By Harrison Baxter

Scrolling through Twitter on a December evening in the winter of 2022, my cousin Xavier Zengue, a senior soccer player at the University of Dayton, stumbled upon a 2022 Major League Soccer (MLS) mock draft. Out of curiosity, Xavier clicked the link and started reading. When he started to scroll past the first few picks, he was stunned to see his own name on the draft board, with a late first-round projection. He had gone to a combine a few weeks before, and he felt like he was one of the better players at the combine, but still was not sure he would be given an opportunity to play, much less at the MLS level. 

Initially, he did not know what to make of the situation. He was planning on graduating from college and applying to medical school, potentially with a future in physical therapy. He had always loved playing soccer, but just played for his love of the game and not exactly to get into professional soccer. He ultimately decided not to alert his extended family about the draft, because he did not want the attention, especially if he was not to be selected. This made the news of him being drafted shocking to the rest of the family, when we received an exciting text in the minutes following. The MLS team Columbus Crew selected Xavier as a defender for the 27th pick in the MLS draft on December 21, 2022. 

Photo courtesy of Columbus Crew.

Xavier began his rookie season on the second team, as all rookies do. The second team is a kind of minor league club for every MLS team, but they still use the name Columbus Crew. One major change Xavier felt through his transition from college to pro soccer was season length. The season for his pro team is much longer, so it took an adjustment period to adjust to the workload that his body was facing on a daily basis. He is adjusting to life in professional sports, but the move to Columbus was not too unfamiliar, because he had been living in Ohio at Dayton for the past four years. His rookie season was going really well until he tore his meniscus in three separate places when playing on turf in a Columbus home game. 

The MLS was created in 1996 and played a role in the successful bid by the United States to host the 1994 World Cup, where they looked to take advantage of the sport’s growing popularity in America. Now, the MLS has expanded to 29 teams, with 26 in the US and three in Canada. The League has attracted attention recently due to world-renowned (and possible GOAT) Argentinian soccer player Lionel Messi, who signed with Inter Miami this summer. The MLS season lasts from late February through October, with 34 games, and players are able to play in the league as their full time job. 

Xavier playing in a game in his senior season at Dayton. Photo courtesy of Dayton Soccer.

Xavier underwent surgery in July and is still recovering from his injury. He has had to go through significant amounts of physical therapy and has recently begun to run again. He has high hopes for the coming MLS season and has prepared his body the grueling schedule. He is looking to prove himself to sign to the first team and wants to stay healthy enough to help the team and play in over 25 games. The Crew won the MLS Cup earlier in December, and Xavier hopes to add to an already talented team. Now given the amazing opportunity, he feels like he wants to play as long as possible and see how far the game can take him.

Zachary Zengue is Xavier’s younger brother. Zach grew up in locations all around the world, such as Sri Lanka and Haiti, but when it was time for high school his and Xavier’s family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota. He had been playing normal club soccer his whole life, but now that he was in the States and in high school, he decided he really wanted to take soccer seriously, in part because he was seeing the success of his older brother. Zach decided to transfer to Shattuck St. Marys, a boarding school in Minnesota, about an hour from their home. As he progressed through high school and his dream of college soccer started to become a reality, Zach ended up committing to play at Georgetown University after a long recruitment process. 

With Zachary after a Hoya game in November.

As a sophomore on the team, this past year he was a key contributor to the Hoyas’ #4 nationally-ranked squad. Their season fell short in the NCAA tournament, with a loss to James Madison, but Zach says he is looking forward to the spring exhibition games and playing for a team in the summer.

Last summer, Zach played for the United Soccer League (USL) team the Vermont Green as a forward. The transition from his freshman to sophomore season was a jump for him, as he started all 19 games for the Hoyas in the 2023 campaign. As a forward, much of his work during the game is to put pressure on the other team’s back line, and because of this role he typically logs over eight miles per game. His season highlights included a two-goal game against Big East conference champions the Xavier Musketeers. He is looking to make another jump in his junior season and bring a Big East title to the Hoyas. 

Both young men are great players in their own respects, and their competitiveness with one another has carried them forward to where they are today. 

Featured image courtesy of Vermont Green FC.