Where are you *Tom DeLonge Voice*
Boys of summer
Strangers from distant lands, friends of old. You have been summoned here, with about a month until the Open Cup and with “Roving Falkirk Bairn” playing in my headphones, to look at where you might be able to find Vermont Green alumni playing these days. Will there be the occasional political screed thrown in along with hopefully insightful thoughts on these players? Of course there will be. We are nothing if not consistent.
Zach Zengue – Columbus Crew – MLS
We’re lucky because the Bhoys have a diehard Crew fan (hi Steven!) who has been supporting the team since before Precourt tried to tear them out of Columbus (side note: GET FUCKED PRECOURT) and displayed all the traits that make us hate millionaires and billionaires (side side note: See? I told you we were consistent). Per our insider, Zach has the potential to get some real minutes with the first team. A lot of those minutes will probably be off the bench but the fact that Zach can play almost anywhere up the middle and on the wing if needed gives him the ability to get on the field. Steven also reminded me that Zengue is joining the team under a new manager and is going to be evaluated by fresh eyes along with the entire first team. The VGFC legend could really kick off his pro career after closing out his time in Vermont with a championship.
Sydney Wathuta – Colorado Rapids – MLS
Is this one kind of a stretch to say he’s an alumni of the Green because he only played in the Open Cup?
HELL NO. ONCE A GREEN ALWAYS A GREEN.
Last year with the ‘Pids Wathuta made two appearances, one in MLS regular season and once in the super stupid Leagues Cup. Even though the competition is super stupid Sydney played a full 90 minutes against Cruz Azul and got an assist! He’s on a first team contract and much like Zengue he should be looking to get some playing time coming off the bench. I posed the question of how many minutes he was likely to get to Matt Pollard (@bymattpollard on good ol’ BlueSky) of Burgundy Wave and he told me “Good question. I think he makes the bench for most of the year if healthy. Wells (The Rapids Head Coach) likes Wathuta centrally, not just a winger. Him, Jamison, Harris and Stewart-Baynes are competing for that “energetic first attacking sub” role. I’ll guess Sydney gets 600 first team minutes.”
Nathan Messer – Charleston Battery – USL Championship
Don’t let the people in the fair city of Portland Maine fool you.
HES ONE OF OUR OWN
HES ONE OF OUR OWN
NATHAN MESSER
HES ONE OF OUR OWN
Messer’s transfer to Charleston after an All USL1 season with HoP is a great reward for all the effort he put in after being released by Rhode Island the year before. Nathan never really got a chance to show what he could do at RIFC and he showed BOATLOADS of it in Maine. I think that he will get to strut his stuff week in and week out for the Battery because at the USL level no one is actively paying for players to have them stuck on the bench. The EXCELLENT writer John Morrissey (@usltactics on BlueSky) who runs the wonderful USL Tactics page gave me this bit of insight: “As of now, the Battery are only carrying three senior fullbacks, and that alone means Messer is going to see significant game time. For me, he’s the most natural attacking-minded left back on the team. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him play 2,000 minutes or so across all competitions, even if he isn’t the starter on opening day.” Get ready to watch some highlights out of South Carolina.
Nate Jones – Las Vegas Lights – USL Championship
More chants? Sure!
HES BIGGER THAN YOU
HES BIGGER THAN YOU
NATE JONES IS MASSIVE
HES BIGGER THAN YOU
Nate has had some rocky seasons to start off his pro career. After being drafted by Austin FC and then traded to Colorado, he spent a year in their MLS NEXT squad before being loaned to the Las Vegas Lights in the USL Championship. He put up some pretty “meh” numbers in the desert over 18 games, but this was a team in flux after parting ways with their manager mid-season and going through changes to their formation mid-season. They must have liked what they saw from the big guy though because they signed him to a permanent deal through 2026 with a club option for 2027. He will probably be in/around the first team and hopefully a full offseason will get him on the road to success.
John Morrissey donated some more of his time and told me that Jones has started in some closed door friendlies and “I think he’ll start the year as a role player but has the upside to start because he’s got the passing abilities that Vegas needs from the back.”
Giorgio Probo – Las Vegas Lights – USL Championship
Big Nate’s teammate in Vegas is our former midfield maestro of the incredibly talented 2023 Green team and one of the legions of Creighton Blue Jays that filled our roster in the early years. After Giorgio graduated he spent a year and a half playing in the Canadian Premier League with Halifax Wanderers where he played 40 games with 6 goals and 5 assists. A big break with the team happened and his contract was terminated by mutual consent.
NOT GREAT
He did get snapped up by Las Vegas in early September last year and played in 8 matches before the season ended. The club exercised its option on him to bring him back into the squad for 2026 and the Swiss Army knife Italian is going to look to start/rotate all over the pitch this summer.
Gevork Diarbian – Birmingham Legion – USL Championship
Just as the well informed staff of The Blazing Musket told me, Gevork is DEFINITELY a Championship caliber player and had over 55 games in Next Pro had 10 goals and 8 assists. Sammy Latts (@samlatoff on BlueSky) texted me yesterday, Feb 19th, with the news that Diarbian had signed with Birmingham and made me scramble to update this piece (DAMN YOU SAM AND YOUR UP DO DATE INSIDER KNOWLEDGE). I’ve been a fan of/talked a lot with Kaylor Hodges (@kaylorhodges on BlueSky) who covers Birmingham on the Hammering Down pod as well as the USL in general on the The USL Show (which by the way also has John Morrissey, who I talk to about some players further down in this piece, and Alex Ashton who is a WEALTH of knowledge on all the comings and goings in USL1…as his BlueSky handle, @leagueoneupdater.com, proves) and he told me quote: “I love the guy early. I got into his Providence and NERev film and it's great stuff. The guys at training seem to like him a lot. I see him as a first or second sub option. Left Mid/Wing is fairly crowded in Birmingham right now with Sebastian Saucedo, Sam Shashoua, and Dawson McCartney. I do think that we'll see Saucedo get the starts, Shashoua play as an 8 or 10, McCartney at LWB, so that would make Diarbian the primary sub for Saucedo. I wouldn't be surprised if throughout the season he wins that spot, though.” Gevork never really got the opportunity he needed to break into the Rev’s but he’s GOING to get game time in the Championship which should be a great springboard for his career.
Yann Toualy – Pacific FC - CanPL
We only got a brief glimpse of the magic that is Yann Toualy, when he played against us for Saint-Laurent in the 2023 Maple Cup and then actually FOR US in 2024. He set the bar for post goal backflips that were eventually broken by a player farther down this list and was a dynamo on the wing. A brief stop at….*squints at Transfermkt* Gençler Birliği SK in Cyprus, he got picked up by Pacific FC in the Canadian Premier league and is doing shit like this and THIS. It can be tricky to find the CanPL live matches sometimes but if you can, tune into a Pacific game and watch some magic happen.
————
I’m going to preface this next section, which is players currently in MLS Next, by saying that there really isn’t THAT much media or previews or much of anything at all to try and give me some info about what these guys should expect. So please bear with me as I make some educated guesses.
Francesco Montali – San Jose Earthquakes 2 – MLS Next
Francesco is doing that thing that almost all keepers do and that is TOIL. He was drafted by the Philadelphia Union back in ’23 but never started any games for them and after an excellent season with Vermont, signed with Minnesota in MLS Next. He only started 5 matches for The Loons II and headed to the southwest the next year and joined the San Jose Earthquakes MLS Next squad where he got a LOT more opportunities. 21 games started with 7 clean sheets and the club have an option on him following this year. He’s still only 25 years old and goalies are evergreen so hopefully he manages to find some traction either in the Quakes first team or in the USL.
Rui Aoki – Columbus Crew 2 – MLS Next
RUUUUUIIIIIIIII!
Rui’s time in Vermont was cut short due to injuries but we know that when he’s on the pitch he’s a silky operator with great closing speed for a defender. Columbus has a great record of developing young players and he should be getting pretty regular minutes with The Capybaras (Yes, that is actually the name of the Crew's MLS Next team). Keep an eye on him for the future.
Reid Fisher – Toronto FC 2 – MLS Next
The big angry ginger was drafted by Toronto in 2024 and spent the majority of 2025 with their Next Pro squad logging almost 1800 minutes over 24 games. He also got some call ups to the first team but never made it off the subs bench. This upcoming season could be interesting for Reid because two of Toronto’s main options at CB have BAD injuries with no real timetable to return so there is a BIG opportunity for first team minutes if he can impress in the pre-season.
Luca Costabile – Toronto FC 2 – MLS Next
If you listened to United in Green's long conversation with The Gaffer Chis Taylor a couple weeks ago (if not, why not?) he could NOT stop talking about how much he loved Luca. I’m really excited for Luca to get his career in the states started after coming through FC Helsingör’s academy in Denmark. Hopefully he gets some quality minutes with Torontos second team.
Owen O’Malley - Richmond Kickers – USL1
“O’Malley now in control, his shot is over OH!!!! IT FALLS! ARE YOU KIDDING!?”
That was the call during the Miracle at Lusitano and it set the stage for O’Malley to finish off his renaissance season in Vermont with a Championship. That was the keystone for his redemption arc after what was quite frankly a burnout of a time in pro ball with St. Louis and Seattle after being drafted in 2022. O’Malley has the ability to play on either wing in attack as well as defense and if he has a goof preseason could see himself as a starter SOMEWHERE in the starting 11 for the Kickers. Even if he doesn’t get that initial starting place, hard work and staying healthy is going to provide an opportunity to get a good run of games this season. I had a really good conversation with Elliot Barr (@thatguyyogi on BlueSky) who is the co-host of the Rivercity93 podcast about Owen and the next player on this list, Sam Layton, and he told me that at the very worst they looked like mid-level super subs and at best high-level starters.
Sam Layton – Richmond Kickers – USL1
Big Sam Layton was a bit of an enigma when he joined us in 2024. A big, fast, physical bastard of a player who could play either as a center back or a holding midfielder who would just sometimes….ping it into the ether. When I saw that Layton got signed I reached out to folks in the front office and coaching staff for The Green to get their thoughts on how he’d do in USL1 and the near universal consensus was that he would THRIVE. He has all the physical tools to survive in the rough and tumble USL1 and those passes to nowhere? Those were going to where his teammates SHOULD have been making runs if they had the same vision and foresight as Layton. The 26 year old is primed for big things.
Yaniv Bazini – WHO KNOWS
I had a WHOLE SECTION written about Bazini with some great info from Luke Martin (@lukermartin on BlueSky and the Stormwatch912 blog) who told me it was basically going to be either Bazini or new arrival Lucca Dourado who chipped in 8 goals and 2 assists with Forward Madison who get to fight it out for the number 9 spot for South Georgia Tormenta and then shit hit the fan. First reported by Alex Ashton of League One Updater (@leagueoneupdater.com on BlueSky), Tormenta will not be fielding a team in USL 1 this year. Issues with paying for players insurance was the final straw that broke Tormenta’s back and waiting 2 weeks before the season starts to make an announcement like this is MIND BOGGLING to me*. This goal by Yaniv is in my mind the quintessential Bazini goal. Closing down, making a tackle, runs DIRECTLY at the goal and scores. We all know he can score with either foot and his head, give 100 percent every game and has used his disappointment in not being drafted into the MLS to fuel last years campaign with Tormenta where he played almost 2,000 minutes, had 11 goals and 5 assists. These are GREAT stats for a player who started the season coming off the bench (came on as a sub in 6 of the first 12 games he played) and he finished 2nd in goals and 3rd in assists in South Georgia. Supposedly there is going to be a dispersal draft for the players under contract with Tormenta where, if players opt in, they can be picked up by other USL1 teams and added to their roster. Their other choice is to be released, with the league paying them for 45 days of their contract. This is a sad shitty situation, but Yaniv has the talent to get scooped up SOMEWHERE.
*Kartik Krishnaiyer (@kkfla737 on BlueSky) who runs the Beyond the 90’ Substack has some extensive coverage on the way the USL runs their leagues. Basically, the USL owns and runs the league and all of the teams pay to play in the league. Any expansion teams pay the league to join but ONLY the league keeps that money and none of it is shared out to the other teams. This piece he wrote THE DAY BEFORE Tormenta announced they wouldn’t field a team highlights the biggest problem with USL as a whole, “Revenue from national TV deals, league-wide sponsorships, and the massive inflow of expansion fees from those potential 70 cities all stays at USL Headquarters….Individual clubs are left to “survive on what they can earn locally” through ticket sales and local sponsorships.” There is very little incentive for the league to support their existing teams when they are out fishing for new multi-million dollar expansion fees and pitching mixed development use stadium expansions that the league owns a significant slice of. I know that we love to shit on MLS for how they go about their business, but this whole thing smacks of being shady.
Jackson Castro – Forward Madison FC – USL1
Speaking of Forward Madison, (See? An actual segue! I CAN write sometimes!) Castro signed with the ‘Mingos after an EXEMPLARY season with the Vancouver Whitecaps second team, picking up 5 goals and 8 assists in almost 2,500 minutes, playing mostly in the center of midfield. I had a chat with Rob Chappell (@robchappell365 on BlueSky) of the Talkin’ Flock podcast who told me that in an earlier interview with Forward Madison’s new sporting director that the team was only signing one starter and one backup per position. With all the turnover that happens with USL1 teams, this means that Castro is GOING to be seeing game time this year but how much of it is going to depend on him really making the most of the opportunities he gets.
Now we are getting to the folks overseas and it’s a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to finding anything news-wise about most of these players with one BIG exception. For the next little bit Transfermarkt is my best friend.
Eythor Bjorgolfsson – Motherwell – Scottish Prem
We’re still doing chants?
HE’S BIG
HE’S GREEN
HE IS A VIKING
EYTHOOOOOOORRRR
EYTHOOOOOOORRRR
The biggest member of Vermont Green FC’s inaugural team is also then one who has made arguably the biggest strides in the professional game since being transferred to Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership this winter. Eythor was drafted by Seattle in 2022 and was in the pacific northwest with the 2nd team until moving back to Norway with Moss in 2024. A loan and a Swedish club later and Bjorgolfsson is dishing up headers into the box against those fucking Huns at Rangers (See? Still political). Eythor has 4 appearances off the bench for The ‘Well who as of this writing sit 4th in the Scottish Prem table and he’s also an adorable nerd. We are all so happy for the big man who is getting to ply his trade in a big European league (YES THE SCOTTISH PREM IS A BIG LEAGUE. UP THE DONS!) and if he keeps it up he’s going to be starting sooner rather than later.
Diba Nwegbo – FK Tauras Taurage – I Lyga
Oh Diba.
The man who scored the goal that sent Vermont into the playoffs their first year has been making a tour of eastern Europe after spending two years with Birmingham Legion in the USL Championship where he was a pretty significant part of the team. At my last check he was with FK Tauras Taueage in the Lithuanian second tier. I’m not going to lie, my Lithuanian is pretty rusty so I don’t really have a handle on how to find any insight whatsoever on his prospects for the coming season. Trying to find out a little more info on the I Lyga literally made my Transfermkt page crash soooooooo….your guess is as good as mine. Diba was always the nicest guy when we talked with him on our United in Green pods that we did with him so we are all rooting for him!
Gerardo Castillo – AD San Carlos – Liga FPD
Who can forget Gerardo Castillo’s give and go followed by a bombing run down the left wing with a low cross to Labo to put the Green up 3-1 against Lexington in the Open Cup? I certainly can’t. Castillo also holds the distinction of scoring the go-ahead goal against Western Mass to give the Green their first ever win AT Lusitano which also secured Vermont a spot in the 2024 playoffs. Castillo signed with AD San Carlos at the start of the Clausura tournament in the 24/25 season and played in 13 games with 2 goals and 3 assists. He’s followed that up this year in the Apertura despite fracturing his leg and missing the first month or so of the season. He looks to have really locked down his starting role in the Clausura portion of the season, (honestly, even after reading up on how the Costa Rican top flight works, it still boggles my mind) starting the last 7 games. It has been tricky to try and find any highlights for this competition that are NOT on Facebook* and that’s a platform that I quite frankly don’t feel comfortable using.
*lets talk about the Book of Faces real quick shall we? Why are you still using this? There is so much evidence that it is a horrible company run by horrible people. LOOK HOW BIG THE WIKIPEDIA PAGE FOR FACEBOOK’S CRITICISMS IS. Now yes, I realize the hypocrisy in the fact that the Bhoys still use Instagram, which is now owned by the Meta overlords, but it hasn’t gotten to the apocalyptic hellscape that is Facebook or The Website Formerly Known as Twitter. I’m sure it’ll get there in time, but we’re still using it….apprehensively.
Felipe D’Agostini – Wollongong Wolves FC – Natl Premier League – New South Wales
Our beautiful Brazilian wonderboy turned out for the Green in 2023 and by ‘gawd that man can dribble. He’s been kind of pinging around here and there. Playing for Inter Milan in TST, Simco County Rovers in League 1 Ontario, Rochdale Rovers in the Queensland Premier League, and is currently playing with the Wollongong Wolves who play in the suburb of Figtree. Why is it called Figtree you ask? ‘Cause there used to be a big ‘fekkin fig tree there mate (I love Australia). Look at the footwork on display by the Brazilian! Football NSW actually has a pretty robust YouTube channel with highlights of most matches, with play by play done by some guy named either Makka, Wayne, Gordo, Fizza, Bazza, Jacko, or the ever-present Bruce (Again, I love Australia). It’s delightfully Semi-Pro and I encourage everyone to check it out.
VGFC Players Taken in the 2025 MLS Draft
Ok, so here is the list of Vermont Green players taken in this years draft.
Jahiem Wickham – Charlotte FC
Maximilian Kissel – Inter Miami FC
Stephane Njike – DC United
Ayoub Lajhar – FC Cincinnati
Niklas Herceg – FC Dallas
Enzo Dovlo – Atlanta United
We all know that the MLS has some pretty inscrutable roster rules in general but the international roster spots are a dumb holdover from a by gone era in US soccer when they were trying to build the rosters through American players. As it stands currently there are 241 international roster spots shared between all 30 MLS teams and those teams can trade them around for cash, players and what have you. This is how Inter Miami have managed to Smaug 14 international spots and teams like Colorado, Seattle, San Jose, Portland, Nashville and Montreal have between 4 and 6. This means that Maxi Kissel, a German national, has basically no chance in hell of ever seeing the field with the Messi team despite all of their other roster chicanery that lets them somehow roster Messi, Suarez and Busquets. After doing some light Transfermkt research (Check out Herceg’s profile picture) the only players who would not require an international spot are Lajhar (an American Citizen) and Wickham (Trinidad and Tobago but came through Toronto FC’s youth academy). The other thing to keep in mind is that even though these players have been drafted by teams, they have not necessarily signed contracts with them. MLS teams retain the rights to sign the players they select in the draft until December 31of the year AFTER the draft. This is mainly in place so that players can return to college or play in amateur competitions without impacting their professional eligibility. This is a very long way of saying who fucking knows how things are going to shake out for these players. With the emergence of the USL as a great pathway to meaningful professional games for young players along with the Canadian Premier League and legions of other leagues all over Central and South America as well as Europe, the world is their oyster. We’ve seen their quality, we know their passion for the game and wish them all the best in their journey to wherever they wind up.
Thank you, Tyler, for suggesting this idea for a piece and damn you, Tyler, for suggesting this idea for a piece. I got to nerd out and talk to some great folks who follow footy all over the country and I encourage everyone who reads this to go out and talk to your friends about soccer, talk to someone new about soccer, go down the rabbit hole of why Mexican and a lot of South American leagues use the Apertura and Clausura system (pro tip: money), be curious about why English Right Wing ideologues want to cap the number of “foreign” players in the EPL, DON’T BE CURIOUS ABOUT MY MANY RUN-ON SENTANCES.
Support your teams
Support your players
We are all in this together
With love, from all the Bhoys