Macoumba Kandji
Macoumba "Mac" Kandji ( born August 2, 1985 in Dakar ) is a Senegalese football player at the position of a striker. He currently plays for the Colorado Rapids in the top division in the North American Soccer, Major League Soccer (MLS ).
Career
Youth and Amateur Football
Kandji was born in Senegal, grew up in Gambia and only came in 2003 in the United States. There he attended from 2003 to 2004 the East Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he also gained his first experience in the local football team. At the end of the year he was named MVP of the team. After high school he played at Georgia Military College in Milledgeville, Georgia in the Georgia Military Bulldogs football team. For the Bulldogs, he was elected to the All- Region team in 2004 and 2005. In his last year of college Kandji came up with a score of 17 goals and six assists.
In 2006 Kandji played for the Atlanta Silverbacks U23s in the USL Premier Development respected as viertklassig League, an amateur league. With good performances in his eight completed games in which he scored one goal and contributed an assist, he came in 2007 to the professional team of the Atlanta Silverbacks FC, which play their operation in the sub-prime USL First Division.
Club career
His active career as a professional soccer player began on August 4, 2007, when he made his debut in the game against Charleston Battery. From that moment on Kandji was considered one of the best players in the entire league. Until his departure in 2008, he completed 28 league games for the Silverbacks and came up with a score of 13 goals and five assists. He also scored in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup 2008 in two games played in a match; the team retired in the second round with a 1-0 defeat against the Miami FC from the competition. Plagued by several injuries in his time with the Atlanta Silverbacks, Kandji was awarded on 15 September 2008 on the New York Red Bulls in Major League Soccer. The MLS club paid the USL -1 club initially a sum of $ 25,000. If Kandji continues to show in the top division and good and would follow and Kandji be included as a contract player in the club an additional $ 150,000. His MLS debut was on September 27 in the game against the Colorado Rapids, where he was able to record an assist.
After the management of the Atlanta Silverbacks in November 2008 announced to suspend financial reasons the operation of gambling in men's football in the 2009 season, Kandji became a free agent, so the previously agreed sum of $ 175,000 had not paid. Nevertheless overwrote the owner of the Atlanta Silverbacks, Boris Jerkunica, the rights Kandjis to the Carolina RailHawks FC, at the Jerkunica also owns shares. The management of the New York Red Bulls bought subsequently these rights, whereupon Kandji signed a one-year contract on 14 January 2009. Since its signing of the contract he came so far to 23 completed games in which he scored four goals and prepared five goals. In September 2010 he moved to the Colorado Rapids.