Rowdies Add Midfielder Saragosa

The Tampa Bay Rowdies added a bit of Brazilian flair and strength to their midfield Tuesday with the addition of veteran midfielder Marcelo Saragosa, pending USSF international clearance.

Saragosa, 33, arrives with nine years of Major League Soccer experience, including winning both MLS Cup and the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in 2005 with the LA Galaxy. He is a natural holding midfielder who will help control the tempo of matches, breaking up opposition play and engineering the Rowdies transition game.

"He’s an uncompromising player in midfield," Rowdies head coach Thomas Rongen said. "He’s very tough  and he’ll bring some steel to us. He’s an incredible competitor, both in practice and in game situations. He’s won championships in MLS. He’s played for (L.A. Galaxy head coach) Bruce Arena, (Seattle Sounders head coach) Sigi Schmid, and (D.C. United head coach) Ben Olsen and all three are very high on him."

Saragosa is a graduate of the vaunted Sao Paulo FC academy in Brazil. Legendary goalkeeper Rogerio Ceni, Oscar, Kaka and Lucas Moura are all products of the Sao Paulo FC academy. Saragosa spent eight seasons with Sao Paulo FC, working his way up from the youth team to debut for the senior team in 2003. Saragosa left the club to go on loan to the LA Galaxy in 2004. After a successful loan spell, Saragosa signed with the Galaxy in 2005 and made 40 appearances in the next season and a half before being traded to FC Dallas.

He made 54 appearances for FC Dallas between 2006 and 2009 before being traded to Chivas USA. Saragosa moved away from North America in 2010 when he moved to Azerbaijani Premier League side FC Abershon. After a stint in the same league with Ravan Baku in 2011-2012, Saragosa returned to the United States and joined D.C. United in 2012.