The youth movement is on for the Houston Dynamo FC.<\/p>\n
What were you doing at the age of 15? Many people get that question, but for Dynamo midfielder Matthew Arana, it\u2019s a completely different story.<\/p>\n
Arana is an up-and-coming young soccer talent who first joined the Dynamo Academy at the age of 11. Now 15, the Rosharon native has steadily progressed through the ranks of the organization\u2019s system. <\/p>\n
Arana remains a member of the Dynamo 2 squad, but he has now joined the first team after recently signing a Homegrown Player contract through the 2027\u201328 season, with club options through the 2029\u201330 season.<\/p>\n
The signing makes Arana the youngest first-team player in club history and the 20th Dynamo Academy product to sign a Homegrown first-team contract.<\/p>\n
Arana, whose brother Miguel is a placekicker for the Texas Southern Tigers football, attended Crawford High School before switching to an online school tied to the Dynamo Academy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHouston is a proud soccer city teeming with young talent,\u201d said Dynamo President of Soccer Pat Onstad. \u201cMatthew has made the most of his opportunities since joining the Dynamo Academy in 2021, advancing quickly through our pathway and making an impact at the first-team level this preseason. He has a bright future ahead of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arana says a lot has happened in a short period of time, but he\u2019s taking it all in\u2014listening and learning what it takes to be a professional in Major League Soccer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing, to be honest, and I\u2019m blessed,\u201d Arana told KPRC 2 Sports Director Randy McIlvoy at the Dynamo Training Center. \u201cI\u2019ve been learning and it\u2019s exciting. I\u2019m hoping to get more minutes with this team, but it will take a lot of hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n
A week ago Saturday, he made his debut in the Dynamo home opener against the LA Galaxy, entering the match in the final minutes at Shell Energy Stadium. It was a dream come true for a young man who appears to have a bright future in professional soccer. Arana was one of seven Academy players called up by head coach Ben Olsen to join the first team during preseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to be consistent every day around here and learn every step of the way,\u201d Arana added.<\/p>\n
Joining the MLS squad presents many challenges, but Arana\u2014who is also a member of Mexico\u2019s U-16 national team\u2014says he\u2019s leaning heavily on the team\u2019s veteran leadership, especially the bond he has developed with H\u00e9ctor Herrera.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy teammates have been really good to me and welcoming me to the team,\u201d Arana said. \u201cThey make sure to talk to me, and I can ask them anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The youth movement is on for the Houston Dynamo FC. What were you doing at the age of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[300,56,23504,58,57,73516,731,154],"class_list":["post-202165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-football","tag-houston","tag-houston-dynamo","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-matthew-arana","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}