The 17-year-old soccer player is the second team member to sign with the club directly from United’s Academy. The other player was goalkeeper Bill Hamid, who signed in September of last year.

Najar is a native of Honduras, has a green card, and will be classified as a domestic player for United.

“We are very excited about Andy’s rapid ascent from our U-16 Academy team to our first team,” said United’s President and CEO, Kevin Payne. “This is a great story about the importance of our Academy teams, and the ability those teams give us to find young players who in the past we might never have met.”

“We expect Andy’s story with D.C. United to help attract even more great young talent to our program, and I can’t wait to see him take the field for our team.”

“We are thrilled to have developed and signed our second home-grown player from our youth Academy,” said United General Manager, Dave Kasper. “Andy is a very talented player who possesses excellent technical and tactical abilities. Andy has shown us that he is ready to contribute first team minutes and we are excited about his future.”

Najar is a versatile player who enjoyed a decorated youth career with United’s U-16 and U-18 Academy teams. In 2009, he played right back with the U-16 team and tallied four goals before moving up to the U-18 side and scoring nine goals as a forward.

During his time with the Academy program, Najar has received numerous awards and honors for his outstanding play. He was named to the United States Soccer Federation Development Academy Starting XI in 2009 and he was the leading scorer in the US Developmental Academy Finals in Los Angeles in 2009.

In addition, Najar was named a Washington Post All-Met First Team selection last year at Edison High School in Alexandria after a stellar sophomore season that saw him complete a school-high of 22 goals.

He was also considered to be the top-rated youth player in the United States in 2009 by Top Drawer Soccer, an online publication that rates the country’s premier youth talent