Former Union prospect Brandan Craig starts a new chapter in MLS with CF Montréal

The 20-year-old from Northeast Philadelphia was a major Union prospect coming up, but the club didn't think he could handle the physicality of MLS yet. Now he gets a new chance north of the border.

Forrmer Union centerback prospect Brandan Craig joined CF Montréal this year as a free agent.Read moreMorgan Tencza / CF Montréal

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Feb. 10, 2025, 5:42 p.m. ET

Three years isn’t always a long time for an Eagles fan, and Brandan Craig is an Eagles fan. But it can be a quite long time in Major League Soccer, and Craig is a MLS player.

Or at least he has been in theory. The native of Northeast Philadelphia’s Morrell Park neighborhood had a first-team contract with the Union from 2021 to 2024, but he made just one first-team appearance — a three-minute cameo in a July 2022 game vs. D.C. United, when it already was a 7-0 win.

The Union hoped Craig would grow into handling the rigors of first-team play as a centerback. They sent him on loans to other teams — Austin FC in 2023, then the second-tier USL Championship’s El Paso Locomotive last year — believing he’d face more physicality there than the Union’s reserves do in the MLS Next Pro league.

But Craig never played for Austin, and he played just 19 games for an El Paso squad that finished last in the Western Conference. That left the Union with a big decision to make about his team-held contract option for 2025.

No team easily casts off a 20-year-old who started for the U.S. under-20 World Cup team in 2023. Craig showed glimpses of a skill set like longtime Union stalwart Jack Elliott’s, and Elliott and Jakob Glesnes weren’t getting any younger.

Still, the Union couldn’t shake off doubts about Craig’s ceiling, no matter how much they wanted to believe. So they declined that contract option, tried to negotiate a new deal, and did not reach one.

In truth, the Union weren’t the only ones with doubts. Enough scouts who’d watched him had the same questions, even though English Premier League club Everton invited Craig over for a trial in January last year.

That made Craig a free agent, and all those watchers wondered where he’d go next. Just under a month ago, the answer arrived from north of the border: CF Montréal invited him to its preseason training camp. And it didn’t take long for the club to like what it saw enough to sign him.

The contract, announced last week, has just one guaranteed year and three club-held option years after that. But it’s still an endorsement and an opportunity for Craig to show he can make it in the top flight.

“I think this is a good opportunity for me to be in a new environment,” he said Monday at a news conference. “I’m grateful for my time in Philly, but my time in Montréal is just getting started now, so I’m really excited about that.”

Montréal manager Laurent Courtois acknowledged that Craig doesn’t come as a finished product, but he believes in the player’s potential.

“Of course, we have to upgrade him in his capacity on defending, especially against adults, in this system,” said Courtois, a native of France who coached the Columbus Crew’s reserves before taking Montréal’s top job last year. He also played in MLS from 2013 to 2014 with the former Chivas USA, then with the Los Angeles Galaxy.

“It’s not going to come overnight,” Courtois continued. “But we figured that he had enough tools for us on and off the ball to work with, and to try to develop over the month [of Craig’s tryout]. He’s evolving, he’s growing, and he’s happy to be here, and that’s important too. So, a young kid with a lot of potential, and we [will] see where it goes.”

Craig is not expected to be a starter right away. Montreal plays a much different style from the Union, with three centerbacks instead of four. The club already had incumbents, including Canadian national team regular Joel Waterman, and added another likely starter in 21-year-old Jalen Neal — a surprising castoff from the champion Los Angeles Galaxy and a teammate of Craig’s with U.S. youth teams.

“A lot of the guys have been tremendous, in terms of on the field and off the field helping me, and it helps to know a couple of guys beforehand,” Craig said. “I feel like this is a very good locker room — a younger locker room, but one that’s still very mature and very professional.”

It might end up as a better tactical fit, too, even though Craig hasn’t played in a three-back setup often.

“I think Montréal plays similarly to how I played with the U-20 national team under [then-coach] Mikey Varas,” he said. “In terms of with the ball, without the ball, structure, formations, tactics, I think it’s very similar, and I think it suits my game a little bit more. … Most of the things that I’ve learned from the national team, I put toward my time now. I’m very excited for the season. I’m very excited for what’s to come.”

Craig won’t have to wait long to see his old teammates again, as Montréal faces the Union in a preseason scrimmage in suburban Orlando on Friday. The clubs’ regular-season meetings this year are May 3 up north and July 16 at Subaru Park.