Tacoma Defiance add midfield depth in Adolfo Ovalle

Tacoma Defiance added another player signed directly to the club with the addition of 24 year-old Chilean midfielder Adolfo “Fito” Ovalle. Ovalle, the son of a Chilean former footballer with the same name, joins Defiance having been without a club for over a year, although he last played with Toronto FC II in USL League 1 and left in December 2020.

Adolfo Ovalle is a defensive midfielder — a position of strength throughout the organization, but one with limited options on the Defiance roster outside of loanees from the First Team — who turned pro in 2015 when he signed with Real Salt Lake as a Homegrown Player. Ovalle spent just over a year with RSL after having played in their academy from 2012 to 2015, during which time he played on the U16 team that won the 2012-13 US Soccer Development Academy National Championship, and made 29 appearances between the RSL Reserves and Real Monarchs in the USL, but never appeared for the MLS side. From his time with RSL Ovalle has connections to all three of Garth Lagerwey, Craig Waibel and Freddy Juarez, having been coached by Juarez on that National Championship-winning academy team, while Lagerwey and Waibel were General Manager and Technical Director during his time with the organization.

Since leaving Utah, “Fito” Ovalle has been something of a nomad. He first went to Italy where he spent time with two different teams in the Italian third tier, first joining SSD Fidelis Andria where he made his loan professional appearance in Europe in a Coppa Italia game, before going on loan to AS Sambenedettese. After Italy didn’t work out, Ovalle signed with Rangers de Talca in the Chilean second division in 2018, but never made an appearance before moving on to TFC II in 2019. In USL League 1 with TFC II, and then with Forward Madison on loan, Ovalle made a combined 31 appearances between 2019 and 2020 - 22 with TFC II for 1,713 minutes, and 9 with Madison for 694 minutes. In addition, Ovalle made a handful of appearances for Chilean youth national teams at the U18 and U20 level.

Adolfo Ovalle’s signing brings the total number of players signed directly to Defiance to 15. He’ll be available for the team as they take on St. Louis CITY 2 on the road, and will help Wade Webber’s side as they pursue the tandem goals of developing players for the Seattle Sounders first team and creating on-field success in MLS NEXT Pro.