Keaton Alexander Parks

He spent three years in the Portuguese club's system, playing for the reserve side and drawing call-ups to the first team between 2017 and 2020. That grounding came after an unusual route through the game: high school football in Frisco, Texas, then a season with the NPSL side Liverpool Warriors, before he left for Portugal in 2015 to join Varzim S.C., where he also featured for the club's B team.

The move to Benfica in 2017 marked the turn in his career. It was from there that New York City FC came calling, taking him on loan in January 2019 before making the transfer permanent a year later, on 8 January 2020.