Keaton Alexander Parks (born August 6, 1997) is an American professional

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

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 ...

club

New York City FC New York City Football Club is an American professional soccer club based in New York City that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), the highest level of American soccer, as a member of the league's Eastern Conference. The club is co-owned ...

Club career

Born in Plano,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, Parks played

three years with Liberty High School in Frisco before joining NPSL side

Liverpool Warriors Liverpool Warriors are an American soccer club based in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex affiliated with Liverpool F.C. They previously fielded a team in the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL). They played their games at various high school sta ...

. With the help of his coach, Parks managed to trial at several Portuguese clubs such as Benfica,

Braga Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...

and

Sporting Lisbon Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

. While playing with the Warriors during a tournament in

Póvoa de Varzim Póvoa de Varzim (, ) is a Portuguese city in Northern Portugal and sub-region of Greater Porto, from its city centre. It sits in a sandy coastal plain, a cuspate foreland, halfway between the Minho and Douro rivers. In 2001, there were 63,470 ...

, Parks was scouted and signed with Varzim. In signing for Varzim, Parks rejected an offer to attend

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...

and play for their soccer team. After playing for Varzim's reserve side for a season, Parks made his professional debut for the club in a

LigaPro The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal 2 SABSEG for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier Prim ...

match on September 4, 2016 against

Aves Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

. He came on as an 83rd-minute substitute for

Diego Barcelos Diego de Lima Barcelos (born 5 April 1985) is a Brazilian footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder. He has a twin brother named Diogo. Club career Diego Barcelos made his Liga Sagres debut for C.D. Nacional on January 30, 2010,in a 0� ...

as Varzim lost 2–0. Parks then established himself as a regular starter for the side and then scored his first two professional goals during two matches. The first goal came on December 17, 2016 against Famalicão. His 52nd-minute strike was the first of two as Varzim won 2–0. His second goal came in the next match on December 21 against

Fafe Fafe () is a municipality in the northern Portuguese district of Braga. The population in 2021 was 48,502, in an area of approximately (. The city itself had a population of 14,144 in 2001. The present mayor is Antero Barbosa, elected by the Socia ...

. His 69th-minute goal was the equalizer for Varzim as they eventually won the match 2–1. On July 25, 2017, Parks signed with Portuguese champions Benfica, joining its

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

in LigaPro. His first appearance for the senior team came in the 71st minute of the fourth round of the

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 seaso ...

, against Vitória in November that year. Later, on December 6, Parks signed a new contract with Benfica, keeping him at the club until 2022. On January 19, 2019, Parks joined

side

on loan until the end of their 2019 season. The deal to New York City FC was made permanent by the club on January 8, 2020.

International career

Parks has been involved with the United States national under-20 team, attending a training camp in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in April 2017. He received his first

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

call-up for a friendly against

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

on May 28, 2018, making his debut in that match as a 61st-minute substitute for

Joe Corona Joe Benny Corona Crespín (born July 9, 1990) is an American professional Association football, soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Swedish club GIF Sundsvall, on loan from Houston Dynamo FC, Houston Dynamo. Youth and college Corona ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honors

New York City FC *

MLS Cup The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conference ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Campeones Cup The Campeones Cup is an annual North American association football match contested between the winners of the previous MLS Cup from Major League Soccer and the winners of the Campeón de Campeones from Liga MX. The competition was established by ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

References

External links

*
MLS player profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parks, Keaton 1997 births Living people Sportspeople from Plano, Texas Soccer players from Texas American men's soccer players Men's association football midfielders Varzim S.C. players S.L. Benfica B players S.L. Benfica footballers New York City FC players Liga Portugal 2 players Primeira Liga players Major League Soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in Portugal American expatriate men's soccer players Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal United States men's international soccer players United States men's under-23 international soccer players