Aaron Long
Center back · USMNT · Los Angeles FCA second-round pick who was gone from the club that drafted him by July. Three years in the lower divisions and on reserve teams, which is the stretch most players quit during. Then MLS Defender of the Year and 35 US caps. Here’s the long way around, rung by rung.
- Position
- Center back
- Hometown
- Oak Hills, California
- Born
- 1992
- Plays now
- Los Angeles FC
Every club, in order, with the years
Look at the years beside each rung. Several of them cover three or four seasons in one place, and the second-division USL turns up on four of these thirteen routes.
- 1High-desert soccerTown & rec soccer
Serrano High School
Phelan, CA Childhood
He grew up in Oak Hills, in California’s high desert, a long way from the country’s soccer hotbeds. His college bio lists all-league honors in soccer and all-conference in football as a senior, which is a two-sport high-school résumé rather than an academy one.
Two sports at Serrano HighOutside the soccer spotlight - 2A forward who became a defenderCollege · NCAA D1
UC Riverside
Riverside, CA 2010-2013
Four years at UC Riverside, a mid-major program, where he started 65 of 71 appearances and scored 13 goals. He was playing up the field then, not at the back. Getting drafted felt like the hard part was over. It wasn’t.
65 starts in 71 games13 college goals - 3Drafted, moved on, and the long climb backPro · MLS / USL
USL and reserve sides
Portland · Seattle · New York 2014-2016
Portland took him 36th overall in 2014 and he won the USL Cup on loan that year, but by July he had signed with Seattle. He spent 2015 on loan with the Sounders’ USL side, 30 appearances and no first-team minutes, then joined New York Red Bulls II in 2016, won the USL title and was named the league’s Defender of the Year.
36th overall, 2014A year on a reserve sideUSL Defender of the Year, 2016Parent translationThis is the rung most careers end on: moved on by your first club, stuck on a reserve team, no obvious way up. He treated it as part of the route rather than the end of it, and it still took three years.
- 4The breakthroughPro · MLS / USL
New York Red Bulls
Harrison, NJ · MLS 2017-2022
He was promoted to the first team in February 2017, having converted to center back during that USL season. By 2018 he was MLS Defender of the Year, the first Red Bulls player to win it, and an All-Star. He plays for LAFC, signed through 2027.
MLS Defender of the Year, 2018All-Star 2018 and 2022LAFC through 2027 - 5The national teamNational team
United States men’s national team
USMNT 2018-2023
He made his senior debut at 26, in a 1-1 draw with Peru on 16 October 2018, four years after his first pro club moved him on. He won 35 caps, the most recent in 2023, and was not in the 2026 World Cup squad. He ruptured an Achilles in July 2025 and returned to play in 2026.
Debut vs Peru, Oct 201835 capsFirst cap at 26
Gone from his first pro club inside a year, then three years in the lower divisions, then Defender of the Year.
The part worth reading is the order it happened in and how long each step took. Look at the years beside each rung above. Several of them cover three or four seasons in one place.
What a parent can take from this one
A few things worth pulling out of the route above, none of them a formula you can copy.
A quick exit is not the end
The club that drafted him had moved him on inside six months. He spent three more years in the lower divisions before it clicked. Being let go is a setback, not a verdict.
The desert is not a dead end
He came from a high-desert town nobody scouts and a mid-major college. Where you start matters far less than how long you keep going.
Positions change
He scored 13 goals in college playing up the field and became Defender of the Year at center back. The position your kid plays at 12 is rarely the one they retire in.
The lower divisions are the road
USL, a reserve team, another USL side. For Long that stretch is how he got up, not proof he had stalled.
One path, not the path. MLS NEXT alone holds more than 53,000 players across 318 clubs. MLS has 30 clubs and caps an active roster at 30 players, and a World Cup squad is 26. Aaron Long’s route is worth understanding rather than copying step for step, because the arithmetic between those numbers is not something a plan can beat. Here is where the odds actually land.
Which rung is your kid on right now?
Town, club, academy, college: the rungs Aaron Long climbed are the same ones the clubs near you sit on. Read the ladder, or tell us about your kid and we’ll place them on it.
How we built this page
Every club, date and figure on this page was checked against US Soccer, the clubs themselves, college athletics departments and dated reporting. The professional record is well documented. The youth years are thinner, so where a claim could not be traced to one of those sources we cut it rather than fill the gap.
- US Soccer: Aaron Long
- UC Riverside Athletics: Aaron Long
- LAFC: Aaron Long
- ESPN: the 2025 Achilles injury
Not affiliated with Aaron Long, US Soccer, Los Angeles FC, or any club or league. No endorsement implied. Spotted something wrong? Tell us and we’ll fix it.
Photo: Jamie Smed · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.