Atlanta United interested in Monterrey midfielder Jonathan Gonzalez

Major League Soccer side Atlanta United are looking into the prospect of signing Jonathan Gonzalez from Monterrey, ESPN’s Taylor Twellman has revealed.

Atlanta have already recruited Fernando Meza and Jurgen Damm from Liga MX this year and it appears that they are now considering a move for Gonzalez from the Mexican top-flight.

The 21-year-old is quite popular among American soccer circles, having initially represented the United States from the under-14 level to the under-20 level before shunning a senior call-up.

Despite being born in California, he is eligible to represent Mexico through his parents and he made the one-time switch allowed by FIFA in January 2018 to make his El Tri debut.

Gonzalez has since experienced a difficult period at the club level where he has dropped down the pecking order and he made only 24 appearances during the entire 2019/2020 campaign.

Hence, he could be on the move this summer and Atlanta and an unnamed MLS club are said to have expressed an interest in pursuing his services ahead of the restart of the regular MLS season.

Atlanta traded Darlington Nagbe to Columbus Crew for a club-record $1.05m in allocation money in November last year after the 30-year-old was reluctant to sign a fresh contract beyond 2020.

His absence was definitely felt during the recent MLS is Back Tournament which Atlanta exited without a single point on the table. Their elimination was confirmed through a 1-0 defeat to Columbus earlier this week, where Nagbe was in the opposition’s midfield.

The poor showing at the tournament also contributed to the dismissal of Frank de Boer and the club are yet to find a new head coach. Meanwhile, Gonzalez is a defensive midfielder by trade and it remains to be seen whether he is considered as the player to fill the void left by Nagbe.

Stats from Transfermarkt.com