Charlotte FC's Patrick Agyemang is flying high

The striker brings confidence into the 2025 season after scoring two goals with the U.S. Men's National team

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How Agyemang’s determination — and one timely text message — helped Charlotte FC’s striker rise from Division III obscurity to scoring goals for the U.S. Men’s National team

Patrick Agyemang on the run against Costa Rica in one of two exhibition games he played, and scored in, for the U.S. Men’s national team in January. (Photo by Taylor Banner, Charlotte FC.)

Patrick Agyemang had plenty of reason to doubt he’d ever fulfill his lifelong dream of playing professional soccer. Growing up the son of Ghanaian immigrants in a working-class home in East Hartford, Conn., nobody’s youth academy came calling. His lanky legs grew faster than his skills — at one point five inches in a matter of months — and he didn’t start for his varsity high school team until 11th grade.

Even his own teammates, when he landed at Division III Eastern Connecticut State, scoffed in his freshman season when he stated in a go-around-and-introduce-yourself session that his goal was to play pro soccer.

“They were like ‘Bro, are you serious?’” Agyemang recalls. “And I said, ‘Yeah.’ They said, ‘Why would you be here then?’”

Only once, though, does Agyemang recall letting doubts enter his mind. He was coming off a monster 21-goal sophomore year when Covid shut down Eastern’s 2020 fall season. He was doing pushups in a dorm room he shared with three other students, something he put himself through in addition to workouts required for the team.

He was 50 pushups into his usual 100-a-day when he stopped.

“What is the point of me doing this?” Agyemang recalls thinking. “I’m stuck. I want to show what I can do, but can I show it?”

Those thoughts lingered for a few hours. But by the next day, he was back to his routine. Agyemang could always count on his will; the way was soon to follow. About a month later, a text message would change his trajectory.

Agyemang signing jerseys after Charlotte FC’s preseason exhibition against North Carolina FC. (Photo by Taylor Banner, Charlotte FC.)

In the summer of 2020, a group of 25 to 30 college and semi-pro players who worked out together in Hartford had dwindled to a half dozen. Agyemang and a handful of others would rotate between Windsor and East Hartford High Schools to find turf to use. Sometimes, if the field was occupied, they’d set cones out in a corner to work on individual drills or 1-v-1 situations.

One defender who used to match up against the 6-foot-4 Agyemang was Derick Arhin, also a son of Ghanaian immigrants, who played Division I for the University of Rhode Island.

“I’m very confident with my 1v1 defending,” Arhin said. “I could shield the ball, dictate where you’re going to go. Even if you beat me now and then, for the most part, I’m going to hold my own. But with him, it was this unpredictability. One time he’ll go left, and then OK, now I’ve read his game, and then he goes right. Then you think you could adjust for either side. Then he’s adding his body in there. Then you adjust for his body, but his speed comes.”

Arhin didn’t know Agyemang well personally, so he started asking around about him.

“Is there a reason he’s at Eastern, like really bad grades?” Arhin said. “Is it an outlandish reason that I don't know?”

The response was no. So just before Thanksgiving break, looking ahead to Rhode Island’s 2021 spring season, Arhin texted Tony Bassett, his associate head coach. Here’s what it said:

That kid Patrick Agyemang from Eastern is a very, very, very talented individual. When I played with him this past summer, I could see why he’s been lighting up D3. Super unpredictable, left foot, right foot, insane athleticism and he can finish. He plays anywhere across the front 3. We need him on our team.

Bassett called him back immediately. Within a month or so, Agyemang was enrolled at Rhode Island. Agyemang led the Rams in scoring the next two full seasons, in 2021 and 2022, while earning at first a partial and later a full scholarship.

By the time of the MLS Showcase in December of 2022, Charlotte FC assistant GM Bobby Belair knew all about Agyemang. He’d played soccer at nearby Brown University. Belair and Jose Tavares, then head coach of Charlotte’s MLS Next Pro team, were among the first to interview Agyemang. As Belair recalls, Tavares asked him: “Do you want to fly?”

Agyemang looked puzzled before he caught on.

“Yes, I want to fly,” he said.

“Come to Charlotte,” Tavares said. “We’ll help you fly.”

Charlotte FC traded up to get Agyemang and selected him with the 12th overall pick. Agyemang scored 10 goals in 12 games for Tavares with Crown Legacy FC. He earned multiple first-team call-ups that 2023 season, scoring goals in two Leagues Cup games, and then scored his first goal in MLS play in Charlotte’s wildcard playoff loss to end the season. Last year, he led Charlotte FC with 10 goals in just 19 starts (31 games overall).

Agyemang scored 10 goals in 12 games for Crown Legacy FC in 2023. (Photo courtesy of Crown Legacy FC.)

New United States men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino was in Orlando last November when Patrick Agyemang started ahead of striker Karol Swiderski in the decisive game of the best-of-three Round One playoff series. Agyemang had already beat out one designated player (DP), Enzo Copetti, and in the season-ending loss in Orlando, he was on his way to beating out another. Swiderski joined Copetti as Charlotte’s second DP (signed with less regard to salary) to transfer overseas.

About a month later, Agyemang was working out with his brother Emmanuel and a coach in Hartford, when Belair called to tell him Pochettino wanted Agyemang in January camp with the U.S. Men’s National team.

“He started walking away from us,” Emmanuel said. “… Then he just opened his mouth (in surprise).”

The celebration started there and continued at home with Emmanuel’s twin brother, Enoch, and their parents. Their mom, Emilia, works as a certified nursing assistant in two retirement homes. Their father, Patrick Sr., drives a delivery truck to pharmacies around Connecticut, starting at dawn and sometimes for two shifts a day. There were times, when his three sons were in school, that he would also clean offices at night. But he made time on the weekends to coach and cheer Patrick on in soccer.

The Agyemangs used to gather around the TV to watch Ghana and the U.S. play. Now, they would watch Patrick start for the U.S. Seven minutes in against Venezuela, he went streaking past a defender and scored his first international goal. He celebrated with a dance he and his brothers had watched Ghanaian striker Asamoah Gyan do during the 2010 World Cup. Agyemang would finish with two goals in two games for the U.S., after converting another against Costa Rica.

A teenaged Patrick Agyemang Jr. (left) with his mother Emelia, brother Enoch, father Patrick Sr. and brother Emmanuel in 2015. (Photo courtesy of Emmanuel Agyemang)

Agyemang rejoined Charlotte FC in late January like a man more at ease. He’s been a fixture in national soccer coverage lately, including stories in the Washington Post, Give Me Sport and Goal.com. He’s like a celebrity in his own camp, or so it seemed after a group of Charlotte FC’s Academy players gawked and waved at him through a conference room window during this interview. Agyemang gave them his patented smile and waved.

Multiple teams from the English Championship, the second-tier of English professional soccer, have made transfer offers to Charlotte FC for Agyemang, but the club has not bit.

“It’s obviously cool to hear that, but I just love to focus on the moment, and the moment right now is Charlotte,” said Agyemang, who acknowledged his dream is to play in Europe. “I think every kid’s dream — you ask anybody in the locker room, they’ll all say the same. It’s mine as well.”

Charlotte FC has Agyemang under contract this year with an option for next. While many of his teammates signed extensions last year, Agyemang and Charlotte FC have yet to reach an agreement on his own. Agyemang made just above the MLS minimum, $71,401, last season. He doesn’t own his own car.

But he knows his stock is rising. Charlotte FC’s starting striker job is his now, and this time, he’ll be playing alongside a world-class winger in Wilfried Zaha. He’ll get a full season after leading the team with 10 goals last year in a part-time role.

Agyemang is in position to be invited back to the U.S. Men’s national team for Nations League next month. This time, the roster will include U.S. players back from Europe. One of those expected back, striker Ricardo Pepi, is out of action with a knee injury. Pochettino knows what Agyemang can do now. And yes, the 2026 World Cup is on the horizon.

Agyemang’s future is bright. Whatever path he takes from here is just geography.

“I want to take every opportunity as I can,” Agyemang said. “Now I don’t really mind where I am. As long as I know I’m improving every day and I’m getting better every day, that’s all that matters.”

For more about Agyemang’s rise with Charlotte FC, check out my conversation with Frank Garza in an Austin-based podcast about the U.S. Men’s National team called “Here and Abroad”:

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⚽️ Up Next: Charlotte FC at Seattle Sounders on Feb. 22

Charlotte FC plays its final preseason match at the Coachella Valley Invitational on Saturday against Portland at 1 p.m. (streaming on team website) before returning to Charlotte to prepare for its opener at Seattle on Saturday Feb. 22.

Charlotte opens its home schedule on March 1 against Atlanta United.

This newsletter kicks off our fourth year of in-depth Charlotte FC coverage in our weekly Fútbol Friday newsletter.

Join us for the ride!

Recent Charlotte FC coverage from Carroll Walton:

• “Charlotte FC is adding key offensive players” (Jan. 17)

• “How Charlotte FC landed a big one: Proven Premier League goal-scorer Wilfied Zaha is confident and ‘very motivated’ to show what he can do” (Jan. 22)

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Carroll Walton is a longtime baseball writer with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution now in her fourth season covering Charlotte FC. She would love to hear from you. E-mail her with questions, suggestions, story ideas and comments!

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