Celta de Vigo officially confirmed the signing of American international Luca De La Torre. He signed a four-year deal with Celta de Vigo through 2026. The 24 year old San Diego native is looking to make his debut next month during Celta de Vigo’s La Liga debut against Espanol.
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Luca De La Torre had an outstanding season with Heracles Almelo in the Eredivisie. He was named to the Eredivisie Team of the Month for March 2021 and again named to the Eredivisie Team of the Month for January 2022.
Unfortunately, the club’s performance as a whole took an unexpected turn at the end of the season. Heracles Almelo won just once in its last six games, putting it in the relegation playoffs, where it fell to Excelsior 6-1 on aggregate. The result of this was relegation to the Eerste Divisie, the second division of the Netherlands.
Nevertheless, De La Torre’s plans to exit the club have remained and he is looking elsewhere to continue his development overseas. According to his contract, the American still has one year left in his contract but there have been verbal agreements between De La Torre and Heracles that he is able to leave at the end of this summer window.
“There’s always been an agreement between myself and the club that I would transfer this summer, with one year left on the contract,”
De la Torre added to his statement that there has been interest from teams throughout Europe, including the Netherlands, Germany, and France.
De La Torre was born and raised in San Diego, California. He began playing soccer at Nomad Soccer Club and San Diego Surf, before moving to England to play with Fulham in 2013. De la Torre made his debut for Fulham on August 9, 2016 in the EFL Cup first round against Leyton Orient, starting the match and played 88 minutes at Brisbane Road as Fulham won 3–2. His first league game was a Championship match against Bolton Wanderers on October 28, 2017, as a last-minute substitute for Tomáš Kalas in a 1–1 home tie.
He scored his first goal for Fulham in an EFL Cup tie against Millwall on September 25, 2018.
On August 6, 2020, de la Torre signed a two-year deal with Eredivisie side Heracles Almelo. He provided an assist in his Eredivisie debut on September 13, 2020 in a 2–0 win over ADO Den Haag. On June 2, 2018, De La Torre made his senior team debut for the United States, coming on as a substitute in a friendly against the Republic of Ireland. On February 2, 2022, he made his first start for the United States against Honduras in a 3–0 victory in World Cup Qualifying.
