Sporting Kansas City announced Thursday that the club has extended the loan of striker Diego Rubio through the end of 2016.
Rubio joined Sporting Kansas City in March on loan from Spanish side Real Valladolid. The 23-year-old Chilean has tallied two goals and one assist in 11 appearances for the MLS club across all competitions.
“It’s been great to have had the opportunity to watch him over the past few months," Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes said. "It has allowed us the chance to watch his progression as he got accustomed to both our team and our league. Now, we get to keep him during a very crucial time in our season with so many games coming up in July and August. It’s imperative that we have a guy like him who has been with us and understands our system and we are happy to be able to extend his loan through the year."
A native of Santiago, Chile, Rubio has recorded 39 goals and 16 assists during a five-year professional career in North America, South America and Europe. He opened his Sporting Kansas City scoring account in a 1-1 draw at Vancouver Whitecaps FC on April 27 and netted the game-winner in extra time of a 2-1 U.S. Open Cup victory over Minnesota United FC on June 15. Rubio notched his first assist for the club in Wednesday’s Open Cup defeat at the Houston Dynamo.
After climbing the youth ranks at his hometown club Colo-Colo, Rubio made his professional debut in February 2011 at age 17. He notched six goals in 10 matches for Colo-Colo — three in the Chilean Primera Division and three in the Copa Libertadores, South America’s premier international club competition.
Rubio then moved to 18-time Primeira Liga champion Sporting Clube de Portugal and scored 22 goals in 52 games for the club’s reserve team Sporting B from 2011-2015. He also made 20 senior team appearances, including six in the 2011-12 UEFA Europa League as he helped the club advance to the tournament semifinals.
During his time at Sporting, Rubio was loaned to Romanian side Pandurii Targu Jiu in 2013 and Norwegian club Sandnes Ulf in 2014, where he led the team with eight goals in the top-flight Tippeligaen. He returned to Portugal for the 2014-15 campaign, finishing seventh in the Segunda Liga with 14 goals as Sporting B fell four points short of the second division title.
Rubio has earned three caps for the Chile Men’s National Team since debuting at age 18 in a friendly against Paraguay in June 2011. He appeared in two additional friendlies against France and Mexico later that year before playing eight matches at the U-20 level in 2012 and 2013, including three starts at the 2013 South American Youth Football Championship.
