The 2018 MLS SuperDraft was the nineteenth SuperDraft conducted by

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 Cana ...

. As customary, the SuperDraft was held in conjunction with the annual

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convention. The 2018 UCS was held in

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between January 17–21, 2018. Rounds one and two of the SuperDraft were held on January 19, 2018. Rounds three and four of the 2018 SuperDraft were held via a conference call on January 21, 2018.

Format

The SuperDraft format has remained constant throughout its history and closely resembles that of the

NFL Draft The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...

: #Any expansion teams receive the first picks.

Los Angeles FC Los Angeles Football Club, commonly referred to as LAFC, is an American professional Association football team based in Los Angeles. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The club ...

will enter the league as an expansion team in 2018. #Non-playoff clubs receive the next picks in reverse order of prior season finish. #Teams that made the

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are then ordered by which round of the playoffs they are eliminated. #The winners of the

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are given the last selection, and the losers the penultimate selection.

Player selection

Round 1

Any player marked with a * is part of the

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program.

Round 1 trades

Round 2

Any player marked with a * is part of the

program.

Round 2 trades

Round 3

Round 3 trades

Round 4

Round 4 trades

Other 2018 SuperDraft Trade Notes

* On December 23, 2016,

Columbus Crew SC The Columbus Crew, formerly known as Columbus Crew SC, is an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The Crew competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference and began play in 1996 as o ...

acquired a second-round selection in the 2018 SuperDraft from

Atlanta United FC Atlanta United FC, commonly known as Atlanta United, is an American professional soccer club based in Atlanta that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference. Founded in 2014, Atlanta United began p ...

in exchange for the MLS rights to defender Greg Garza. Trade terms stated that if Garza started a minimum of 12 MLS regular-season games in 2017 the SuperDraft pick would be converted to General Allocation Money instead of the SuperDraft pick. Garza met this threshold and Columbus received General Allocation Money. * On March 30, 2017,

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 ...

acquired a conditional first-round selection in the 2018 SuperDraft, midfielder

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, $225,000 of targeted allocation money, and $75,000 of general allocation money from

in exchange for forward Kekuta Manneh. The traded SuperDraft pick was contingent on Columbus signing Manneh to a contract extending beyond the 2017 MLS season and would have been Columbus's natural selection. However, in December 2017 Manneh instead signed with

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of Liga MX. Trade terms also stated that Vancouver would receive additional general allocation money if Manneh is traded by Columbus prior to December 31, 2018 and would have retained a percentage of any future transfer fee if Manneh was transferred outside of MLS.

Notable undrafted players

Homegrown players

Players who signed outside of MLS

Summary

Selections by college athletic conference

* ''NCAA Division I conferences with no draft picks: Big South, Colonial and Northeast''

Schools with multiple draft selections

References

{{MLS drafts Major League Soccer drafts SuperDraft

MLS SuperDraft The MLS SuperDraft is an annual college draft for teams of Major League Soccer in the United States and Canada. It takes place in January and is used by teams to select players who have graduated from college or otherwise been signed by the le ...

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