spent most of his time with Sporting B and out on loan. Rubio had joined Sporting from Colo Colo in Chile where he'd made his debut shortly before turning 18. Rubio has earned three caps for his native Chile, beginning in 2011 when he was just 18 years old.

Since Rubio is 23 or under, he will qualify as a young designated player. This means that Rubio will cost only $200,000 against the cap instead of the $436,250 that it costs for a DP who is over the age of 23. Watching some highlights of him he looks a lot like Dom Dwyer in terms of his style of play. On the surface it certainly looks like a move that fits a big need for KC.