Most players that began their MLS career prior to 2014 are fairly old, but that is not the case with Diego Fagúndez. Despite debuting over 12 years ago with the New England Revolution, Fagundez is just 28 years of age. His highest scoring season even came prior to 2014, with 13 goals. He amassed 17 goals and 10 assists in his first three seasons. Fagundez, who was born in Uruguay and moved to Massachusetts at 14, was the first ever New England Revolution homegrown signings from the academy. He's been balling ever since.
He opened his 2014 account in a thrashing of the Seattle Sounders, where he scored a brace. In the next match, he scored during a 5-3 win at Philadelphia. It was a third straight match with a goal when he smashed one in at the back post against DC United. Fagundez went pretty cold after that stretch, not scoring again until September, when he scored a header against Chicago and celebrated with the musket men. For the New England Revolution, 2014 was a massive success, for the most part. For Diego Fagundez, it was not. By the end of the season, he was effectively benched. The Revs played five matches in the postseason, including MLS Cup 2014, and not once did Fagundez touch the pitch. “I couldn’t find the net and was kind of struggling,” Fagundez said. “Then the team started doing well, and once that happens, it’s hard to get back into the game.”
Fagundez would look to recover in 2015 from his rough ending of the previous year. He started the first three matches, but went straight back to the bench. He went eight games without a single start. At long last, he scored a curling free kick to equalize the LA Galaxy on the final day of May. He smashed home a powerful volley at the top of the box in his very next game. In late August to early September, he finally caught a consistent run of form. He opened the scoring in Philadelphia by picking out the bottom left corner from right on the edge of the eighteen. Against Orlando in the next one, he brought the ball down and finished into the bottom corner. Up in Toronto, he hit a first-time curler from long range. Fagundez scored in his fourth consecutive game when he beat Luis Robles a minute into the match. The end of the season was a bright sign for the young attacking midfielder.
Fagundez hit a perfect strike to score on 2016 opening day in Houston. He also assisted the other two goals in the 3-3 draw. He rolled a match-winner and the lone goal against the New York Red Bulls in April. He struck again in May with a strange deflection in the upper netting. He weaved through the defense to score a lovely goal against NYCFC later in the season. Diego scored a crucial goal against Chicago in a must-win game, but the Revs would lose and had themselves in a bad spot going into Decision Day. On Decision Day, Fagundez scored a free kick that held up as the match-winner. The Revolution did not control their own destiny, and missed the playoffs on just a tiebreaker. Diego was also apart of the effort to make the US Open Cup final, but FC Dallas won it 4-2.
In 2017, Fagundez posted his highest goal scoring number since 2014, scoring 7 goals and assisting 8. He scored a brace against the Columbus Crew, topping off a nice run of play, then poking home a solo run. He added another against Toronto, from a Juan Agudelo layoff. In the penultimate game of the season, he found the upper 90 against NYCFC, then made it a double in the final moments. On Decision Day, with the playoffs already gone, Fagundez scored against Montreal. It was a dramatic win for the Revs, but they would not be moving on.
In 2018, Fagundez had what was probably his best season with the Revs. He scored 9 times, adding 10 assists. Just 48 minutes into the season, he beat Tim Howard with a low shot. In the second match of the year, he stuck one off the inside of the post and into the net. Fagundez made up for a missed penalty kick by scoring later on in a game with Montreal. He then laced one in off an incredible buildup against the Red Bulls. Two matches later, he hit a curling free kick of pure beauty in San Jose. In a game that Revs fans will want to forget, as they choked badly in stoppage time, Fagundez opened the scoring against LA Galaxy. He was really starting to get rolling, scoring from the spot in the next match versus Minnesota as well. Yet again, New England was not going to be participating in the playoffs. No. 14 scored twice more on the year. He scored a first-time shot on a cross in October. On Decision Day, with their decision already made, he became the youngest player in MLS history to score 50 goals.
Fagundez did not open his account until July in 2019, when he headed home a Cristian Penilla cross. Two matches later, he scored arguably the greatest goal of his career. The Orlando City defense backed up and gave him space, which proved to be a grave mistake. He gave it a ride into the top left. Bruce Arena's arrival in New England saw the end of Fagundez's time with the club. He started to see an extremely diminished role at the club. He slyly rolled a shot in against Montreal for his only goal in 2020, and his last ever goal with the New England Revolution. Despite spending a decade with the Revs, Fagundez was still just 25 years old. On October 28th, he tied Shalrie Joseph for the most regular season games played in club history with 261. Arena refused to play him in the final two games, so he never got to break it.
Fagundez said he wanted to stay in NE, but the offer made to him was disrespectful, so he moved on. On January 5, 2021, Fagundez signed with Austin FC. He re-found himself in verde. Fagundez etched himself into the Austin history books, notching the club's first ever goal. In the next match in Minnesota, he scored another goal. In the first match at Austin's brad new Q2 Stadium, Fagundez arrived there to score as well. For a 5'8 player, Fagundez has scored a decent amount of headers in his career, he snapped one in against Portland. In a 5-3 loss to Dallas, Fagundez scored a consolation goal. In the closing moments of the year, he curled his 7th goal in. Austin finished 12th in the West, but there were some real positives.
In 2022, Fagundez came out with a whole new role, the playmaker. Seemingly out of nowhere, he assisted a whopping 15 goals for Austin. To this day, Fagundez is the club's all-time leading goal scorer. He kicked off the season with two assists against Inter Miami. In a mess inside of the box, he kept his composure and equalized Seattle. He added two more assists in a 3-2 comeback victory at DC United. In a statement victory over LAFC, he snuck one in at the near post. In July, he brought back the free kick ability he has shown so many times before. In a second straight match with a fellow Texan opponent, 14 scored again. In August, he did that free kick thing again. He also assisted two goals in a 4-1 win over LAFC. Austin made a magical run to the WCF in their second season, but it was that same LAFC team who sent them home.
It was not all so smooth at the start of 2023. In March of this year, head coach Josh Wolff had some not so nice words to say about him, "That was a poor performance. I think if you have a poor performance, it's fair to come out, I think for Diego, the standard that he has had here and in Austin for two years, the ability to do what he's done and he certainly got rewarded with a good contract" This would foreshadow his departure. Fagundez, somehow who Austin fans grew to love so deeply, scored his last Austin goal in Leagues Cup versus Mazatlan.
On August 1, 2023, Diego Fagundez was traded to the LA Galaxy in exchange for Memo Rodriguez and up to $900K in allocation money. The move came as a shock to many, but Josh Wolff's earlier comments made it less of a surprise. Diego Fagundez won the hearts of Galaxy fans quickly, just as he did everywhere else. He scored his first goal in match-winning fashion, 4-3 over Minnesota United. His new team has already been eliminated from contention in the 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs, but he will look to build off this season and start anew in 2024. Fagundez has truly had quite the rollercoaster of a career thus far, and he's still got plenty of years to go. The 28-year-old has a February birthday, meaning he has one season left before he hits the 30's. For his consistency and attacking prowess, even from a historically young age, Diego Fagundez comes in right in the middle of the list, at #50.
YEAR | CLUB | MINUTES | GOALS | ASSISTS |
2023 | LA/ATX | 1,543* | 3* | 5* |
2022 | ATX | 2,717 | 6 | 15 |
2021 | ATX | 2,539 | 7 | 5 |
2020 | NE | 966 | 1 | 0 |
2019 | NE | 1,176 | 2 | 3 |
2018 | NE | 2,666 | 9 | 10 |
2017 | NE | 2,434 | 7 | 8 |
2016 | NE | 2,237 | 6 | 6 |
2015 | NE | 1,735 | 6 | 4 |
2014 | NE | 2,142 | 5 | 4 |
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