CARSON, Calif. (AP) — The LA Galaxy have acquired forward Hirving “Chucky” Lozano on loan from San Diego FC for the rest of the Major League Soccer season.
The Galaxy will have an option to make the move permanent through trade under the deal announced Friday.
The move finally ends a long, uncomfortable standoff between the 31-year-old Lozano and San Diego, which signed the Mexican star as its first designated player from PSV Eindhoven amid much fanfare in the summer of 2024.
Lozano recorded 11 goals and nine assists in 34 appearances during San Diego's successful inaugural season in 2025, becoming a favorite with the club's new fan base. But Lozano was benched late in the season after an altercation in the locker room, and his relationship with the club never got better.
Lozano was effectively kicked off the team last January, with sporting director Tyler Heaps deciding he wouldn't allow Lozano to return.
San Diego has struggled for months to find a new home for Lozano, who has one of MLS's highest salaries. Lozano publicly said he didn't want to leave San Diego and hoped for a reconciliation, but his subsequent lack of club soccer action contributed to Mexico's decision to leave him off the squad for what would have been his third World Cup appearance this summer.
“We have been working with Hirving and his side to find the right opportunity for him to get him back on the field,” Heaps said in a statement. “We appreciate his contributions during our record-setting inaugural season and wish him well as he continues his career.”
Both San Diego and the Galaxy are struggling mightily this season. San Diego has fallen off precipitously without Lozano in its lineup, currently sitting 13th in the 15-team Western Conference, while the Galaxy are just one point better in 12th place.
The Galaxy are desperate for Lozano's scoring ability after managing just 24 goals in 19 MLS matches this season. LA sold Gabriel Pec, their co-leader in goals, to Cruzeiro in his native Brazil this summer, while fellow scorer Joao Klauss has been sidelined by injury for several months.
The Galaxy’s acquisition of Lozano is helpful to San Diego, but it also amounts to a low-risk tryout for a potential solution to the Galaxy’s scoring woes. Lozano will occupy the designated player slot vacated by Pec.
“Hirving is a player whom we tried to acquire three years ago, so this feels like something of a full circle moment,” Galaxy general manager Will Kuntz said. “He is a fierce competitor with an excellent track record of performing on teams that have competed for titles in multiple leagues, including his debut season in MLS. As we evaluated opportunities to strengthen our roster for the stretch run of the season, it became clear that Hirving was the right player for the moment we are in as a club. We have a talented group, a strong locker room and a clear objective over these final 15 games of the season.”
Lozano joins the Galaxy’s list of Mexican stars to play for the club with a large Mexican-American fan base, including Javier “Chicharito” Hernández and brothers Giovani Dos Santos and Jonathan Dos Santos.
Since winning their record sixth MLS Cup title in 2024, the Galaxy are 12-16-25 in MLS play. Not coincidentally, they've fallen into that prolonged drought while playing without Spanish midfielder Riqui Puig, the playmaker and driving force behind their title team. Puig is currently missing his second consecutive full season due to injury, but is expected to return in 2027.
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FILE - San Diego FC midfielder Hirving Lozano (11) plays during the second half of MLS soccer's Western Conference semifinal against Minnesota United on Nov. 24, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy, File)
Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have signed a mutual defense agreement, while the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have stepped up attacks on Saudi-linked targets.
Here’s a look at developments across the Middle East on Friday. Full coverage can be found here.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia, nuclear power Pakistan and Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest army and a rapidly growing defense industry, signed a mutual defense agreement on Friday.
The deal stipulates that an armed attack on either of the three countries will be regarded as an attack against them all. It was signed during a meeting in Saudi Arabia between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan's foreign ministry said.
“The Agreement is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression,” the ministry said in a statement.
The deal comes at a time when Saudi Arabia, whose critical infrastructure and oil facilities have come under attack as part of the war in Iran, has been looking to diversify its defense partnerships.
If an acceptable deal is reached to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. President Donald Trump would end the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports as long as the terms of the agreement are respected, a U.S. official said Friday.
The administration has been told by regional mediators that a deal between Iran and Oman on the crucial waterway could be finalized in the coming days, the official said. The U.S. would study whatever comes from the Iran-Oman talks before taking a position.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations, reiterated that the U.S. would not accept any agreement that allows Iran to charge tolls or service fees or otherwise interfere with ships.
— By Matthew Lee in Washington
Iran-backed Houthis launched attacks on Marib province in eastern Yemen on Friday morning, in the latest escalation with Saudi-backed forces, a military official with the forces in Marib said.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media, said the missiles were fired from west of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.
Qassem Bahaibah, health minister in Yemen’s internationally recognized government, said in a statement on social media that the attacks targeted a refugee camp and residential areas, killing at least two people and injuring 14 others.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a statement late Friday that the rebel group targeted a Saudi-backed military camp in Marib, using drones and missiles to destroy storage facilities and military equipment. He added that the rebel group will target any Saudi-supported troop buildup or allied groups meant to keep the Saudi blockade on Yemen.
Separately, the rebel group struck the Najran region in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border on Thursday, the official spokesperson of the Saudi-led Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, confirmed in a statement on X overnight.
He said the attack wounded 11 civilians, including a woman and a child who suffered second-degree burns, and accused the rebels of carrying out “indiscriminate shelling against civilian objects.”
The Houthis did not immediately claim the attack on Najran in Saudi Arabia.
The attacks mark a major escalation since a truce in 2022 largely halted fighting. The civil war pits the Iran-backed Houthis against a Saudi-led coalition allied with Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
— By Ahmed Al-Haj in Aden, Yemen and Fatma Khaled in Cairo
The Lebanese army said the soldier was lightly wounded on Friday while he was in a bulldozer opening roads in the southern village of Mansouri.
Mansouri was subjected to Israeli shelling earlier this week, according to Lebanon’s state news agency.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
The Israeli army launched strikes Wednesday in southern Lebanon in response to what it described as Hezbollah’s violation of the ceasefire and called on residents of Mansouri to flee — the first such warning Israel has issued in Lebanon for weeks.
FILE - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shake hands during a welcome ceremony, in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, June 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici, File)
