Atlanta United announced early Tuesday that it signed Academy player Caleb Wiley to a Homegrown contract.
Wiley, 17 years old, is a left back who recently played for the U.S. Under-20 national team. He played in 22 games for Atlanta United 2 last season, logging 1,877 minutes, which was fifth most on the team. He had 71 crosses, 33 key passes and two assists. He has 33 appearances for Atlanta United 2 in the past two seasons.
“It’s a dream come true,” Wiley said. “I’ve always wanted this ever since I came here. And to finally get to finally get here and be a part of this team is amazing.”
Wiley joins a group of left backs that includes George Bello, a target of clubs in Europe, and Andrew Gutman, who spent the past season on loan with the New York Red Bulls.
Wiley is a member of Atlanta United’s Under-12 class in the first year of its academy. He played at Decatur-DeKalb YMCA Soccer Club. He said he began to realize at 13 that professional soccer may be an opportunity for him. He said he rarely took days off as he tried to do everything he could to turn that opportunity into a probability.
“It was lots of hard work,” he said. “And just putting my head down grinding every single day. And like I said, I wanted to so badly that I’d works like 10 times harder.”
Wiley first trained with the first team before its Champions League game against Club America in December at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. He described that as a rough experience because of the speed of play. He trained more with the team after Gonzalo Pineda took over midway through last season.
“You can you can certainly see why the excitement is there, and why the talk is around him as a young player that is now breaking in with the first team,” goalkeeper Brad Guzan said. “And as that happens, there’ll be more demands and more questions being asked of him in terms of individual performances, and his ability, obviously, to get forward, understand the game. It’s exciting for a kid his age. But now the challenge is to take it up to another level in terms of first-team football.”
Other Homegrown signings on the roster include fullback Bello, centerbacks George Campbell, Bryce Washington and Efrain Morales, midfielders Machop Chol and Tyler Wolff and striker Jackson Conway. Past Homegrown signings who are no longer with the team include Andrew Carleton, Patrick Okonkwo, Chris Goslin and Lagos Kunga.
Atlanta United’s roster:
Goalkeepers (3): Dylan Castanheira, Justin Garces and Brad Guzan.
Defenders (12): Mikey Ambrose, Bello, George Campbell, Alex De John, Alan Franco, Gutman, Ronald Hernandez, Brooks Lennon, Efrain Morales, Miles Robinson, Bryce Washington and Caleb Wiley.
Midfielders (11): Osvaldo Alonso, Ezequiel Barco, Jürgen Damm, Emerson Hyndman, Franco Ibarra, Marcelino Moreno, Jake Mulraney, Matheus Rossetto, Amar Sejdic, Santiago Sosa and Tyler Wolff.
Forwards (5): Luiz Araújo, Machop Chol, Jackson Conway, Erik López and Josef Martínez.
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Atlanta United’s 2022 MLS schedule
Feb. 27 vs. Sporting KC, 3 p.m., FS1
March 5 at Colorado, 6 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
March 13 vs. Charlotte, 4:30 p.m., FS1
March 19 vs. Montreal, 4 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
April 2 at D.C. United, 7:30 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
April 9 at Charlotte, 3 p.m., ESPN
April 16 vs. Cincinnati, 6 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
April 24 at Miami, 1 p.m., ESPN
April 30 at Montreal, 4 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
May 7 vs. Chicago, 6 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
May 15 vs. New England, 2 p.m., ESPN
May 21 at Nashville, 7:30 p.m. FOX
May 28 vs. Columbus Crew, 7 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
June 19 vs Miami, 4 p.m., ESPN2
June 25 at Toronto, 7:30 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
June 30 at New York Red Bulls, 8 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
July 3 at NYCFC, 5 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
July 9 vs. Austin, 7 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
July 13 vs. Real Salt Lake, 7:30 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
July 17 vs. Orlando, 3 p.m., ABC
July 24 at L.A. Galaxy, 9:30 p.m., FS1
July 30 at Chicago, 5 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
August 6 vs. Seattle, 3 p.m., ABC
August 13 at Cincinnati, 7:30 p.m. BSSO/BSSE
August 17 vs. New York Red Bulls, 7:30 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
August 21 at Columbus, 6 p.m., FS1
August 28 vs. D.C. United, 4 p.m., UNIV
August 31 at Philadelphia, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 4 at Portland, 5:30 p.m., FOX
Sept. 10 vs. Toronto, 7:30 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
Sept. 14 at Orlando, 6 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
Sept 17 vs. Philadelphia, 3:30 p.m., UniMas
Oct. 1 at New England, 1 p.m., UniMas
Oct. 9 vs. NYCFC, TBD, BSSO/BSSE
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