Let this sink in: 20-year-old Diego Fagundez has been with the New England Revolution for five years.
And the Homegrown Player has not let that time go to waste as he continues to set club and MLS benchmarks, doing so once again on Saturday night by scoring his 25th career goal at the ripe old age of 20 years and 195 days – making him the youngest to reach that total in MLS history.
The second-half strike that gave the Revs a 1-0 away win over the Philadelphia Union at PPL Park eclipsed former New York MetroStars and Columbus Crew midfielder Eddie Gavin’s previous record of reaching 25 goals at 20 years, 353 days.
“It’s something great,” Fagundez said of reaching the milestone. “It’s something you can add to the career, but there’s still a lot more. There’s still a lot more learning.”
Fagundez’s last goal came on June 13th against the Chicago Fire, a game in which he became the youngest player in league history to appear in 100 matches.
His latest milestone comes as he has re-established himself in head coach Jay Heaps’ lineup, after seeing inconsistent playing time this season despite his 13-goal breakout in 2013. He was making his fifth straight start Saturday night.
Fagundez’s persistence to get back into the lineup paid off when he linked up with Charlie Davies for this third goal of the season and fourth career strike against the Union.
“Diego knew that Charlie was holding up so well that he knew he was going to continue to make runs off of him,” said Heaps. “The two of them linked up really well.”
Drawing a defender off of a long Chris Tierney throw in, Davies was able to one touch his pass to a driving Fagundez, who took the ball toward the top of the box, where he looked for another slashing teammate before realizing that the Union were giving up far too much space.
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“I was surprised how much space they were actually giving me,” said Fagundez. “I just kept coming and coming and the space kept opening. Chris played it through to Charlie, and Charlie just had to do his job, lay it off to me. And I just went for the one-on-one and tried to look for Kelyn [Rowe] running through, and once he couldn’t get really open I just took a shot and saw the ball going on.”
Aside from making him the youngest to reach the mark, the goal also put him alongside some elite company at the club level, tying Clint Dempsey for fifth on the Revolution's all-time scoring list.
“I just have to keep playing the way I’ve been playing and hopefully more things come my way,” said Fagundez.
