Crown Legacy kick off their MLS Next Pro campaign on Friday

CHARLOTTE FC

Crown Legacy FC won the Medulin Cup Championship in Croatia as part of their preseason preparation for the MLS Next Pro campaign, which starts Friday against NYCFC II.

The 2025 MLS Next Pro season hasn’t started, and Crown Legacy already have a big silver trophy in their cabinet.

That should give new head coach Gary Dicker and his acolytes a boot room of confidence going into Friday’s home opener against NYCFC II at Matthews Sportsplex. Kickoff is 7 p.m..

That Crown Legacy have already earned a trophy should come as no surprise. They were out of the gate fast in year one under José Tavares, came to Charlotte with impressive development credentials from FC Porto, the Portuguese club known for nurturing solid professional players.

In 2023, the Legacy went 19-4-5 to accumulate 66 points – best in the Eastern Conference by 10 – and were level with Colorado Rapids 2 for best in the league. Their 60 goals were second best in the league. Their 34 goals against were best in the East and second best in the league.

Iuri Tavares was the leading scorer with 12 goals in 26 appearances while Patrick Agyemang netted 10 in just 11 games. Brandon Cambridge put four in the net in nine matches.  

That proved a high bar to equal in 2024, when the team went 11-10-7 finishing eighth in the East but still in the playoffs, but the value of a second team to its parent club, Charlotte FC in this case, is not measured in wins and losses but in players it pushes up to the first team, and in providing playing opportunities for first team players further down in the rotation or returning from injury. The Legacy have exceeded on all counts.

Current first team players who started with Legacy or seen valuable development time there include Agyemang, Tavares, Cambridge, Nikola Petkovi?, Tyger Smalls, Chituru Odunze, Nimfasha Berchimas, Nick Scardina, Jack Neeley, Brian Romero, and João Pedro, who is currently loaned out to Rio Ave in Portugal.

The 38-year-old Dicker comes to Charlotte from Brighton & Hove Albion, where he served as an assistant for the club's U-21 squad in the Premier League 2.

They are the champions

During preseason training, Legacy traveled to Europe to take part in the Medulin Cup tournament. Medulin is a small town at the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula in Croatia.

They won the first match 5-1 against Mladost DG, a team standing top of the table in the Montenegro’s second division, then drew 2-2 versus FK Rabotni?ki who was then tied for top of the table in the Macedonian first division. Game three was another win, this one 2-1 over FK Prva Iskra Bari? from the third division of the Serbian league. 

Leading scorers were Barzee Blama, the 77th overall pick in 2025 MLS SuperDraft from Mercer, and Brian Romero with two apiece along with Magic Smalls, the brother of Tyger Smalls.

The Legacy took the trophy, winning on penalty kicks (4-2) after a 0-0 draw in the final against FK Radnik Bijeljina, a top-tier club from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Players to watch

The CLFC roster going into the opener includes:

Goalkeepers: Issac Walker

Defenders: Daniel Moore, Assane Ouedrago, Willian Sangoquiza, Jamie Smith, Yves Tcheuyap

Midfielders: Baye Coulibaly, Ferna Ferreira, Aron John, Erik Peña, Thiago Rodrigues, Andrej Subotic

Forwards: Barzee Blama, Jack Sarkos, Dylan Sing

Players to watch include Charlottean Aron John, a CLTFC Academy alumnus who earned a professional contract last July amidst an MLS Next Pro Best XI season. The 18-year-old announced himself with eight goals and 10 assists, which tied him for third in MLS Next Pro in total goal contributions.

Also returning is homegrown defender Jack Neeley, who appeared in 22 matches for Crown Legacy in 2024. Neeley has been named team captain with John serving as vice-captain.
Forward Dylan Sing, 24, found the net nine times with one assist in 26 games last season. Issac Walker, the original winner of the MLS All Star competition Goalie Wars in 2023 is back as well. Chitiru Odunze won the 2024 Goalie Wars giving the Legacy total global domination over the event.

New players include midfielder Baye Coulibaly from Mali, who joins the team from Croatian side NK Kustosija where he was also courted by clubs including Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Girona, and RB Salzburg following an impressive showing at the 2023 U-17 World Cup. Other European acquisitions include Andrej Subotic from FK Cukaricki, the same club that CLTFC midfielder Nikola Petkovic joined from. He appeared in 94 youth matches there, tallying 56 goals. Ferna Ferreira, who joins the team on loan from Rio Ave's U-23 squad in Portugal.

Also joining the squad is central defender Jamie Smith, the son of CLTFC manager Dean Smith. He joins from USL League One club Greenville Triumph, where he played for three seasons. Smith played collegiately at Limestone and North Carolina State. 

Just signed this week is Charlotte native and Charlotte 49er alumnus Damiel Moore, who played three seasons at Saint Louis University before playing his last two years at his hometown college.
Currently, the Legacy have only 16 players on the roster so you can be certain that some first team squad members who don’t travel to Florida for Sunday’s match against Inter Miami will be in Matthews.

Next up

By a quirk of scheduling, the Legacy won’t take the pitch again until March 29 against Orlando City B at home.

Where to watch

The best place to see the Legacy play is in person at the Matthews Sportsplex. While CLTFC games are a big event, Legacy matches are a more intimate experience with fans closer to the pitch and able to catch players for autographs and a bit of chat after the match. The full schedule can be found here: https://www.mlsnextpro.com/clubs/crown-legacy-fc/schedule 

If you can’t make it to Matthews, the majority of CLFC’s matches will be available live and on-demand on MLSNEXTPro.com, including the season opener against NYCFC II. The remainder of the Club’s matches will be broadcast on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.

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