{"id":388294,"date":"2026-07-27T22:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T22:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/388294\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T22:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T22:49:10","slug":"atletico-dallas-signs-javier-chicharito-hernandez-as-clubs-first-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/388294\/","title":{"rendered":"Atl\u00e9tico Dallas signs Javier &#8220;Chicharito&#8221; Hern\u00e1ndez as club&#8217;s first player"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">DALLAS &#8211; A Mexican soccer legend will suit up for a new North Texas club for their inaugural 2027 season.<\/p>\n<p>   Chicharito signs with Atl\u00e9tico Dallas <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/dsc05278.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" width=\"932\" height=\"524\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/> <\/p>\n<p data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\">Javier &#8220;Chicharito&#8221; Hern\u00e1ndez <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KDFW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Atl\u00e9tico Dallas announced the signing of Javier &#8220;Chicharito&#8221; Hern\u00e1ndez to a two-year contract with a club option for a third year.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Hern\u00e1ndez is the first player signed in Atl\u00e9tico Dallas history.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KDFW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;I believe Dallas deserves a club that reflects its passion for football, its diversity, and its future,&#8221; said Hern\u00e1ndez. &#8220;I want to help create a winning culture, inspire young players across\u00a0North Texas, and give our supporters a team they can believe in from the very beginning. I\u00a0didn&#8217;t come here simply to finish my career. I came here to help build the future of football in\u00a0Dallas.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;From the very beginning, our dream wasn&#8217;t simply to launch another professional soccer club,&#8221;\u00a0said Matt Valentine, Founder and Chairman of Atl\u00e9tico Dallas. &#8220;Our dream was to build a club that truly belongs to Dallas. Javier believed in that vision\u2026 His career speaks for itself, but it&#8217;s\u00a0his leadership, humility, competitive spirit, and genuine love for the game that make him the\u00a0perfect person to help write the first chapter in Atl\u00e9tico Dallas history.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Javier &#8220;Chicharito&#8221; Hern\u00e1ndez <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KDFW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">Dig deeper:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Hern\u00e1ndez, known globally by his &#8220;Chicharito&#8221; nickname, has a storied history in both club soccer and international soccer with Mexico.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">He is Mexico&#8217;s all-time leading goalscorer, having played for his country in the World Cup, the Concacaf Gold Cup, and the FIFA Confederation Cup.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">At the club level, &#8220;Chicharito&#8221; has played for top European clubs like Real Madrid, Manchester United, Bayer Leverkusen, as well as in Major League Soccer for the LA Galaxy.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KDFW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What&#8217;s next:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Atl\u00e9tico Dallas will hold an introductory press conference for Hern\u00e1ndez on July 29 at 10 a.m., and a free public player presentation will be held on July 31 at Gilley&#8217;s South Side Ballroom.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The club will begin competition in the USL Championship in 2027, with home games to be played at the Cotton Bowl in Fair Park.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: Information in this story comes from Atl\u00e9tico Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/tag\/sports\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sports<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS &#8211; A Mexican soccer legend will suit up for a new North Texas club for their inaugural&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,154],"class_list":["post-388294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388294","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=388294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}