Oakland Roots announced they have acquired forward Danny Trejo in a transfer from Birmingham Legion.
Roots’ director of player personnel Nana Attakora said they “needed to add an attacker” with nine days left in the USL Championship transfer window.
“Danny is a player we’ve admired for years,” Attakora said, via the team’s official site. “We knew we needed to add an attacker in the summer and Danny has established himself as one of the league’s most dangerous attacking players. When the chance came to bring him in at this point in our season, we moved quickly to make it happen.”
Trejo posted that he was on his way to “Cali soon” on Saturday and stopped at Lake Merritt two days later for a quick photo-op. Now on Tuesday, a deal has become official, making Oakland the seventh team of Trejo’s professional career.
With Birmingham this season, Trejo has seemingly fallen out of favor under new head coach Mark Briggs. He hasn’t appeared since July 11, when he scored two goals in a 3-2 win over North Carolina, ultimately winning Player of the Week honors. Things didn’t pan out for Trejo in Poland with Korona Kielce, recording two goals and two assists in 2023-2024 before being released by mutual consent during the final year of his two-year deal the following season.
But before his venture to Europe, Trejo proved to be one of the USL Championship’s most prolific players during his time with Phoenix Rising and Las Vegas Lights.
Oakland has already taken chances on two cast-off players this season. Faysal Bettache only played a total of 88 league minutes before arriving from FC Tulsa, while Morey Doner had just one USLC start in Detroit City. Like Doner, perhaps Benny Feilhaber can rediscover Trejo’s magic.
Trejo is now reunited with CSU Northridge teammate Wolfgang Prentice and Panos Armenakas, who played opposite him in Phoenix Rising’s USL Championship final victory in 2023.
With Birmingham, Trejo mostly appeared as a left winger or attacking midfielder. So what will Trejo bring to Oakland?
Oakland’s struggles to put away shots have been a clear mark of their season thus far. In fact, Roots haven’t scored more than two goals in a game since their 3-2 win over Las Vegas Lights in October of last year.
Peter Wilson leads the team with eight goal contributions and has come under criticism for his lack of finishing in recent weeks. Trejo’s addition, however, looks more like someone who can service Roots’ strikers instead of threatening the other center forwards for time.
During his college days at Northridge, Trejo played on the right wing of a 4-3-3 while Wolfgang lined up on the left, and former Roots striker Johnny Rodriguez played centrally. In 2023, Trejo largely appeared on the left side in a 3-4-3 or as a center forward in a 3-5-2/4-4-2 system under Juan Guerra. Las Vegas also started him on the left side of a predominant 4-2-3-1 system in 2022.
In Phoenix during its championship run, Trejo finished with 19 goals and seven assists. He was among the league’s top shooters with 29 shots on target, to go along with 70 successful dribbles and 150 touches inside the box. Each statistic ranked within the USL Championship’s top five percent of players.
During his 14-goal, five-assist season with Las Vegas in 2022, Trejo also ranked in the top six percent of players at his position with 36 shots on target, 45 successful dribbles, and 129 touches inside the opponent’s penalty area. He was also credited with 31 chances created in both 2022 and 2023.
In 2025, Trejo has generated eight shots on target in 962 total minutes with Birmingham, creating eight scoring opportunities.
Trejo, 27, graduated from CSU Northridge in 2020 and started his professional career with LA Force of NISA. He became the No. 14 overall pick in the 2021 MLS SuperDraft by LAFC and joined then-affiliate side, Las Vegas Lights.
Trejo signed an MLS contract with LAFC in 2022, but his contract option was declined the following offseason. He joined Phoenix Rising as a free agent in 2023, helping them lift the championship trophy.
He signed with Korona Kielce of Poland’s top division, Ekstraklasa, to a two-and-a-half-year contract in 2024. He was released by mutual consent back in January and signed with Birmingham Legion a couple of weeks later.
For his USL championship career, Trejo has appeared in 92 matches and started 76 times, totaling 6,900 minutes, 38 goals, and 13 assists.
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