MINNESOTA UNITED | ANALYSIS

Every pro soccer player has to overcome adversity along the way, but 17-year-old Darius Randell — born in Liberia and immigrated to Minnesota — had to overcome one of the most difficult obstacles of all.

His mom.

"At first, my mom didn't want me to play soccer when I just got here," he said. "She was like, 'Just focus on school and forget the soccer stuff. This is America — you actually have to have something going for yourself to make it out here.' "

Randell's family moved to the United States in stages, starting with his dad in 2011 and his mom in 2014, and eventually including Randell in 2018. Fast-forward to 2024, and he is now a product of MNUFC Academy, one of the team's top young prospects and one of the most visible signs of the club's renewed focus on young players.

Randell, who just turned 17 in August, recently inked his first professional contract, signing a 2½-year deal with MNUFC2, the club's second team. Not bad for a player who, not too long ago, was trying to figure out if he could afford to have the Loons notice him.

In 2021, Randell was playing for Boreal FC, a youth club in Ramsey, Minn., and had heard that the Loons were having open tryouts — but there was a fee.

"I was like, 'OK, I gotta try to talk my mom into getting me down there,' " he said. "And it was kind of hard, because when I heard the amount, I was like, 'Ugh, I don't think she's going to pay for that.' "

Randell, though, was already on Minnesota's radar, and weeks later, the club's then-head of the academy got Randell to come in for a successful — and free — tryout.

He played as a defender in 2022 for the under-15 squad, before moving on to play as a winger for the U-17 team and the Loons' second team in the past two seasons. This year, he's played in 24 of 25 games for MNUFC2, scoring twice along the way.

He also played in the MLS NEXT All-Star Game, representing MNUFC Academy — and from the top of the club on down, the team has its eye on him.

"I talk to [manager] Eric Ramsay a lot, and he do be watching a lot of the second team games," he said. "And he do be telling me that, 'I saw you do this and do that, but now I need you to do more every single game — do more, do more.'"

Ramsay, who was once an academy coach for Swansea City and worked with young players at Chelsea, sees big-time talent in Randell.

"I really, really like him as a player," he said. "I think he's got some very high-level raw ingredients: really explosive, really athletic, really aggressive. I think if he was in Europe, it certainly wouldn't surprise me if he was playing in one of the top academies there."

The Loons, in a playoff push, don't have the luxury of giving out much for developmental time with the first team right now — something that's also hitting other players who are looking to make the next step, like forward Loïc Mesanvi, or right back Matúš Kmeť.

"As soon as we're into preseason, then we can be far more experimental, and we can look to them in a really sort of intentional way around their development," Ramsay said.

For the moment, then, Minnesota has had to use training time to develop the young players, and Randell has regularly participated with the first team.

"We want training to feel high level every day," said Ramsay. "We're now at a point where we've got 20-22 players that are relatively established and can all contribute in the MLS on their day. So when the young players are coming into that, it's stretching them, whereas if you go back a couple of months ago, the group day-to-day felt like a mix between the first team and the second team, and really, that's no good for anyone."

Randell had the self-belief to overcome everything so far, including his mom and the tryout fees. Now, he's in the same boat as every other young player — just trying to be the best he can be.

"There's always someone better than you, on any team you get to," he said. "But for me, it's just me driving and just telling myself, 'You can do this,' every day."