Dynamo Sign Marcelo Palomino to Homegrown Contract

The Houston Dynamo have signed 18 year old Marcelo Palomino to a homegrown contract. Palomino is the 11th Dynamo Academy alumnus to sign wit the first team and joins Erik McCue and Memo Rodriguez as homegrown players on the current roster.

Palomino has been a member of the Dynamo Academy since the age of 11 and was named Dynamo Academy Player of the Year in three consecutive seasons from 2016-18. His third honor came after the 2017-18 season in which he scored 17 goals and tallied eight assists in 24 games, while playing up with the U-19 squad.

The midfielder scored three goals in seven matches for the Dynamo Academy U-19 squad in the fall of 2017 and trained with the First Team regularly as the Dynamo earned a spot in the playoffs and advanced to the Western Conference Championship.

Palomino played for Brazos Valley Calvary FC, the Dynamo’s U-23 affiliate in the Premier Development League, in the summer of 2018 and finished with four goals in four appearances as the club won the PDL Mid-South Division title. That same year Palomino was named to the 2017-2018 U.S. Soccer Development Academy Central Conference Best XI team at the end of the season.

Palomino also has multiple appearances at the youth national team level, starting his career in 2014 when he was named to the U.S. U-14 Boys National Team. Since then, the Houston native has been a regular in the pool selected for the U-15, U-16, U-18 and U-19 U.S. squads.

Palomino was selected by now Dynamo head coach Tab Ramos to the U.S. U-18 Men’s National Team in 2018 and claimed the championship in the International Youth Tournament of Vaclav Jezek after beating Japan 4-2 in a penalty kick shootout. Palomino was a regular in the Youth National Team setup for the remainder of 2018 and was most recently named to the U-20 National Team in Sept. 2019 when he joined Ramos for two friendlies in Slovenia.