In their first ever MLS SuperDraft, expansion side New York City FC was offered significant cash for their top pick. They kept the player, convinced Khiry Shelton was the best talent in the entire pool.
“We actually got offered quite a bit of allocation money to sell that pick, so we had to consider it. The guy on the board for us was our top guy,’’ NYC FC coach Jason Kreis told reporters at the draft in Philadelphia. “But at some point, you have to consider allocation money, too, when you’re trying to build a team from scratch.”
Kreis and sporting director Claudio Reyna have been doing just that, signing older, big-named, big-money foreign World Cup stars like Spain’s David Villa and England’s Frank Kampard — whenever the latter eventually shows up.
But they added 24-year-old U.S. National Team midfielder Mix Diskerud last week — as a non-designated player coup — and on Thursday they used the No. 2 overall pick in the draft on Shelton, Oregon State’s pacy, prolific striker who claimed he had no clue that they might take him.
“The truth of the matter is that you can’t make those decisions until very late in the day,” Kreis said, according to MLSsoccer.com. “He was our clear No. 1, but that’s not something you can ever let the player know because you don’t know what’s going to happen. As we saw, somebody comes in with a big money offer for us, and we have to consider that, because we have to do right by New York City FC.”
Shelton provides both size (6-foot-3, 175 pounds) and speed, the quickest player timed at MLS Combine last weekend. That combination helped him play some midfield, lead the Pac 12 in assists (12), finish third in goals (ten) and win Pac 12 Player of the Year.
“That’s one of the beauties of him, actually, is that he gives us some versatility,” said Kreis. “I don’t think that any of us are married to a system right now. We still have some pieces to add, to be frank, to think about what our system is going to be at the end of the day. We don’t have to make that decision right now, and a player like Khiry gives us some flexibility to play a couple of different ways.”