Michael Cox is a Canadian-born forward with plenty of playing experience in Canada, the US, and even Finland. Born and raised in Calgary, Cox began his playing career at FC Edmonton in 2010, staying there until the end of the 2013 season. With Edmonton, Cox appeared in 55 games, scored 10 times, and assisted on three other goals in all competitions. In 2014, Cox went to Finland to play for Kuopion Palloseura, where he played in 7 games, scoring twice. In 2015, Cox returned to North America, and played for York University. Cox really stood out at York; he played 16 games and scored 16 goals. Cox led York to both conference and national collegiate championships in Ontario and Canada, respectively, and he won conference and national Athlete of the Week in back to back weeks.

After graduating, Cox signed with Orlando City B, the USL affiliate of Orlando City SC. In his first season with OCB, Cox lead the team in scoring, and scored the eighth most goals in the USL. In 2017, for whatever reason, Cox did not have as good a season, and was released by OCB after the end of the 2017 season. At OCB, in both seasons, Cox appeared in 48 matches, starting 34 of them, and he netted 13 goals and 6 assists.

Unfortunately, it seems Cox had a better 2016 season than 2017, and even though USL has been getting better at recording player statistics, the 2017 stats are the most accurate. In 2016, Cox played in 29 games, of which he started 24. He scored 11 goals and had one assist. In 2017, Cox only played in 17 matches, starting 10 of them. He scored twice and assisted on three goals. This decline is interesting to note, in that it causes me to wonder why his appearances decreased. The only accurate statistics I can pull from are his 2017 statistics, which actually tell me that Cox has the capacity to put together very successful seasons, but for whatever reason OCB didn’t give him those opportunities last season. It could’ve been any number of things that kept him from playing in as many games last season, but his highlights make me look forward to hopefully seeing him play a good amount this year in the Blue and Gold. As I do not have complete statistics on him, I’ve instead compiled some of his highlights for us all to enjoy.

Cox’s first goal of last season. A shot fired at a very acute angle, but he manages to get it past the keeper:

Another goal from the same match: Cox boots one in from the other side of the penalty box:

Cox can win games at the dying embers, in stoppage time. Here we can see Cox shake a defender off his back, turn and fire one in to win:

I, for one, am excited to see Cox play. It looks to me like he can line up as a classic #9, at striker.

Here is a bonus video for those of you who have read down this far. Here is a compilation of Cox’s performance at York University: