Charlotte FC Can Win US Fan’s Hearts

Charlotte FC will be one of the last Major League Soccer clubs to join the league under their current model. Charlotte will be added just before St. Louis and Sacramento round out the league at 30 clubs. The new club was originally slated to join MLS in 2021, unfortunately, due to Covid has pushed the transition back to 2022.

 “We are committed to bringing Major League Soccer to our city and region,” Charlotte MLS owner David Tepper said in a club statement. “The party’s still on! We are just delaying it a bit to ensure we have the best experience for our fans when we do start playing.”

Charlotte will be among a group of new MLS clubs and looking to develop their fanbase. Locally it’ll be easier as they get involved in the community and draw fans to the stadium especially in a hopefully post-covid time. Gaining fans nationally will be more challenging in an increasingly crowded field of clubs. A great way to win instant credibility and fandom from the moderate disconnected fan may be to add a young American player or two to capture the hearts of MLS’ slowly growing USMNT fan base.

Knowing we’re now more than a full year away from the launch let’s take a way too early look at some young USMNT players that could join the squad to help bring more unattached US fans into the launch fold.

Brooklyn Raines, M

The young player is in the Barca Academy currently, but is a rising star on a lot of radars. The success of Barca Academy is well established in MLS with names like Julian Araujo (LAG), Bryce Duke (LAFC) and most recently Caden Clark (NYRB). Brooklyn is currently ranked #37 on David Kerr’s top 50 u20 players { https://chasingacup.com/top-50-u20-prospects/ } and one of only 5 from the 2005 age group listed in the top 50 players.

If he does not have an early path to Europe he’ll have to wait until he is 18 and would be a great pick up for Charlotte in their debut season to draw USMNT fans.

Aaron Heard, M

Aaron is a fantastic central midfield prospect who came from Maryland before joining the Philadelphia Union academy. One of the leaders in youth development in MLS, their academy has an incredible track record for signing talented prospects and developing them into global professionals. Heard left for “family reasons” according to the Union Academy Director, Tommy Wilson, and as of yet has not signed with a new club.

The young player won the Golden Ball at the Concacaf U13 Championship in Costa Rica in 2019. Aaron has not played with the YNT yet, but has certainly been on US fans radars. David Kerr recognized him on his top future prospects list. {https://chasingacup.com/way-too-young-usynt-prospects/}  He’s a talented player that would be a phenomenal signing for Charlotte FC.

Chris Thaggard, F

Chris has a big advance over the other two as he is conveniently already in Charlotte FC’s academy system. Thaggard is ranked #31 on David Kerr’s Top 50 u20 prospects list. { https://chasingacup.com/top-50-u20-prospects/ } A striker who has tallied well over 100 goals in his youth career and though he’ll be a younger player will be joining the new MLS academy league when it begins again.

Chris is a strong and athletic forward and an extremely talented dribbler that will hope to capture a spot on the U17 squad. Thaggard has dominated in the early days of his career and will look to carry the confidence into 2021 and beyond as Charlotte rises into the MLS.

There are tons of prospects around the country that are undiscovered. It is so challenging to predict the future especially with such young players, but Raines and Heard are great bets and Thaggard well just makes a ton of sense to get excited about.  

It is a pretty divided US fan base between the MLS defenders and the “Euro-snob”, but that divide has been shrinking as MLS has loosened their grip on players and embraced becoming a development focused and seller’s league. This growing model and revenue stream could be a great way for Charlotte to approach leaping into the league at full speed with some national attention from the US fan base especially in a World Cup year. Charlotte FC, we’ll be watching and waiting.

Marcus O’Malley

@chasingacup