Dec 31 FC Dallas Begin The Quill Era By Adding Shaq Moore, Lalas Abubakar, And More! | OneFootball

New FC Dallas Manager Eric Quill has begun a massive overhaul to build his first year roster. The club is revamping the attack with some heavily rumored moves of moving on from Jesus Ferreira and Paul Arriola. When/if those moves become official, we will be covering them here at MLS Aces. But, the club has already made some concrete moves ahead of next season.

The revamped attack began by trading away fullback Sam Junqua, $400k in GAM, and potentially another $100k in GAM to Real Salt Lake for another winger Anderson Julio. The 28 year old Julio has 1 cap for the Ecuador National Team and over 120 games played for Real Salt Lake. In his roughly 4,800 minutes played for RSL, he has 37 career goal contributions for the club. Julio is joined by 2024 North Texas SC star Pedrinho. The 21 year old Brazilian had 21 goal contributions in 23 games for Dallas’s MLS Next Pro side. These two should be key pieces in the 2025 FC Dallas attack alongside Petar Musa and Alan Velasco.

Quill added some veteran leadership to the midfield in former Copa Libertadores winner Ramiro Benetti from Cruzeiro in Brazil. Ramiro is a 31 year old central midfielder who can play the 6 or the 8. Ramiro has roughly 16,000 career minutes played in the Brazilian top division along with games played in Copa Libertadores, the Club World Cup, UAE top division, and more! The club also added two more pieces along the backline to get 2025 started. First, Dallas signed 30 year old centerback Lalas Abubakar via free agency. Last season, Abubakar played 25 games for the Colorado Rapids across all competitions while recording 1 assist. Abubakar looks like he’ll slot in as a starting centerback for this club in 2025. And what I’d assuming is their new starting right-back is Shaq Moore who they acquired via trade from Nashville SC. Dallas traded awy $50,000 in GAM and potential for another $100,000 in GAM for Moore. The 28 year old U.S. International had 28 games played last season for Nashville last season with 1 goal and 4 assists. The veteran MLS and international talents look to help rebuild a backline that was shaky for Dallas in 2024.

I like what Dallas has done to start 2025. From the hiring of Quill, to GAM acquisitions, and adding proven MLS talents. Dallas are aiming to get back into the playoff picture in 2025 for certain.