DETROIT – Detroit City FC announced on Thursday the club had signed midfielder Vincenzo Candela to a one-year contract for the 2023 USL Championship season with a club option for the 2024 campaign. The transaction is pending league and federation approval.

Candela joins Le Rouge having most recently competed in USL League One for the Richmond Kickers a season ago. The veteran Colombian made 16 appearances for Richmond as the side claimed the 2022 League One Players’ Shield as it finished first in the regular season standings.

The 28-year-old has recorded 36 appearances in League One’s regular season and playoffs overall during his career, having spent the 2021 season with South Georgia Tormenta FC. He also previously spent two seasons in the USL Championship with the Charleston Battery, where he made 46 appearances across the regular season and playoffs and logged one goal and four assists in 3,641 minutes of action in the 2018 and 2019 seasons.

Born in Bogota, Colombia, Candela began his youth career at Real S.C., a Portuguese club in the city of Queluz, which now competes in the Portuguese Liga 3. From there he made stops in Germany at Alemannia Aachen and in Belgium with K.A.S. Eupen before joining the Battery. He also previously competed in the United States for the New York Cosmos during the abbreviated 2020 season before returning to the professional ranks over the past two seasons in USL League One.