Mallan Roberts (born 6 June 1992) is a Canadian professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who plays as a

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

Career

Youth

Born in

Freetown Freetown () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, e ...

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

, Roberts began playing soccer in Sierra Leone before continuing to play the game in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

after he and his father fled from Sierra Leone due to the Sierra Leone Civil War. While in high-school Roberts started to play

Canadian Football Canadian football, or simply football, is a Sports in Canada, sport in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete on a field long and wide, attempting to advance a Ball (gridiron football), pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposi ...

for his high-school side and then for the local

Canadian Junior Football League The Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) is a national Canadian football league consisting of 19 teams playing in five provinces across Canada. The teams compete annually for the Canadian Bowl. Many CJFL players move on to professional footbal ...

side, the

Edmonton Huskies The Edmonton Huskies are a Canadian Junior Football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The Huskies play in the six-team Prairie Football Conference, which itself is part of the Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) and competes annually for the nat ...

. He also spent a few weeks training with

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...

side, the

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at Commonwealth Stadium. The E ...

before going back into soccer and playing with the

Northern Alberta Institute of Technology The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) is a public polytechnic and applied sciences institute in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. NAIT offers approximately 120 credit programs leading to degrees, applied degrees, diplomas, and certifica ...

soccer team before joining the

FC Edmonton FC Edmonton was a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club was founded in 2010 and competed in the North American Soccer League (2011–2017), North American Soccer League (NASL) from 2011 t ...

reserves in 2012.

FC Edmonton

On 20 February 2013 it was announced that Roberts had signed his first professional contract with

of the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...

. He then made his professional debut for FC Edmonton in a

Canadian Championship The Canadian Championship () is an annual soccer tournament contested by Canadian professional teams. The winner is awarded the Voyageurs Cup and a berth in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. It is contested by Major League Soccer sides Toronto FC, Va ...

match against the

Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Vancouver. The Whitecaps compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The MLS ite ...

in which started and played the full 90 minutes as Edmonton lost the match 2–3. Roberts then scored his first professional goal of his career on 30 June 2013 against

Minnesota United FC Minnesota United Football Club, often shortened to MNUFC, is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the W ...

in an NASL match in which he found the net in the 11th minute as FC Edmonton went on to win the match 3–1.

Ottawa Fury

On 4 June 2016

Ottawa Fury FC Ottawa Fury Football Club was a Canadian professional soccer club based in Ottawa, Ontario. The club competed in the North American Soccer League and USL Championship and played its home games at TD Place Stadium. The Ottawa Fury FC were di ...

announced it had acquired Roberts on loan to provide depth in the absence of defenders Kyle Venter and Rich Balchan due to injury. In December 2016, the Fury announced that Roberts would not return to the team as the club moved to

USL USL may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Underground Sound of Lisbon, a Portuguese dance music project * Urban Strawberry Lunch, a band from Liverpool Companies * United Spirits Limited, India * Former United States Lines shipping company C ...

in 2017.

Richmond Kickers

After 4 seasons in Edmonton, Roberts signed with

Richmond Kickers Richmond Kickers is an American professional soccer club based in Richmond, Virginia. The Kickers compete as a member of USL League One (USL1). The club was established in 1993, and began play that same year as a United States Interregional S ...

of the

United Soccer League The United Soccer League (USL) is an organizer of various professional and amateur soccer leagues in the United States league system. It currently organizes its Championship, League One, and League Two for men, its Super League and W Leag ...

in February 2017.

Tulsa Roughnecks

On January 4, 2019, Roberts joined

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a men's professional association football, soccer league in the second tier of the United States soccer league system#Men's leagues, United States league system. It is organized by the United Soccer League (USL) a ...

side

FC Tulsa FC Tulsa is an American professional soccer team based in Tulsa, Oklahoma which competes in the USL Championship, the second tier of the American soccer pyramid. History The club was founded as Tulsa Roughnecks FC by Jeff and Dale Hubbard, br ...

International

Roberts had said he was open to representing either

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone attempted to call up Roberts twice in 2014 for

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations, commonly abbreviated as AFCON and officially known as the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, is the main biennial international men's association football competition in Africa. It is s ...

qualifying, but due to the

Ebola Epidemic Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after infe ...

in West Africa, and coaching issues with the team, he was unable to join the squad.

Canada

Roberts was expecting to gain Canadian citizenship sometime during the summer of 2013. Roberts finally received his Canadian citizenship on February 12, 2015. On June 6, 2015, Roberts received his first call up from

coach

Benito Floro Benito Floro Sanz (born 2 June 1952) is a Spanish football manager. Football career Floro was born in Gijón, Asturias. During his professional career he managed Albacete (two spells, starting off in 1989 in Segunda División B and leading the ...

to the senior squad for two

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA FIFA#Structure, confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia national football team, Rus ...

matches against

Dominica Dominica, officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. It is part of the Windward Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of t ...

as a replacement for an injured Dejan Jaković. He made his debut in the return leg against Dominica as a late substitute on June 16 and as a result, became cap-tied to Canada.

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

Mallan Roberts
at Richmond Kickers * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Mallan 1992 births Living people Men's association football defenders Canadian men's soccer players Canadian expatriate men's soccer players FC Edmonton players Ottawa Fury FC players Richmond Kickers players FC Tulsa players Heidelberg United FC players North American Soccer League (2011–2017) players USL Championship players National Premier Leagues players Footballers from Freetown Soccer players from Edmonton Canada men's international soccer players 21st-century Canadian sportsmen Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Australia Canadian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia Northern Alberta Institute of Technology alumni University and college men's soccer players in Canada