Cuban Footballer Maikel Chang In Major League Soccer

September 05,2020
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Kenneth Nicholson

Maikel Chang In Major League Soccer

Maikel Chang is a Cuban-born footballer currently playing for Real Salt Lake of the United States Major League Soccer. This 1.78m offensive midfielder tall is 29 years old. From the 2020 season, Maikel Chang became a new representative of Cuban soccer in the Major League Soccer. Maikel Chang comes to join the also Cubans Osvaldo Alonso and Jorge Luis Corrales. These play for Minnesota United and Montreal Impact, respectively.

Maikel Chang's Career As A Footballer

Chang began his career playing for the Industrials and C.F. Ciudad de la Habana between 2009 and 2012. These were teams from his hometown, Havana. When he was 20 years old, he was called to the national team and had his international debut in a friendly match against Jamaica. This happened on February 23, 2012. Chang played the 90 minutes of that commitment won by Cuba 1-0. Maikel Chang participated in 3 games and 222 minutes with the Cuban team. He faced the selected ones from Jamaica, 2 times, and on one occasion to Bolivia. He was a starter in those 3 games and did not score goals. In October 2012, he left his national team after a trip to Toronto. They had traveled there to play a World Cup qualifying match.

In March 2013, he joined the professional team Charleston Battery, located in Charleston, South Carolina. This team participates in the USL Championship. He played there until 2017, participating in 110 games accumulating 15 goals and 23 assists. In 2018, he became part of Real Monarchs, another USL team, which paid $ 303,000 for the transfer. With this squad, he had an excellent performance, and he helped Real Monarchs to be the 2019 USL champion. Between 2018 and 2019, the native of Havana played in 64 commitments achieving 17 scorings and 15 assists for Monarchs.

In total, the Cuban reached 38 assists between 2013 and 2019 at the USL, making him the first player to exceed 30 assists in the modern period of this league. It is worth mentioning that Real Salt Lake was the fifth team with the fewest goals scored in the 2019 MLS campaign. Therefore, the outstanding stats that Chang left in the USL as an attacking player called the Real Salt Lake attention. Real Monarchs is affiliated with Real Salt Lake, leading this latter team to turn their interest to Chang's talent. The player had trained with Real Salt Lake in the preseason of the year 2019.

Finally, the Caribbean player's outstanding performances did not go unnoticed by the Real Salt Lake management. So, they incorporated him into the first team, becoming the tenth Cuban player to play in Major League Soccer. Chang started the 2020 season with his new club. However, the Major League Soccer season's suspension due to the Covid-19 spread occurred when only two dates had been played, and the Cuban had not participated in any of them. Therefore, we will have to wait for professional soccer to resume in the United States to see the Maikel Chang talent shining in Major League Soccer.

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