Multiple sources tell the Beautiful Game Network that former Charleston Battery star Dane Kelly will be heading back to the Carolinas for the 2020 USL Championship season. Kelly will reportedly join Charlotte Independence after one season with Indy Eleven. The league’s all-time leading scorer scored ten goals and added five assists in his only season with Indy. Now, he will be a member of the Independence, his sixth club in the league.

The Jamaican became a star in the USL for the Charleston Battery from 2011 to 2015. After leaving the Battery, he helped to lead Swope Park Rangers to the USL Cup final in 2016. Kelly won the 2017 Golden Boot and Most Valuable Player as a member of Reno 1868 FC before being signed by Major League Soccer’s D.C. United. His time with DC and on loan with Richmond Kickers was limited ahead of last season with the Eleven.

For 2020, Kelly will reportedly be trying to score goals back on the East Coast in the Carolinas, where he had such great success with those loaded Charleston Battery sides. In 2019, Charlotte had zero players in double-digits for goals. With Kelly, they are signing the most proven goalscorer in league history and adding him to a team that finished tied for fifth-fewest goals in the USL-C.

Top photo provided by Ross Almers Photography.