FC Dallas news round-up: Interest in Santiago Castro, Maarten Paes goes international

I've been away, so some of this may be a bit old for some of you.

I have to say, it is good to be back in the States after spending the last two weeks in Scotland and Italy with my family. I love traveling, especially at Christmas, but I was ready to get home to Dallas.

While I was away, I know I had several player recaps get released on this site, as well as updates on the 2024 schedule, player signings, and the club’s SuperDraft picks. But there were a couple of random nuggets that made their way out there over the last couple of weeks that I wanted to touch on here today to wrap up 2023.

🇲🇽 Let’s start with the oldest one, Liga MX interest in Paul Arriola.

This one came down literally the day after I departed for my trip, so I know it is old. But I felt it was worth a slight follow-up this morning.

The Athletic’s Paul Tenorio and Tom Bogert reported back on December 13 that there is renewed interest from several Liga MX clubs in FC Dallas attacker Paul Arriola.

Several Liga MX clubs have Paul Arriola on their list of targets for a potential winter move, but FC Dallas is yet to receive any offers, sources briefed on the situation said.

Arriola began his career with Club Tijuana, so the league is very familiar with him. FC Dallas has him under contract through the 2025 season.

Is there anything to this one? Probably not a ton at the moment, though a transfer for Arriola would open up a lot of salary cap space and net some important GAM for FC Dallas should something actually come through. Arriola was also a Designated Player for the club in 2023 but was one that the club could buy down with GAM to open up a new slot.

Arriola has a kid on the way, and I imagine that up-rooting his family to move this winter is probably not ideal for him to do at the moment.

🇦🇷 Interest in forward Santiago Castro