Portland Timbers Lock Up Diego Valeri in Multi-year Deal

The Timbers announced today that they have purchased the contract of Diego Valeri from his former club Lanus and signed him to a multiyear deal. An All-Star in his first year with the club, Valeri has chipped in four goals and eight assists for the Timbers so far this year and has been instrumental in the team's push to make the playoffs for the first time since joining Major League Soccer.

In his first game with the Timbers, Valeri scored this goal and won the Goal of the Week honors to kick off the season. Since then he has won another goal of the week, been named FutbolMLS's player of the week, and been a fixture on the MLS Team of the Week.

EDIT: Grant Wahl (of course) has the details on the transfer:

Portland paid a transfer fee of a bit less than $3 million for Diego Valeri. The league did not cover the fee.

— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) August 6, 2013

The Timbers' press release:

TIMBERS PURCHASE CONTRACT OF MIDFIELDER DIEGO VALERI, SIGN TO NEW MULTIYEAR CONTRACT

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Portland Timbers today announced that the club has purchased the contract of midfielder and Designated Player Diego Valeri from Argentine side Club Atlético Lanús and has signed him to a new multiyear contract. Valeri was originally acquired by the Timbers on loan from Lanús in January. Per MLS and club policy, terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

In 2013, Valeri, 27, is one of the Timbers’ leading scorers, with four goals and eight assists while playing in 20 of the club’s 22 regular-season matches, and was named an MLS All-Star in his first season with Portland. He ranks among league leaders in assists and has already matched the Timbers MLS record for assists in a single season. Valeri’s three multi-assist matches leads MLS and he is a three-time selection to the MLSsoccer.com Team of the Week.

Prior to arriving in Portland, Valeri, a native of Lanús, Argentina, had played nine seasons with Lanús (2003-09; 2011-12), featuring in 158 matches and recording 25 goals in Argentina’s Primera División, and serving as the club’s captain. He helped Lanús to its first Primera División title in 2007. Additionally, Valeri spent one season with FC Porto of Portugal in 2009-10 and also had a loan spell with Spain’s UD Almería during the 2010-11 La Liga campaign. He has three caps with the Argentina National Team.

Diego Valeri
Pronunciation: va-LEHR-ee
Position: Midfielder
Height: 5-10
Weight: 165
Born: May 1, 1986, in Valentín Alsina, Argentina
Hometown: Lanús, Argentina
Last Club: Club Atlético Lanús (Argentina)
College: n/a
Citizenship: Argentina
Acquired: Contract purchased from Club Atlético Lanús and signed to a new multiyear contract.