LA Galaxy announce departure of Jonathan dos Santos

The LA Galaxy announced on Monday that they will not bring back midfielder Jonathan dos Santos for the 2022 season. The Mexican international is out of contract and the Designated Player is apparently no longer in the club’s plans.

“We thank Jonathan for his contributions to the LA Galaxy,” said LA Galaxy President Chris Klein in a team statement. “In five seasons with the Galaxy, Jonathan was a key contributor and leader for us. We very much appreciate his work ethic, professionalism and passion during his time with our club and we wish him all the best.”

Dos Santos joined LA in the middle of the 2017 season, reuniting with brother Giovani at the Galaxy. While Gio’s tenure in LA never really got off the ground beyond a short 10-game stint or so, Jonathan’s journey was far more up and down. He was outstanding in 2019 and stayed healthy and was solid this season, but injuries held him back in 2018 and in particular last year. As a player that teams kind of needed to build their midfields around in order to get the most out of him, dos Santos never really got a top-notch group around him and sufficient health to really make him one of the best players in the league like he might have been.

Still, he did have some good moments with LA and I think the Galaxy need to find a good midfielder to replace him now. But the club have a Designated Player spot free, and you know what that means, time for the club to go shopping. Best wishes to Jona on his journey moving forward.

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