Atlanta United has signed academy product Luke Brennan to a short-term loan that will keep him with the first team for tonight’s matchup with NYCFC and Saturday’s trip to Red Bull Arena. If Brennan, an 18-year-old winger, takes the field in either of those games, he’ll take a unique place in MLS history. Brennan will become the league’s second-ever Native American player — and the first to see the field since the Kiowa tribe’s Chris Wondolowski.
Brennan is a member of the Delaware Nation, a tribe of The Lenape people, whose historical territory is concentrated in the northeastern United States and who now reside primarily in Oklahoma after decades of displacement forced on them through the U.S. government. That’s where Brennan’s grandmother lived before the Native American Relocation Act of 1956 brought her to Los Angeles.
The act, a piece of legislature designed as “a program of vocational training" encouraging Native Americans to move to urban area, is now seen to have largely failed to deliver on its promises. The Oklahoma Historical Society says that “while some families did adjust to their new urban settings, the net effect of relocation for many American Indians manifested as loss of access to traditional cultural supports, economic hardship, social disenfranchisement, overt discrimination, and unemployment.” Brennan’s grandmother faced similar difficulties in Los Angeles.
“She raised my mom and her brother on her own,” Brennan said. “So it was hard for my mom growing up. She had to work a lot of different jobs just to get home every day.”
Brennan’s mom eventually landed in Atlanta, where Brennan, a born and raised ATLien, became a member of Atlanta United’s inaugural Atlanta United Academy class.
Now, he has a chance to join Wondolowski in the history books and represent his family’s heritage at the highest level of American soccer.
“It means a lot," Brennan said. "My whole mom's side of the family is full. She really takes pride in it so I just try to make her proud as much as I can."
If that first MLS appearance doesn’t come this week though, it feels like it will come eventually. The 18-year-old signed a homegrown deal with Atlanta United earlier this year. He’ll officially be a member of the first team on Jan. 1, 2024.
That might not be much of a surprise if you paid attention to Atlanta’s preseason. In the Five Stripes’ American Family Insurance Cup matchup with Liga MX’s Toluca, Brennan entered in the 45th minute. Seven minutes later, he had a moment.
His play that night and the confidence he showed on that goal turned heads. Immediately, questions popped up about who Brennan was and whether or not he’d potentially forego his commitment to play college soccer at South Carolina to take a homegrown deal. The answer came a few weeks later.
For a long time, though, a homegrown deal didn’t seem like a given for Brennan. Just staying in the academy didn’t seem like a given. As a young player, Brennan clearly had the technical ability but lacked pace and strength.
“At the U15 level, he'd barely grown," said Atlanta United Academy Director and Brennan’s U15 coach Matt Lawrey. "He was this scrawny little thing. Great technical ability, and just really good determination, but couldn't run.
"He didn't play much," Lawrey added. "It was hard to get him in games and find a good spot for him competitively, but we didn't want to release him. There was a lot of talent there. And then he just started working."
“He came back that summer and just said, 'I'm never sitting on the bench again.' And he just went to work and with that his body grew. He got lanky, he got speed, and then he had everything. I mean, he had the movement in behind, he had the technical ability and suddenly his body was able to run and get by players as well.”
He’s still growing as a player, of course. Few 18-year-olds are the finished product. But on the ball, he’s as brave as they come, constantly setting himself to take players on one-v-one. Off the ball, he’s constantly making runs in behind with what Lawrey calls Brennan’s “superpower” of getting into a defender’s blind spot. Now, he just needs to find a more consistent end product. If the goal against Toluca is any indication, that can come. If his track record of putting in the work to improve is any indication, it should come.
“I mean, it was a rough journey," Brennan recalled. "Not everything was smooth with the academy but I feel like where I am now, it's a new beginning. You're kind of just restarting. So there's a long way to go.”
Brennan may just take the first step of that new beginning this week.
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