The 24-year-old joins the club mid-season after a stint at Richmond and will provide another outlet to complement an already strong forward mix.

Freddi is excited to join the Border outfit and particularly eager to play alongside Archie Thompson.

“It will be a good opportunity for me to keeping learning, I’m still young and he’s a legend,” Freddi said.

“It’s very exciting, hopefully we can combine well together and with the rest of the team.

“It all happened in a few days, but I’m very happy to come here.

“I’ve watched a few of their games and I think I can help the team.”

Freddi played the entire 2016 season with Dandenong City, before crossing to Richmond over the summer, scoring 16 goals in his time in the NPL 2 setup, proving he has match-winning abilities. 

“This is my second year in Australia and I’m feeling a lot stronger and I know more about the league, so I’m in a better position now and can make more of a difference,” Freddi said.

“I like going forward and I think I can make good runs for the team and create opportunities for myself and the team.

“When I don’t have the ball, I like pressing and working hard.”

United head coach James Coutts believes the South American is something different to what the side already has. 

“He can play out wide, he can play through the middle and he’s someone I was impressed with last year, but when we played against him at Richmond, I was very impressed with him and how he went about it,” Coutts said.

“From that game onward, he was certainly a target for us, but we weren’t sure we could make it happen, but as soon as we found out it was a possibility, we pushed pretty hard.

“We’ve spoken to a lot of players, but from watching him, he’s a typical South American, he works very, he doesn’t let a ball go dead and he doesn’t stop running.

“As a forward player, it’s that intensity up higher that we’ve probably lacked a little bit at times, but I feel he just adds to the mix with our other options of Chad (Bugeja), Archie, Zac (Walker), Lewis (Greenwood) and Lionel (Masudi), which is a good sign going forward for us.

“We’d been in talks for a couple of weeks, Richmond is in a difficult position at the moment and I found out there was a possibility of Gonzalo becoming available.

“Gonzalo let Richmond know on Monday night of his intentions and we got a deal verbally agreed over the weekend and had to do the professional thing and let Richmond know.

“He knows what the competition is about, he’s fit, he’s been playing, he has been scoring goals, so for us he ticked all the boxes.”

With Bugeja sidelined with a hamstring strain, Freddi is expected to slot straight into the starting lineup against Box Hill United on Saturday.