Alan Branigan is a retired Ivorian-American

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

defender who spent his entire career in the United States. Branigan and his family moved to the United States when he was seven and settled in

Nutley, New Jersey Nutley is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 30,143. What is now Nutley was originally incorporated as Franklin Township by an act of the New Jersey Legisla ...

. In 1993, he graduated from

Nutley High School Nutley High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school in the Township of Nutley, in Essex County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as the lone secondary school of the Nutley Public Schoo ...

. He attended

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

, where he was a 1996 Third-Team All-American soccer player. On February 1, 1997, the

Dallas Burn Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

selected Branigan in the second round (sixteenth overall) of the

1997 MLS College Draft The 1997 Major League Soccer College Draft was held on February 1 and 2, 1997 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The draft was held in conjunction with the Umbro Select College All-Star Classic. The first round of the draft took place at halftime of the ...

. The Burn released him during the preseason and he signed with the

Orlando Sundogs The Orlando Sundogs were an American soccer club created by Orlando Soccer pioneer Mark Dillon that played in the A-League in 1997. The team nearly folded before the end of the season, but were purchased by the Atlanta Ruckus. During the off season ...

. When the Sundogs began to experience financial difficulties, the team released Branigan and several other players. He played three games for the

Carolina Dynamo North Carolina Fusion U-23, formerly known as Carolina Dynamo, is an American soccer team based in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1993, the team plays in USL League Two, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. The ...

. He then joined the

Worcester Wildfire Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Englan ...

for the remainder of the 1997 season. In 1998, he signed with the

Hampton Roads Mariners Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia *Hampton, New South Wales *Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region *Hampton, Victoria Canada *Hampton, New Brunswick *Hamp ...

and remained with the team for three seasons. Branigan is now the coach of the James Caldwell High School boys soccer team, of which he has coached for the last 5 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Branigan, Alan Living people North Carolina Fusion U23 players Virginia Beach Mariners players Ivorian men's footballers Ivorian expatriate men's footballers Ivorian emigrants to the United States Nutley High School alumni Orlando Sundogs players People from Nutley, New Jersey Rutgers Scarlet Knights men's soccer players Soccer players from Essex County, New Jersey Worcester Wildfire players FC Dallas draft picks A-League (1995–2004) players Men's association football defenders Year of birth missing (living people) High school soccer coaches in the United States