Louisville City announced this morning that Elijah Wynder had signed a professional contract with the club, the player’s first. The signing also marks the first Louisville City Academy player to be signed with the first team. Wynder has been on team sheets for a couple of seasons now and made appearances in several games while he finished high school. He also participated in the first ever USL Academy Cup last season on a LouCity team made up of several top youth players from around Kentuckiana.

“I’ve been around Elijah and his family forever,” said Charlie Traughber, Wynder’s coach and executive director at local youth club Elite FC. “One of the things we’ve always done from our side is put the player first — whether that’s wanting to play high school, college or professional soccer. Elijah was focused from a pretty early age on getting to the highest level, so to develop a player into someone who can sign a professional contract is fantastic.

“Being able to be from Louisville and play here, this is a huge thing for the soccer community to show the kids that there is a path. They don’t necessarily have to travel all over the country or out of the country to achieve their goals.”

December 21, 2020 Louisville City press release

Wynder’s signing for the first team is a momentous occasion for Louisville City. It’s important for any club to be able to develop players for their first team. I, personally, have been looking for John Hackworth and the technical staff to try to identify and sign more young talent with lots of potential like Akil Watts and Jonathan Gomez. However, it’s definitely better for the city and local soccer community specifically if the club’s academy arm can develop local kids into players that can compete at the USL Championship level and hopefully beyond. Wynder’s signing is the first of hopefully many for whom the dream of playing professional soccer in America can become a reality.

Beyond all the symbolism of this signing, I genuinely hope Wynder can find his way into more games in 2021. He’s an exciting player to watch, but still has a way to go to look comfortable playing in a physical setting like the USL Championship’s Eastern Conference. The only way to get there is with experience. He’ll have to fight like hell to get it. Here’s hoping he wins enough of those battles to show the purple faithful what he’s really made of.

Congratulations, Elijah!