Monterrey’s Jonathan Gonzalez: The next talented dual-national on Bruce Arena’s radar

Jonathan Gonzalez may not be a household name to American soccer supporters, but he’s certainly someone Bruce Arena has heard of. Gonzalez is an 18-year-old midfielder who plays professionally in Liga MX for Monterrey. According to a nice feature written by Tom Marshall on ESPNFC, the youngster has been asked by U.S. U-20 coach Tab Ramos for his phone number to turn over to Arena.

Gonzalez played for Ramos with the U-20’s in February in World Cup qualifying where he was the youngest player on the team.

While he is a dual-national, a former youth coach of Gonzalez revealed in an interview with American Soccer Now’s Brian Sciaretta that the player has always preferred to play for the United States, his country of birth.

“When it comes to Mexico or the United States, most say they’ll go with whoever calls them first because they just want to play internationally,” Alianza’s Joaquin Escoto said. “But Jonathan always wanted to play for the United States.”

The Santa Rosa, California native has started in three of Monterrey’s five Liga MX matches this season so far and is impressing his manager. While it’s way to early to say he should be getting call ups to the U.S., it doesn’t appear that conversation is too far off. It now seems like just a matter of when Arena wants to make the call, now that he has the kid’s digits.

Have you seen Jonathan Gonzalez play? Give us your thoughts on his USMNT prospects in the comments below.