Mallan Roberts (born 6 June 1992) is a Canadian professional soccer player who plays as a

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either ...

for

Heidelberg United FC Heidelberg United Alexander Football Club (founded as Alexander the Great-Melbourne Soccer Club) established in 1958 is a football (soccer) club based in the northern Melbourne suburb of Heidelberg West, Victoria, Australia. The team currently ...

in the

NPL Victoria The National Premier Leagues Victoria, commonly known as NPL Victoria, is a semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is a part of the National Premier Leagues, and is the highest level within the Victorian soccer lea ...

Career

Youth

Born in

Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and po ...

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

, Roberts began playing soccer in Sierra Leone before continuing to play the game in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

after he and his father fled from Sierra Leone due to the

Sierra Leone Civil War The Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002), or the Sierra Leonean Civil War, was a civil war in Sierra Leone that began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Liberian dictator Char ...

. While in high-school Roberts started to play

Canadian Football Canadian football () is a sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's scoring area ( ...

for his high-school side and then for the local Canadian Junior Football League side, the

Edmonton Huskies The Edmonton Huskies are a Canadian Junior Football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The Huskies play in the six-team Prairie Football Conference, which itself is part of the Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) and competes annually for the nat ...

. He also spent a few weeks training with

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

side, the Edmonton Eskimos before going back into soccer and playing with the

Northern Alberta Institute of Technology The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) is a applied sciences institute in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. NAIT provides careers programs in applied research, technical training, applied education, and learning designed to meet the dema ...

soccer team before joining the

FC Edmonton FC Edmonton was a Canadian professional soccer club based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club was founded in 2010 and competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 2011 to 2017. The club went on hiatus when NASL ceased competitive operat ...

reserves in 2012.

FC Edmonton

On 20 February 2013 it was announced that Roberts had signed his first professional contract with

of the North American Soccer League. He then made his professional debut for FC Edmonton in a Canadian Championship match against the

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 March ...

in which started and played the full 90 minutes as Edmonton lost the match 2–3. Roberts then scored his first professional goal of his career on 30 June 2013 against Minnesota United FC in an NASL match in which he found the net in the 11th minute as FC Edmonton went on to win the match 3–1.

Ottawa Fury

On 4 June 2016

Ottawa Fury FC Ottawa Fury Football Club was a Canadian professional soccer club based in Ottawa, Ontario. The club competed in the North American Soccer League and USL Championship and played its home games at TD Place Stadium. The Ottawa Fury FC were dis ...

announced it had acquired Roberts on loan to provide depth in the absence of defenders

Kyle Venter Kyle Venter (born March 13, 1991) is an American retired professional soccer player who last played as a defender for the Richmond Kickers in USL League One. Venter is currently an assistant coach for the Florida Gators women's soccer team. ...

and Rich Balchan due to injury. In December 2016, the Fury announced that Roberts would not return to the team as the club moved to USL in 2017.

Richmond Kickers

After 4 seasons in Edmonton, Roberts signed with Richmond Kickers of the

United Soccer League United Soccer League (USL), formerly known as United Soccer Leagues, is a soccer league in the United States and Canada. It organizes several men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Men's leagues currently organized are the ...

in February 2017.

Tulsa Roughnecks

On January 4, 2019, Roberts joined

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, p ...

side

FC Tulsa FC Tulsa is an American professional soccer team based in Tulsa, Oklahoma which competes in the USL Championship, the second tier of the American soccer pyramid. History The club was founded as Tulsa Roughnecks FC by Jeff and Dale Hubbard, bro ...

International

Roberts had said he was open to representing either

or Canada men's national soccer team, Canada.

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone attempted to call up Roberts twice in 2014 for Africa Cup of Nations qualifying, but due to the

Ebola Epidemic This list of Ebola outbreaks records the known occurrences of Ebola virus disease, a highly infectious and acutely lethal viral disease that has afflicted humans and animals primarily in equatorial Africa. The pathogens responsible for the d ...

in West Africa, and coaching issues with the team, he was unable to join the squad.

Canada

Roberts was expecting to gain Canadian citizenship sometime during the summer of 2013. Roberts finally received his Canadian citizenship on February 12, 2015. On June 6, 2015, Roberts received his first call up from Canada men's national soccer team, Canada coach

Benito Floro Benito Floro Sanz (born 2 June 1952) is a Spanish football manager. Football career Floro was born in Gijón, Asturias. During his professional career he managed Albacete Balompié (two spells, starting off in 1989 in Segunda División B and ...

to the senior squad for two

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 ...

matches against Dominica as a replacement for an injured Dejan Jaković. He made his debut in the return leg against Dominica as a late substitute on June 16 and as a result, became cap-tied to Canada.

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

Mallan Roberts
at Richmond Kickers * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Mallan 1992 births Living people Men's association football defenders Canadian men's soccer players Canadian expatriate men's soccer players FC Edmonton players Ottawa Fury FC players Richmond Kickers players FC Tulsa players North American Soccer League (2011–2017) players USL Championship players Footballers from Freetown Soccer players from Edmonton Canada men's international soccer players