LAFC Staff Twitter Facebook copy-url Some players are harder to say farewell to than others. In Jos Cifuentes' situation, his relocate to fabulous Scottish first-division club Rangers FC does not require a goodbye as long as an invite for his LAFC colleagues and also advocates to enjoy "Cifu's" motivating story proceed somewhere else. The 24-year-old Cifuentes symbolizes all the ideal features of world football and also about the Club where he increased to importance. Increased in Esmeraldas, Ecuador, Cifuentes played football in the street with a vacant water bottle as a youngster. Earlier this year he met a boyhood assurance he had actually made to his mom by acquiring her a house. "When I was 13, they told me that I really did not have the ideal build to come to be a footballer, " he informed FIFA.com in 2019. "However I never surrendered on my dream." Cifu signed with LAFC at age 20, soon after he introduced himself to the world with a rocket objective from distance versus the United States in the 2019 U20 World Mug. He rapidly turned into one of the leading striking midfielders in Major League Soccer. He leaves LAFC as one of just 10 MLS players under 24 years old to have signed up at least 14 objectives and 20 helps. Cifuentes' football technique is to frequently apply stress as well as ask difficult concerns of defenses. His passes as a member of this Club broke lines, both through the air and on the ground, and his striking reactions helped specify LAFC's rapid and also straight design of play. And also simply when challengers girded themselves versus his elite field vision and circulation abilities, he would certainly rocket a drive, with either foot, past a surprised caretaker and right into the internet. The legacy Cifuentes leaves in L.A. is that of a disruptor https://www.lafctee.com/Maxime-Crpeau-T-Shirt, a goal-creator, and an MLS Mug champion, as well as an example of LAFC's dedication to finding and also establishing skilled leads and relocating them to leading departments in other countries, particularly potential customers from South America. Part of a triad of LAFC gamers that made Ecuador's World Mug lineup in 2022, Cifuentes made his house country's yellow, blue, and warning a continuous visibility at BMO Arena as well as on the area after victories Carlos Vela T-Shirt, curtained over Cifuentes' shoulders. So delight in all those Cifu highlights as he heads to Scotland. Reflect back on that particular gilded 2022 period, in which Cifu started by putting on a magnificent brand-new blond hairdo, and finished by beginning all 3 matches (in his common dark locks) in the playoff run that ended with LAFC increasing the MLS Cup prize. In between those 2 minutes, Cifuentes gave his number 11 jacket to a new colleague (Gareth Bale) as well as started using number 20, which by the means is the number of MLS goals he aided on while putting on the Black & & Gold. Yes, assume of the 102 MLS suits he played, his 80-percent death precision, the great half-turns, and also the blurred footwork. Prize the last photos he provided us, at his final home suit versus conference-leading St. Louis, when his team was hopeless for an objective Diego Palacios T-Shirt, having actually scored simply two in its previous three games. That day encapsulates his time here. In a tense, scoreless suit extra than two-thirds done, Cifuentes tracked a high round that was descending towards him-- while at the same time sensing that Carlos Vela was regarding to make a run. Due to the fact that he is Cifu, he sent an arcing rainbow pass on the battery that landed right in Vela's course. Vela, of program, completed it; BMO Arena shrieked with delight and sighed with alleviation; and Cifu had once more opened a video game that a moment before had actually been closed. He put the triumph to bed with a left-footed strike that the opponents' All-Star caretaker might only watch as it whized by him and into goal. After four remarkable periods, Cifuentes now leaves the Club that he full of joys, favorable vibrations, and also satisfied incantations of those apparent 2 syllables-- "Ci-Fu!" LAFC Personnel -