Daniel Aguirre is one of the kinds of rookie stories you can really root for. The UC Riverside product wrapped up his college career with a cancelled 2020 season due to the COVID pandemic, and he was not drafted.
But he got an invitation to the LA Galaxy’s preseason in 2021, played his way into a USL Championship contract with LA Galaxy II, and then leveraged that with a contract at MLS level by midseason.
Primarily a holding midfielder, the 22-year-old played a lot of professional minutes in 2021, making 28 appearances (2,228 minutes) for Los Dos, even scoring three goals, and then getting five shifts, most very short, off the bench for the Galaxy in MLS regular season play.