Portland Timbers announce signing of Claudio Bravo

The Portland Timbers officially announced on Thursday the acquisition of Argentine defender Claudio Bravo from the Liga Profesional de Fútbol side Club Atlético Banfield. They are signing Bravo to a multi-year contract using Targeted Allocation Money and he will be added to roster pending a physical and a receipt of his International Transfer Certificate and P-1 visa.

The Timbers were rumored to be signing Bravo all the way back in October by Leonel Cerrudo. Jeff Carlisle of ESPN also reported the signing earlier this month along with the Marco Farfan trade to LAFC.

The 23-year-old defender has played for Banfield his entire professional career, starting as a part of the youth academy before making his team debut in 2017. Bravo made 56 appearances (54 starts) for Banfield during his time there and has also made appearances for Argentina’s U-23 Men’s National Team.

For the full press release, click here.

Quotes about the Bravo signing

Gavin Wilkinson, president and GM:

“Signing a player with Claudio Bravo’s skillset and ability is a tremendous positive for the club and our expectations for him as a Timbers player are extremely high. We look forward to integrating him into the group and once he is acclimated we are confident he will be a very effective and dominant left back in our league.”

Giovanni Savarese, head coach:

“Claudio is a young talent who has all the attributes for a great future. We are very excited to have him, and his skillset is a very good balance of offense and defense at his position.”