Fanendo Adi

HOW ACQUIRED: On July 30, 2018 in a trade with the Portland Timbers in exchange for $450,000 in General Allocation Money and $400,000 in Targeted Allocation Money.

There aren’t many 6-foot-4 target strikers with the nimble feet of Fanendo Adi. The tall, prototypical No. 9 is a true menace and will be one of the featured attractions of 2019 MLS debutants FC Cincinnati. Adi emerged as a goalscoring force for the Timbers, netting 54 goals over five MLS seasons (126 appearances), including back-to-back 16 goal seasons. He was a fixture of the team that won MLS Cup 2015. Competition at the forward position in 2018 eventually led to his trade. Adi originally joined Portland on loan from Danish side FC Copenhagen in May 2014 and the Timbers quickly exercised their loan purchase option, signing Adi to a Designated Player contract on June 23, 2014. 

INTERNATIONAL: Adi spent time in the Nigerian youth system with the Under-23 national team, last appearing in 2011. Adi was later called up to the full Nigeria national team for Africa Cup of Nations qualifying in March 2016, but did not make an appearance.

OUTSIDE MLS: Adi began his professional career in Slovakia before bouncing to five different clubs in Europe in three years, most notably with FC Copenhagen in Denmark, where he spent the first half of the 2013-14 season. Portland snagged him on a loan with an option to buy in May 2014, and the rest is history.