Houston Dynamo trade for Arturo Alvarez

The Houston Dynamo announced on Sunday that they had traded a 2019 second round draft pick to the Chicago Fire in exchange for midfielder Arturo Alvarez. The trade took place during MLS’ four hour trade window and brings home a Houston native who has been in the league for 12 seasons.

The midfielder has played in 237 career games with 146 regular season starts. Alvarez has spent the last two seasons with the Chicago Fire where he played in 55 games with 37 starts. The 32-year-old also scored eight goals in his time in Chicago. He has spent the majority of his career playing in the United States but in 2012 he signed with Portuguese first division club Paços de Ferreira. In 2013 he was loaned to Hungarian club Videoton who he later signed with, playing there until 2015 when he was released by the club.

He played for the United States on the youth national level but was never called up to the senior team. His parents are from El Salvador giving him the opportunity to play for the El Salvadorian national team. Alvarez has represented El Salvador at the senior international level 43 times and has scored four goals. He played in the 2011 and 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cups, the 2014 Copa Centroamericana and FIFA World Cup Qualifying matches.