PHOENIX – 2019 USL League One MVP Arturo Rodriguez has signed with Phoenix Rising FC for the 2021 USL Championship season, with the attacking midfielder adding to the pieces in the defending Western Conference title-holders as it prepares for the new season. The signing is pending league and federation approval.

“I am comfortable playing as a seven, eight, nine or 10,” said Rodriguez. “I even spent some time playing as a right wing, so I am versatile and will be ready for whatever opportunity the coach gives me. Rising is always one of the best teams in the league. It will be a good challenge for me at this point in my career.”

Rodríguez won the League One title with North Texas SC in 2019 to cap a season in which he won both the league’s MVP and Young Player of the Year awards. Rodriguez recorded seven goals and a league-leading 10 assists in 30 appearances, and also scored the game-winning goal against Greenville Triumph SC in the League One Final.

After growing up in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, Rodríguez joined the FC Dallas Academy in 2015. He scored the game-winning goal in a 1-0 win against CF Monterrey Rayados in the Dallas Cup XXXVIII Super Group Final, then returned to Mexico to play with a third-division team as an 18-year-old. The following year, Rodríguez spent time with Spanish second-division side Real Oviedo, before returning to Dallas to sign North Texas SC in 2019.

Rodriguez joined the Championship’s Real Monarchs SLC on loan at the beginning of the 2020 USL Championship season where he made two appearances in the abbreviated season. Late on in the year, however, he returns to North Texas and quickly regained the form that had earned him honors the previous season as he notched three goals and one assist in nine appearances to help NTSC end the campaign on a six-game undefeated streak.