Dillon Thomas Powers (born February 14, 1991) is an American

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 ...

player who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, pl ...

side

Orange County SC Orange County Soccer Club is an American soccer team based in the Orange County, California city of Irvine. Founded in 2010 as the Los Angeles Blues, the team currently plays in the second tier USL Championship. The team plays its home games ...

. He played in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

for

Colorado Rapids The Colorado Rapids are an American professional soccer club based in the Denver metropolitan area. The Rapids compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Founded in 1995, as part of the Anschutz Corporation, la ...

and Orlando City before moving to

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

in Scotland and

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882. History Early history In 1914, Glentoran won the Vienna Cup, becoming the first United Kingdom team to win a European t ...

in Northern Ireland.

Early career

Powers was born in

Plano, Texas Plano ( ) is a city in Collin County, Texas, Collin County and Denton County, Texas, United States. It had a population of 285,494 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is a principal city of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Hist ...

. As a youngster, Powers played for hometown club Andromeda SC and

Plano Senior High School Plano Senior High School (commonly Plano, Plano Senior High, or PSHS) is a public high school, public secondary school in Plano, Texas, serving students in grades eleventh grade, 11–twelfth grade, 12. The school is part of the Plano Independ ...

. He was named the Gatorade National Boys Soccer Player of the Year in his senior year before going on to play for Notre Dame.

College career

Powers played

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United Kingd ...

for the

Fighting Irish The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 23 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Division ...

at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

from 2009 to 2012. For the 2009 season, he was named to the Big East All-Rookie Team. In 2010 and 2011, he was named to the All-Big East second team. For the 2012 season, he was selected to the All-Big East first team and the NSCAA All-America First Team. He finished his Notre Dame career with 10 goals and 22 assists in 78 career games.

Club career

After college, Powers was drafted eleventh overall in the 2013 MLS SuperDraft by the

. He became an instant hit with the team and was often shortlisted for the

MLS Rookie of the Year Award The MLS Young Player of the Year Award (known as the Rookie of the Year Award from 1996 to 2019) is an annual award given to the top player in Major League Soccer under the age of 22. The award was initially awarded to a rookie, or a player who no ...

by several pundits. After the conclusion of the Rapids' season, Powers won the Rookie of the Year award, beating out teammate

Deshorn Brown Deshorn Dwayne Brown (born 22 December 1990), is a Jamaican professional footballer who plays as a forward for USL Championship club Sacramento Republic. Club career Early and collegiate A native of Jamaica, Brown attended St. Elizabeth Techn ...

. On November 8, 2015, it was revealed the Powers was on trial with English Championship side,

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

. On August 10, 2017, it was announced that Powers had been traded to Orlando City in exchange for Luis Gil and $100,000 of Targeted Allocation Money. Powers made his debut for Orlando City on August 26, 2017 against

Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on Marc ...

. He re-signed with Orlando City on December 18, 2017. Powers scored his only goal for Orlando City on June 6, 2018 in a

2018 U.S. Open Cup The 2018 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup was the 105th edition of the U.S. Open Cup, a knockout cup competition in American soccer. It is the oldest ongoing competition in the United States and was contested by 97 teams from leagues in the U.S. syste ...

match against

Miami United FC Miami United Football Club is an association football team based in Miami, Florida, United States. Founded in late 2012, the team made its debut in the Sunshine Conference of the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) in 2013. The team plays its ...

. On November 21, 2019, it was announced Powers had his contract option for the 2020 season declined by Orlando as part of the end-of-season roster decisions. Following his release from Orlando at the end of their 2019 season, Powers made the move to

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship, known as the cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland Scotland (, ...

club

on January 10, 2020 on a deal lasting until the summer of 2021. Powers made his Scottish Premiership debut as a substitute in the 76th minute of a 1–0 win against

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

. He left Dundee United following the expiry of his contract at the end of the 2020–21 season. On August 12, 2021, Powers signed with

in the US 2nd tier

. On March 2, 2022, Powers made the move to

NIFL Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northe ...

team

. Following the 2022 season, Glentoran announced that Powers had opted to leave Belfast and return to the United States. On June 30, 2022, Powers re-signed with

International career

Powers represented the United States on several occasions at the youth level. He played for the US U18 and was a part of the US U20 team at the

2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 17th edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, which was hosted by Egypt from 24 September to 16 October 2009. The tournament was initially going to take place between 10 and 31 July. However, the 2009 FIFA Confedera ...

Personal life

Dillon is the son of Michael Powers, who played for 15 years in the Major Indoor Soccer League with the Dallas Sidekicks. Powers acquired an Italian passport in early 2015 making him a dual citizen of both the US and Italy.

Career statistics

Club

Honors

Dundee United *

: 2019–20

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Powers, Dillon 1991 births Living people American soccer players Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's soccer players Austin Aztex players Colorado Rapids players Orlando City SC players Dundee United F.C. players Orange County SC players Glentoran F.C. players Soccer players from Texas USL League Two players Major League Soccer players USL Championship players United States men's youth international soccer players United States men's under-20 international soccer players Colorado Rapids draft picks American people of Italian descent Association football midfielders Sportspeople from Plano, Texas All-American men's college soccer players Scottish Professional Football League players American expatriate soccer players Expatriate footballers in Scotland American expatriates in Scotland