Louisville City announced today (even if they were trumped by the ever-vigilant Jonathan Lintner from the Courier Journal) that the club has signed midfielder George Davis IV for the 2016 season. Kudos to Elsie for the signing, as well as the proper conjugation of the Latin “alumnus.” Pet peeve of mine.

Davis comes to us after having spent the last two seasons with the Richmond Kickers, where he scored 19 goals in 53 appearances, eight of those coming in 25 appearances (21 starts) last season. The 2009 University of Kentucky graduate is the first Louisville City player that has some local connections prior to signing with the club. Prior to playing in Richmond, Davis, a Lima, Ohio native, played two seasons with the Dayton Dutch Lions before a three year stint with the then-Los Angeles Blues, where he was teammates with Matt Fondy and Bryan Burke. His time in Richmond also included a season-long loan to Orlando City in 2012, where he played with James O’Connor. If you want to get a sense of the kind of player he is, someone put together a nice highlight reel from his 2014 season with the Kickers:

George Davis IV | Goals, Skills, Assists | Richmond Kickers | 2014 USL Pro season from Summit Sports Group on Vimeo.

Cuatro, as I am going to call him from now on, sounds pretty excited to be joining the Royals for 2016. From the C-J article: “I had an inkling that Louisville would be a place I wouldn’t mind playing, and on top of that they had success, and the way the fan base received them made this not a difficult decision,” Cuatro said.  “I spoke to [Fondy and Burke] about how they liked it in Louisville, and they had nothing but good things to say […] I made it clear that Louisville was an option for me.”

Now for the interesting part: where will he play? A lot of that depends on whether Matt Fondy stays or heads to the pirate coast of Florida. According to the Lintner article, Cuatro envisions himself playing in the wide areas of the field or under Louisville City FC’s top striker. That puts him in a hardy crop of attacking midfielders already on Louisville City’s roster, but a guy that can play a bit deeper on either side of the field to provide cover for City’s fullbacks (whoever those may be) would probably be a good thing. O’Connor may see Cuatro as more of a utility player, seeing as he can play any of the forward midfield spots, or even an off-striker.

In any event, we have yet another quality player on our roster, so let’s welcome George Davis, IV to Louisville. It’s going to be a great season!