Jose Villarreal

Acquired by Los Angeles: Signed by the Galaxy on December 22, 2011.

The Inglewood, Calif. native is the third player to be signed directly from the Galaxy Academy, joining Tristan Bowen, who, in 2008, was the first player in MLS history to be signed directly from a club’s academy, and Jack McBean, who signed with the Galaxy in January 2011 and became the youngest player ever to play in a game and score a goal for the club in the regular season finale against Houston in October.

Academy

Villarreal is in his first season with the Galaxy Academy after joining the club from local club team Pateadores after helping them win the U.S. Soccer Development Academy U-18 championship in July, scoring 20 goals in 31 games for the club, including two in the U-18 Development Academy Final. This season, the skillful midfielder who began his club career with the South Bay Force, has scored three times in the six games that he has played in a Galaxy uniform as the team, which has a 7-0-2 record so this season.

National Team

Villarreal joined the U.S. Under-23 National Team for a camp in Germany in November 2011, playing in a scrimmage against Azerbaijan. In addition to his time with the U-23’s, Villarreal, who is eligible to play for the U.S. U-20’s, has played for the U-18’s in July 2011 at the Milk Cup in Northern Ireland, starting all three games that his team played in the competition, tallying one assist.