TRANSFER TRACKER STATUS: Signing
FC Dallas have signed forward Ricardo Pepi to a Homegrown Player contract, the club announced Friday.
The 16-year-old, who competed for North Texas Soccer Club, FC Dallas’ USL affiliate, is the 26th Homegrown signing.
Pepi picked up his first FC Dallas assist while on a short-term loan with the club in a 4-0 win over OKC Energy in the fourth round of the U.S. Open Cup. He is the leading scorer in USL League One with seven goals in six matches this season.
Pepi joined the FC Dallas academy in 2016 from the club’s youth affiliate in his native El Paso.
During the 2016-17 academy season, he appeared in 15 games and scored 18 goals for the U-13 team and scored 12 goals in 13 appearances for the U-14 side. For the 2017-2018 season, Pepi moved up to the U-16s, where he appeared in 14 games and scored five goals.
Eligible for both the US and Mexican national teams, he played in the 2019 Concacaf U-17 Championship and helped the US reach the final by scoring three goals before falling to Mexico in extra-time.
At 16 years and 163 days old, Pepi is the fourth youngest player to sign with FC Dallas behind Bryan Reynolds, Dante Sealy and Jesus Ferreira and the first to utilize the new USL League One development pathway when he signed with North Texas SC on Dec. 6, 2018.
