Jalen Brown drafted by New York City FC

By: Brendan Burris ~Staff Writer~

1
Photo courtesy of twitter.com | Jalen Brown started all 19 games for Xavier last season, scoring a team-leading six goals.

Clutch crunch-time goals have marked many of the men’s soccer teams’ games over the past few seasons.

Now, Brown will take that playmaking ability and eye for the net to the pros.

Brown was drafted in the second round (38th overall) in the 2017 MLS SuperDraft on Jan. 13 by New York City Football Club (NYCFC), the MLS team partially owned by both the New York Yankees and Manchester City of the English Premier League.

Brown was helped by a strong week at the MLS combine and was lauded by his new team in his ability to work well with teammates and win one-on-one battles with defenders.

Brown also becomes the third Musketeer drafted in the past six years, behind Nick Hagglund, currently a defender for Toronto FC, and Luke Spencer, currently on the roster for FC Cincinnati.

NYCFC had a successful season last year, making the Eastern Conference playoffs and cementing itself as one of the conference’s top teams while still in the infancy of its creation.

Brown’s new teammates will include international talents such as World Cup winner Andrea Pirlo of Italy and former Barcelona striker David Villa. Sean Okoli, the former FC Cincinnati forward and this past season’s USL MVP, is also on the roster.

In addition to being one of the most consistent threats on the Musketeer teams during his collegiate career, Brown will also be most remembered as one of the key players in Xavier’s 2014 run into the Sweet 16 and for striking the winning goal in one of the program’s more signature wins, a road victory against then- No. 2 Notre Dame in 2015.