Factfile: 10 things to know about Hector Moreno

On Tuesday the club confirmed our first signing of the summer: Mexico international Hector Moreno.

The central defender joins the club from PSV Eindhoven, and will become the first Mexican player to represent the club. Here’s a few more things you need to know about the 29-year-old:

1. Born in 1988 in Cuilacan, the capital of the Mexican state of Sinoloa, Hector Alfredo Moreno Herrera began his professional career more than 1,000km away – moving to the capital, Mexico City, to join top-flight side UNAM (often known as Pumas) when he was just 15.

2. After breaking into the UNAM first-team in 2006, Moreno played fewer than 50 games before moving to Europe with Dutch side AZ Alkmaar. In his homeland he came close to winning one major trophy, losing 2-1 to Atlante in the final of the 2007 Apertura tournament shortly before heading to AZ.

3. The majority of his playing career has been spent in the Netherlands: he spent three-and-a-half seasons with AZ (2008-11) and two years with PSV Eindhoven (2015-17), with a four-year stay with Spanish club Espanyol sandwiched between.

4. He has won four domestic medals during his career, all of them from his time in the Netherlands: two league titles (with AZ in 2009 and PSV in 2016) and two Johan Cruyff Shields (the Dutch Super Cup) in 2009 and 2016. As a result Moreno has plenty of Champions League experience, having played in three campaigns to date.

5. Moreno was a member of the Mexico team that won the Under-17 World Cup in Peru in 2005. Moreno played in the final, as El Tri beat Brazil 3-0 with a team that also featured Carlos Vela and Giovani dos Santos.

6. At senior level he has won 79 caps for the national side, scoring two goals. He currently sits 25th on the list of the country’s most capped players, having played at two World Cups and helped his country win the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2015.

7. In some ways, Moreno’s career has been defined by two broken legs – one he suffered, during the 2014 World Cup, which temporarily stalled his career just as he was receiving interest from major European sides, and one he accidentally inflicted, on Manchester United’s Luke Shaw in a Champions League game in 2015. Shaw subsequently confirmed that the collision with Moreno had been an unfortunate accident.

8. Predominantly a central defender, the left-footed Moreno can also play at left-back and earlier on in his career was occasionally deployed in a holding role. Known for his leadership qualities, his organisation and his reading of the play, in recent seasons Moreno has added a goalscoring threat to his game – scoring seven goals in the league for PSV last term and 13 in all competitions in his two years at the Philips Stadion.

9. Moreno is married, to Irene, and they have a daughter together.

10. You can follow Moreno on Instagram and Twitter: @hectormorenoh.

He is also on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hectormorenoh/