Ahead of the annual release of 24 Under 24, a ranking of the best players in the League under the age of 24, MLSsoccer.com's Andrew King profiled the Crew Homegrown Player.
The piece largely centers around Trapp's local ties and his affectionate nickname of "The Franchise." An excerpt:
"The Columbus Crew have had their share of legends.
But when Crew fans think of the biggest names who have come and gone for one of Major League Soccer’s founding franchises – Brian McBride, Jeff Cunningham, Frankie Hejduk, and Guillermo Barros Schelotto – there’s always been something missing.
McBride is from the Chicago suburbs, while Cunningham was born in Jamaica and grew up in Florida. Hejduk is California to the core and Schelotto spent most of his life in Argentina. None of the big names in the franchise’s rich history are from Columbus or even the state of Ohio, one of the great soccer hotbeds in the United States.
Wil Trapp is out to change that. He's a local kid from the Columbus surburbs and was something of an Ohio schoolboy soccer legend before he signed with the club in 2012. At 21, he still struggles to go grow hair on his face and carries around a somewhat diminutive 5-foot-8, 150-pound frame, but he’s already earned a fitting nickname inside the Crew locker room in just his second year on the team."
TheCrew.com will have more on Trapp later in the week, coinciding with the Thursday release of 24 Under 24.
Photo Credit: USA Today Sports Images
