MARBELLA, Spain – The New England Revolution’s lengthy pursuit of attacking midfielder Carles Gil reached a satisfying conclusion on Wednesday afternoon, when the Revs officially announced the 26-year-old as their newest Designated Player.

Gil’s integration into the Revolution squad shouldn’t take nearly as long.

Joining the Revs from Deportivo de La Coruña, Gil was in the midst of the La Liga 2 season, so he’s already in midseason form. That means he should be able to jump into the mix straightaway, and while he’s not expected to feature in Thursday’s preseason opener against Shanghai Shenua FC, head coach Brad Friedel said that Gil could see action as early as Friday, when the Revs will take on Czech side FC Viktoria Plzeň.

“He’s fully fit,” Friedel said of Gil. “He was in the middle of [the La Liga 2] season, so there won’t be any issues whatsoever. We’ll take him through a couple of training sessions and we’ll see if he gets a runout on Friday. If not Friday, then it’ll definitely be the match after that.”

New England’s third preseason match is set for Sunday, against Russian power FC Krasnodar.

Friedel described Gil as “a different type of 10 than we’ve had in the team,” and noted the former Aston Villa man’s favored left foot as a benefit to the Revolution’s attacking options.

“He has tremendous quality on the ball … We were very unbalanced last year with not having a lot of left-footed players once Chris Tierney was injured and when Isaac (Angking) had his (medical) issues, so this’ll help balance things off in that regard.

“Carles is a very, very good player, and a very good guy, as you can probably tell around the place. He’ll fit in very nicely, and add another new attacking option that’s going to make our squad stronger.”