I don’t know if new San Diego FC left wing Elias Achouri plays soccer as well as Hirving “Chucky” Lozano, the team’s exiled left wing whose replacements haven’t provided nearly as much firepower as Lozano did.

But I know this:

The fit between SDFC and Achouri will be better than the fit between SDFC and Lozano, and here’s why:

This time, everyone was able to do much more homework.

Two summers ago, SDFC and Major League Soccer were so eager to make a splash that Lozano was signed months before the start-up club had hired either a coach or sporting director.

Tyler Heaps arrived two months later, then hired coach Mikey Varas weeks later.

So this time, instead of inheriting a star left wing who was entering a lucrative three-year deal, Heaps and Varas were able to get to know their prospective left wing as a player and a person before the commitment was made.

The 27-year-old Achouri comes to San Diego from Denmark’s top league.

SDFC scouted Achouri in person and broke down film of the 5-foot-11, 155-pounder in addition to chatting up several of Achouri’s former coaches and folks with SDFC’s sister club in Denmark, a rival of Achouri’s FC Copenhagen.

Not done there, Heaps conversed at length with Achouri soon before the player was to head out on vacation following his three World Cup matches with Tunisia.

The picture that emerged, Heaps said, was of a highly competitive player with a strong team ethic.

On the pitch, Achouri’s ”elegance” on the ball reminded Heaps of American left wing Christian Pulisic, the U.S. national team’s starting left wing.

Given the financial stakes, too much diligence wasn’t possible.

Achouri becomes the club’s third designated player, denoting a player whose compensation and transfer fees exceed the league maximum salary charge.

Mexico’s Lozano was SDFC’s first such acquisition. The only other designated player signed by Heaps and Varas was right wing Anders Dreyer, who finished runner-up to Lionel Messi for 2025 MLS MVP honors and ranks among the league’s assist leaders this year.

“It’s a privilege,” Achouri said Saturday of his contractual agreement with SDFC. Already a fan of San Diego’s charms, he noted that in Copenhagen the weather isn’t very sunny for six months of the year.

Heaps said he will continue to try to find a trade for Lozano, who had nine goals and eight assists with SDFC last year before his late-season suspension after a run-in with Varas. Lozano will have a say, too.

“Hirving still is a very good player and he had a lot of success for us,” Heaps said of the soon-to-be 31-year-old, who for his part, has said he and his family enjoy living in San Diego. “He still should get some of the credit in terms of how we operated and won a lot of games in the first year. Going forward, we thought in the near and long term it wasn’t the best decision for the club (to allow Lozano to play this season).”

MLS coaches, such as ex-Minnesota boss Eric Ramsay, said Lozano and Dreyer gave SDFC the league’s best wing tandem. Both players featured a strong inside foot, diversifying the attack. Like Lozano, Achouri is a right-footed left wing, reprising the “inverted” wing look that Dreyer and Lozano provided.

“He’s not going to be your most powerful dribbler, trying to bulldoze by you,” Heaps said of Achouri. “But he’s very elegant in how he runs. He wants to come inside on his right. He can also go left and go by people.”

Born on Réunion, an island off East Africa that has ties to France, Achouri speaks four languages.

He has played against fellow Danish league alums Dreyer, Jeppe Tverskov and Marcus Ingvartsen of SDFC, saying those insights will speed up his acclimation. He didn’t play left wing in any of his three World Cup matches. He said he was needed elsewhere. Heaps said it may be a few weeks before Achouri joins the lineup.

MLS’ season being extra-long, there’s still ample time for SDFC, which entered Saturday’s game in 13th place, to gain needed ground in the race for the Western Conference’s ninth and final playoff spot, at minimum. The match against FC Dallas marked SDFC’s final game of the season’s first half, with 17 more games to come.