Fire announce signing of 21-year-old striker David Arshakyan

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Thin at forward, the Chicago Fire made a signing to add some depth to the position on Wednesday.

The Fire announced the addition of David Arshakyan, a 21-year-old Armenian playing for Lithuanian club FK Trakai.

Young Armenians playing in the Lithuanian league don’t usually get much attention so substantive information on Arshakyan is unsurprisingly limited. That said, the 6-foot-4 forward was tied for the league lead with nine goals in 18 matches and has played in Europa League qualifiers with Trakai. Last season he scored 25 times in 34 matches, good for second in the league.

Arshakyan signed a two-year contract that included options for 2018 and 2019.

“As we tracked David, we were impressed by his winning attitude and ability to score goals in a variety of different ways,” general manager Nelson Rodriguez said in a press release. “He has a very good soccer IQ, imagination and obvious size. David also expressed a keen desire to join our club in particular and to help us build a championship program.”

He comes at a time when the Fire are incredibly low on forwards after trading Kennedy Igboananike. Michael de Leeuw and Joey Calistri are the only forwards on the roster and even Calistri has been used more as a wide midfielder.

Arshakyan takes up an international spot on the Fire’s roster. After offloading Gilberto and Igboananike the Fire had two international spots to work with. They now have one.

The move comes on the day MLS’ summer transfer window closes.

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