Oakland Roots announced they signed former Spokane Velocity centerback David Garcia to a contract.
Garcia, 25, comes to Oakland after earning first-team All-League honors in 2025. He also received a second-team selection in 2024 with Northern Colorado Hailstorm.
He fills a position of need for Roots after the team parted ways with Gagi Margvelashvili and Kai Greene this offseason. He joins Neveal Hackshaw and Julian Bravo as the current centerbacks on the roster.
Garcia comes to Oakland after being Spokane’s third-most active player last season with 2,438 minutes in 30 appearances. He was among League One’s most consistent players with a 7.12 rating by FotMob, which ranks No. 22 in the league and No. 5 among centerbacks.
So what are Roots getting in Garcia?
For new coach Ryan Martin’s system to operate, it’s going to require skilled passers out of the back. That appears to be one of Garcia’s strong points, as he ranked near the top of the league for accurate long balls with 171 and 5.85 per match. Both figures ranked him in the top four and six percent of USL League One. It wasn’t a one-off season either, averaging 6.49 per match in 2024.
Defensively, he led the league by averaging eight clearances per match, while his 192 clearances ranked fifth in the league. Garcia also won 115 aerial duels, which put him in the top six percent of the league, finishing with a 69.7 percent success rate. His 162 duels won ranked in the top 5.6 percent of defenders, winning 64.3 percent of his attempts.
He also isn’t shy about contributing on the offensive end. His 21 shots with six on target were near the highest marks for his position group. He also took 44 touches in the box, averaging 1.51 per match.
Garcia is a native of Spain and began his career as a member of Mallorca’s U19 squad. After that, he made his way to the States to attend Florida International University in 2019.
He bounced around to USL League Two teams, including the South Bend Lions in 2021 and AFC Ann Arbor in 2022, before catching on with North Carolina FC in 2023 for its USL League One season. He played 2,358 minutes for the League One side.
Northern Colorado Hailstorm signed him to a contract in 2024 and landed with Spokane Velocity in February 2025.
For his USL career, Garcia has appeared in 74 games and started 68 times for 6,206 minutes, scoring four goals and three assists.