August 6, 2024 – United Soccer League Championship (USL)
El Paso Locomotive FC News Release
EL PASO, Texas – El Paso Locomotive FC announced today that it has acquired Liga MX veterans Amaury Escoto and Arturo “Palermo” Ortiz on loan from FC Juárez for the remainder of the 2024 USL Championship season, pending league and federation approval.
Escoto (31) and Ortiz (31) each join Locomotive with over a decade of experience in Mexico’s Liga MX and Liga de Expansión MX, Mexico’s second division, and become the latest pair of players to join Locomotive from FC Juárez through an established partnership underneath MountainStar Sports Group (MSSG).
Prior to signing for Juárez, Ortiz was a key defensive player for Pumas UNAM between 2021-24, helping the club reach their fifth-ever CONCACAF Champions League final in 2022 and being named to the tournament’s Best XI. His impressive 2021/22 season – in which the defender finished amongst the league’s top 10 players in clearances (101), blocks (65), interceptions (56) and tackles won in the defensive third (38) – earned him a call-up to the Mexican Men’s National Team in 2022 in a friendly against Guatemala.
Between 2012-17, Ortiz was a member of Club León which won back-to-back titles in the 2013 Apertura and 2014 Clausura. The Monterrey native also had stints with Pumas Tabasco, Leones Negros, Mineros de Zacatecas and Correcaminos UAT. Between Mexico’s two divisions, Ortiz featured in 301 matches, recording 21 goals and three (3) assists in 25,335 minutes across all competitions.
Escoto started his professional career with Querétaro FC in 2013 after working his way through the club’s youth ranks. The forward would be sent on loan to Tigres UANL in 2015 (the year the team lifted the 2015/16 Apertura) and Cafetaleros in 2016. He finished out the year in Guatemala with Suchitepéquez before returning to Mexico with Lobos BUAP in 2017, going on loan with Toluca in 2018.
Escoto was a member of the famed 2019 Dorados de Sinaloa squad coached by global soccer legend Diego Maradona, captured in the Netflix docuseries “Maradona in Mexico.” The Jalisco native returned to Liga MX with Club Puebla between 2020 and 2022 before moving on in 2023 to Celaya and eventually FC Juárez. In all competitions of his professional career, Escoto has contested well over 16,800 minutes in 324 matches, scoring 68 goals and assisting 10.
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