Why Brandt Bronico, Charlotte FC’s third player, has special bond with Queen City
When Brandt Bronico proposed to his future wife, Rebecca, at Romare Bearden Park last year, he didn’t know if a future in Charlotte was possible. The goal for Bronico was to get back to the city he considers his hometown.
Charlotte FC announced last Friday that Bronico would be the Major League Soccer expansion club’s third player. The news dropped the same day as the couple’s wedding.
Bronico called it all a dream come true.
“When I got my option declined, I spoke to my agent and I was like, ‘You know, if we can make Charlotte happen, that’s where I want to go,’” Bronico told the Observer. “I know my wife really wanted to be back there as well.”
The 25-year-old from High Point spent the last four seasons within MLS playing primarily as a midfielder for Chicago Fire FC. The club passed on his contract option in late-November, making him an unprotected free agent during this year’s expansion draft and setting the deal with Charlotte in motion.
Charlotte FC staff had been following Bronico long before then — since his club soccer days when he played for the North Carolina Fusion and Carolina Dynamo as a teenager under Charlotte FC technical director Marc Nicholls. Bronico played collegiately at UNC Charlotte, where he scored nine goals during his senior season with the 49ers and won Conference USA Player of the Year, Offensive MVP and Golden Boot honors.
He was selected as the 47th overall pick in the third round of the 2017 MLS SuperDraft by Chicago. In his 66 appearances (40 starts) with the club, Bronico scored two goals and contributed eight assists.
“I have a list of players that are known from North Carolina that could be real assets to us here and have a real passion for the area,” Nicholls said. “Which is really important because you obviously want to have players that want to be here, and Brandt certainly fit that bill.”
Bronico’s greatest strength, and his favored position, is going box-to-box in the midfield. Nicholls described Bronico as a player who presses and keeps a slightly higher line in the midfield, but one who is also versatile enough to play right back, as he did on occasion for Chicago.
“I could be an attacking player. I can be a defensive player. Whatever the team needs, that’s the role I’d like to play,” Bronico said.
Charlotte FC’s developing lineup includes Spanish midfielder Sergio Ruiz and Australian attacking midfielder Riley McGree, both of whom are playing on loan with international clubs. The Charlotte team’s first season is in 2022, and Bronico expects to be in a loan situation next year. Those details of where he’ll play haven’t been decided.
The club’s main focus before the holidays was getting Bronico’s contract done, a move that included Charlotte swapping fourth-round selections with Chicago in the 2022 MLS SuperDraft. Bronico didn’t disclose the length of his contract with Charlotte FC, but he called it a “long-term thing.”
He said he expects his experience in the league will help contribute to being a leader on the pitch for the expansion club, and Nicholls said he’s watched Bronico’s positional awareness develop over the years, playing alongside Germany’s Bastian Schweinsteiger when he was in MLS with Chicago.
“There were some games where we were really overwhelmed at times,” Nicholls recalled of Bronico’s youth career. “But we always found a way to grind out a result and to compete, and I think that’s right up Brandt’s alley, to be honest.”
Bronico has been known to use the hashtag #Grindset on Twitter in his posts that now revolve around his Charlotte signing. He’ll eventually make the move to the city as well, where he can make stops at his favorite spots like Romare Bearden Park in uptown Charlotte, Freedom Park and restaurants such as Farenheit, Ink N Ivy, Seoul Food Meat Company and even Hungry Howie’s Pizza near the university, which he joked is one of his wife’s favorite spots.
The couple met while attending UNC Charlotte. Rebecca was a player on the school’s women’s soccer team. Bronico is celebrating more than just the holidays with her and her family in Louisiana through the new year.
After that, the planning begins for his next steps, which include playing for a team he’s been eyeing since the franchise’s announcement a year ago.
“Now it’s literally happening,” Bronico said. “Words can’t even express how excited I am for that.”
This story was originally published December 24, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
