The following is a guest post by Zach Lowy. Please enjoy.
At 33 years of age, Tesho Akindele has enjoyed quite an impressive soccer career. Born in Calgary, Canada, to a Nigerian father and a Canadian mother, he was eight years old when he moved with his family to Colorado, where he balanced his studies with a burgeoning passion for soccer.
Rather than accepting an offer to join Colorado Rapids’ academy, Akindele decided to enroll at the Colorado School of Mines, where he became the school’s all-time leading scorer (76 goals) and a four-time All-American, finishing second in the nation for goals scored (22) in 2012 and winning the 2012 RMAC Offensive Player of the Year for his efforts.
These stellar displays for the Orediggers would earn the attention of FC Dallas, who selected him with the sixth overall pick of the 2014 MLS SuperDraft. In doing so, Akindele became the highest-drafted NCAA Division II player in MLS history.
After gradually biding his time on the bench, Akindele broke through into the starting XI and emerged as a key figure in attack, opening his MLS account vs. eventual champions LA Galaxy and scoring 8 goals and 5 assists in 32 appearances. Dallas would end up losing to Seattle and Philadelphia in the Western Conference semifinals and U.S. Open Cup semifinals.
Still, as for Akindele, he would end his maiden professional season by winning the MLS Rookie of the Year award.
“I always talk about how tough it is for players – especially American players – where you’re the best player on your entire team growing up, you’re the best player on your team in college, and then you go to the pros and you’re the worst,” stated Akindele in an exclusive 3rd Degree interview. “It’s a real wake-up call. I wasn’t even included in the 18-player matchday squad for half of the year until May/June when our best player, our #10 – Mauro Díaz – ended up getting a season-ending injury.”
“We switched our formation and started playing with two strikers, and so I came in and basically played every game for the rest of the year. I think it’s just a lesson to young players that you have no idea how you’ll get a chance. If you’re good enough, you’ll get at least one chance, and you have to be prepared, you know? I saw a lot of guys, even while I was in Dallas, same age as me, who, when they weren’t included in the squad, they were just pouting, and they weren’t really trying in those training sessions, and then when their chance came, they couldn’t take advantage of it. Luckily, I was able to do so and win Rookie of the Year. It felt fair, it felt great.”
Akindele would follow that up with 6 goals and 1 assist in 32 appearances in 2015, a season which also saw him commence his senior international career with Canada, with Akindele scoring 3 goals in 19 caps and competing in the 2015 and 2021 Gold Cups for the Canucks.
After finishing second in the Supporters’ Shield race and losing to Portland Timbers in the Western Conference Finals, Dallas would enjoy a historic 2016 season that saw them reach the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals and win the U.S. Open Cup and Supporters’ Shield.
Ultimately, however, they came short in their main pursuit of a maiden MLS Cup title, losing on penalties to Seattle in the Conference Semifinals.
“It was a great moment and a great season, winning some hardware, including the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup,” added Akindele to 3rd Degree. “The Hunt family is so ingrained in American soccer, so seeing how excited they were to have that hardware for their hometown team, that felt special, too. It’s funny to say, but the Hunt family, these are billionaires, and then I remember a moment thinking, these billionaires know who I am, and we helped them accomplish something they couldn’t otherwise. That was an interesting feeling in my life as well.”
“I wish I’d have won an MLS Cup in my career, but I did win two U.S. Open Cups and a Supporters’ Shield, so having something like that in the trophy case is nice. We definitely should have gone further; we never even got the MLS Cup Final. Man, we had some really, really good players and teams, but I think that’s part of the excitement of MLS. Some people don’t like it, and they think the Supporters’ Shield should be the end-all, be-all, but I think what makes American sports different and exciting is stuff like the playoffs. It’s the only league, really, that does something like that. I think it’s great. I wish we could have gone further with the team we had, but at least we did win something.”
Akindele’s goal-scoring numbers took a dip in the following two seasons, as did Dallas’ form, prompting him to be traded to Orlando City in December 2018. Having scored 28 goals and 13 assists in 164 appearances for Dallas, Akindele would score 21 goals and 7 assists in 121 appearances for Orlando and help them win their first-ever trophy with the 2022 U.S. Open Cup, before hanging up his boots at the end of the 2022 campaign.
Today, Akindele splits his time between raising his two sons in Charlotte and working as a real estate developer for Camp North End.
