LAFC nearing major deal for Guardado

The club is said to be close to a four-year contract with the Mexican midfielder.

The Los Angeles Football Club, poised to enter Major League Soccer next season, is nearing agreement on a four-year contract with Andres Guardado that would make the Mexican international the first major signing for the franchise, confirmed a league official who was not authorized to discuss the ongoing negotiations.

The team declined to comment, citing the ongoing negotiations. The talks were first reported by ESPN’s John Sutcliffe.

Guardado, a midfielder who scored six goals while captaining Mexico to the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup title, has played 136 games for El Tri, fifth-most in national team history.

He has spent the last 10 seasons in Europe, playing for clubs in Spain and Germany before landing with PSV Eindhoven of the Dutch Eredivisie in 2014.

Guardado’s contract runs through the end of next season but LAFC is likely to pursue a deal that would allow him to leave in time to join the team for training camp next winter.

“It’s very important to us that we have as much or all of our team right here and in market in January,” said John Thorrington, the team’s vice president for soccer operations.

Thorrington said the team is also pursuing other players, and though he declined to name them, LAFC repeatedly has been linked to Guardado’s Mexico teammate, Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez.

Thorrington said he expects the team to name a coach “in the next month or so.”

When the contract is signed Guardado, 30, would become LAFC’s third player, joining former Chivas USA midfielder Carlos Alvarez and Nigerian teenager Monday Bassey Etim, both of whom are playing with Orange County SC, LAFC’s affiliate in the second-tier USL.

Guardado is currently in Russia, where the Mexican team is preparing to play in the eight-team Confederations Cup.