2018 Player Profiles: Alfredo Ortuño

It’s safe to say that Alfredo Ortuño did not pan out the way any of us expected.

When he signed a contract in January of 2018, he seemed to be optimistic about the move. He knew Marcelo Silva personally and spoke highly of RSL’s facilities. He also appeared to be a good fit given how he talked about the level of play compared to that of Spain.

In personal conversations I had with a friend that in Spain that is very well-versed with their players, he told me that Alfredo was capable of scoring 10-15 goals in MLS. RSL GM Craig Waibel stated in an interview with ESPN 700 that it would take Ortuño a couple months to acclimate and mentioned the variety of ways that Ortuño could score. RSL fans were excited at the potential.

Then the season started.

Ortuño started one game and only featured in three MLS regular season games. He seemed lost or uncomfortable at times, but not afraid to take an ill-advised shot if he had a look. Once the season was about a third of the way through, Ortuño’s name stopped showing up in the 18, and none of us heard much more about him until he was released back to Spain.

It’s safe to say that this approximately million-dollar acquisition was a flop. Why? We don’t really know. Any questions about him were answered with cryptic responses that did not give us much information.

Based on what we know about how Petke and his coaching staff’s preferences, we can deduce that off the field Ortuño was likely not giving the full effort or perhaps never got fully comfortable with his surroundings.

Whatever the case, Ortuño is back in his home country and does not seem to be having too much success there either, featuring in seven games and scoring one goal.