Patrick Brennan

pbrennan@enquirer.com

Xavier men's soccer product Jalen Brown is bound for Major League Soccer.

Brown, a four-year player for the Musketeers, was selected Friday by New York City FC with the 38th overall pick (second round) in the MLS SuperDraft.

Brown spent the last week in Los Angeles participating in the MLS Combine. Originally projected as a mid-to-late third round pick by some experts, Brown obviously impressed at the combine.

On Thursday, Brown hit what some described as the best goal of the entire combine.

Xavier head coach Andy Fleming said the goal (see below - Brown's goal is the second in the compilation of three) helped push Brown up the draft board, although he was confident Brown would be drafted eventually.

"We all felt that this would happen, but I think (Thursday's) goal was a real closing statement and gave him a little juice into the second round," Fleming told The Enquirer via email. "Jalen has a lot of work ahead of him, but it’s for a chance to play in MLS, to live in New York City and work with soccer greats such as Claudio Reyna, Patrick Vieira, David Villa, Andrea Pirlo and others.

"This is our third top two round pick in the past five years and again proves that people are tracking our program and Xavier is an avenue to the next level.”

Brown is the third Xavier men's soccer player to be drafted in the last six years, joining fellow former Musketeers Nick Hagglund and Luke Spencer.

Over a four-year career at Xavier, Brown was part of 45 Musketeers victories and received seven Big East Conference honors including two rookie honors his freshman season, a Big East All-Tournament Team selection in 2014 and four weekly honors over his junior and senior seasons.

The 5-foot-10, 178-pound Indianapolis native made 80 total appearances for the Musketeers.

Brown started 14 and 19 games during his junior and senior seasons, respectively, and finished his career with 14 goals (five game-winners) and eight assists.

His six goals and three assists in 2016 were both career highs.

At NYCFC, Brown will join former Futbol Club Cincinnati star Sean Okoli, who signed for NYCFC this offseason.