Oswaldo Alanís was the San Jose Earthquakes’ lone big signing in 2020.
By MLS standards, it was a significant addition but for most teams it would perhaps be one of a few big moves. The Earthquakes have long been a lean team when it comes to overall spending relative to the rest of the team and making big splashes on the international market, and in light of some of the other players who had been picked up in recent years by the club, Alanís was pretty much ideal.
He was a Mexican star in a market where the Mexican population have often felt the Earthquakes really didn’t pay much attention to them over the years, and he was in need of a new spot, with Chivas de Guadalajara inexplicably deciding they no longer needed an international-caliber center back.