Weeks after the Houston Dynamo looked to Honduras for their newest Designated Player, the New England Revolution followed suit.
On Thursday, the Revs announced they had acquired 25-year-old striker Jerry Bengtson from Honduran power CD Motagua. Bengtson will occupy a DP and international slot and will be added to New England’s roster upon receipt of his P-1 Visa and International Transfer Certificate (ITC).
The striker had a sparkling track record in his home country, recently leading La Liga Nacional de Honduras in scoring for three straight seasons. Per league and club policies, contract details were not released.
“We’re very pleased that we’ve added Jerry to our squad,” general manager Michael Burns said in a statement. “He is very well-known within CONCACAF and has been a reliable, consistent scorer for both club and country. We’re looking forward to getting him integrated into our system as quickly as possible and to getting him out on the field in MLS games.”
Since 2010, Bengtson has been the Honduran league’s most prolific striker, winning two scoring titles with Cocoteros during the 2010 Clausura and 2011 Apertura campaigns – tallying 13 and 12 goals respectively – before moving to Motagua in November 2010.
He made it three straight seasons at the top of the scoring charts with the Tegucigalpa-based club, matching Carlos Pavón’s 2007 Clausura campaign with 15 goals and helping his new club win the 2011 Clausura title.
The 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup represented Bengtson's international breakthrough and he has been capped by Los Catrachos 22 times, scoring eight goals for his country since his first cap in April 2010.
Bengtson was named to Honduras’ 2012 Olympic roster as an overage player, and the Revolution will allow him to travel to London later this month to participate in the Games.
The 6-foot-1 forward becomes the third DP in club history, joining midfielder Shalrie Joseph on the current roster as well as Argentine Milton Caraglio, who joined the team on loan for 12 games in 2011 before moving on to CDS Rangers in Chile.
