Promising Major League Soccer defender A.J. Soares will join Italian Serie A club Hellas Verona, according to numerous reports posted on Monday.
Selected by the Revs with the sixth overall pick in the 2011 MLS SuperDraft, the 26-year-old Soares was a regular for the New England Revolution each of the past four seasons, appearing in 108 regular season games and another seven in the postseason. He started and played every minute of the MLS Cup final earlier this month.
But Soares’ contract with the Revs expired at the end of this season, leaving him open to a move abroad that appears to be done.
Soares’ agent, Mike Gartlan, did not immediately respond to MLSsoccer.com when asked for comment.
Soares will be the fourth US player to play in Serie A, joining Toronto FC midfielder Michael Bradley (AS Roma), Oguchi Onyewu (AC Milan) and former USMNT and MLS defender and current ESPN analyst Alexi Lalas (Padova) as the only Americans to play in Italy’s top flight.
Soares will also be a teammate of Mexican national team defender and former New York Red Bull Rafa Marquez at Hellas Verona.
New England defender Andrew Farrell would seem to be a likely replacement for Soares in the middle of the Revolution backline. The No. 1 pick in the 2013 SuperDraft, the 5-foot-11, 185 pound Farrell has made 64 appearances, all starts, primarily as a right back in his two years in New England. He mainly played as a center back during his final college season in 2012.
