MLS Winners and Losers: Rising stars shine, a revealing Wooden Spoon race & more

It’s in the title, folks. Every week during the MLS season, Backheeled is here to dive into the biggest Winners and Losers from around the league. Let’s get right to it!

Winner: A young winger near you

The part of my job that I enjoy the most is getting in on the ground floor of players — or if not the ground floor than nearer to the ground floor than most. 

This past weekend, a couple of young MLS players who haven’t been getting a whole lot of league-wide publicity caught my eye. As a caveat, both of these dudes reportedly arrived for multi-million dollar transfer fees, so there are many, many people on the planet who know all three of these players intimately. But, hey, somebody’s got to spread the word to the masses. And that’s who reads Backheeled: the masses.

Let’s start with Rodolfo Aloko, Charlotte FC’s 19-year-old winger who they splashed and stashed on their MLS Next Pro outfit last year before signing him to a U22 Initiative deal in April. Aloko started his sixth MLS game in Charlotte’s 2-2 draw with the Philadelphia Union on Saturday and scored along the way:

Aloko’s off-ball movement stands out at the MLS level, just like it did Next Pro. He sees space well and moves into it quickly, beating defenders to the most important spots. Plus, with a big frame, strength, and quick feet, he has a ton of useful on-ball skills and made Kai Wagner look silly on multiple occasions:

The Benin international needs to improve his final ball and his decision-making, but he could start more crucial games down the stretch for Charlotte FC and he should be in line for a bigger role next year.

Next up? Daniel Job, the 21-year-old winger FC Dallas signed in the summer for the Norwegian second-tier’s new record transfer fee. Job made his first MLS start in a 2-2 draw with the Houston Dynamo on Saturday and almost immediately showed off the elite physical tools that surely made him a target for Dallas in the first place. That’s Lawrence Ennali, one of the fastest players in North America, that Job dusts nearly right out of the gates:

Later in the first half, he earned a penalty for Dallas. Job plays at a breakneck pace and sure seems to have athleticism that, in MLS, only Sporting Kansas City’s new superstar Andre Luiz can match. As you can see up above, at times the Nigerian sprints himself out of control. But he’s already must-watch.