“Bonjour Montréal!”
Generation adidas forward Romario Williams pulled the right strings on the 2015 MLS SuperDraft stage after getting selected No. 3 overall by the Montreal Impact on Thursday. Admittedly, he’s lost some of the French proficiency he’d acquired back in high school – he took French for five years – but he’s willing to work on it.
Of course, he’s also looking forward to working on the field.
“I’m just excited to get to Montreal and get to work,” Williams told reporters. “Montreal is a great city, and I’m excited to go and get to work and have a wonderful start to my career there, make it a good one for the fans.”
“From the minute I stepped into the room and those guys interviewed me, I knew they were interested from the get-go,” Williams continued. “I just want to thank them big time for bringing me to Montreal, to the city of Montreal. I’m ecstatic. I’m excited to get to work.”
Williams, named after – of course – legendary Brazilian striker Romário, described himself as a quick, physical and two-footed player, good “at creating my own shot” and “in 1-v-1 situations”. The Montreal staff saw it all.
“He’s got all the capabilities and the tools and the talent to really be an impactful player in this league for years to come,” head coach Frank Klopas said in a conference call after the SuperDraft, adding that Williams would still need time to adapt to the quicker tempo. “We identified the player we wanted, and we knew we were going to get him at [No. 3]. We weren’t looking to move [down the draft order], because we needed to get that player to our squad.”
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Born in Portmore, Jamaica, Williams will occupy an international roster spot. Impact technical director Adam Braz said that this “doesn’t change our plans.” There are still a couple of moves in the works. Klopas said the Impact would “add another piece to the forward line, for sure.”
“We’re in the process of signing one or two more impact players, and I think we will,” Klopas said. “The moves that we’ve made have made the team a lot stronger, not only making the team younger and more athletic, but the quality that we brought in. But we’re not finished yet.”
