Hartford Athletic announced the signing of two more players ahead of the 2026 season. Midfielder Barry Coffey and goalkeeper Enzo Carvalho will join the Latics as they look to defend their USL CityCup title in the new season.
Coffey, a native of Neenagh, Ireland, made some youth appearances for Chelsea, before Celtic signed him in the summer of 2017. He never appeared for the Celtic first team, playing primarily with the reserves while also spending time on loan with Cliftonville of the NIFC Premiership and Cork City in the League of Ireland First Division.
He made the move to Cork permanent in 2022, and continued to feature for them as they bounced between the top two tiers of the League of Ireland. In 2025, he moved to Cobh Rangers, also then of the First Division, where he had a breakout season, scoring 26 goals – enough to lead the league – and being named Player of the Year.
He has been one of the most prolific scorers in the last two decades of the Irish second tier. Dating back to 2002, 24 different players have recorded at least 40 goals in the First Division, and only one has scored at a faster clip than Coffey’s one goal for every 149 minutes of playing time.
He had less success in his lone season in the top tier in the League of Ireland – just one goal in over 1500 minutes on the pitch – but if he can translate his First Division form to the USL Championship, he’ll give the Latics a much-needed scoring boost.
Friday’s other signing, Carvalho, is making the leap to the professional game after a successful college career, spread across three different colleges. Most recently, he played for Bryant University and NC State University.
Carvalho also made 19 regular-season appearances for Des Moines Menace, spread across the 2024 and 2025 seasons. In 2025, he also made two appearances in the U.S. Open Cup with the club, as they fielded a handful of former MLS luminaries in a win over SKCII and a loss to Union Omaha.
Backup goalkeepers might not be the kind of signing that gets the fans excited, but they’re a critical component of any successful team, and given that Antony Siaha has already attracted attention from elsewhere, it’s wise for Hartford to enter the season with a promising reserve. It’s a substantial improvement on 2025, when the Latics entered the season with only USL Academy Contract player Justin DiCarlo as a reserve keeper, and didn’t sign a meaningful backup until the middle of summer, when they finally brought in John Berner.
Coffey and Carvalho join defender Matt Real as new additions to Brendan Burke’s squad for 2026, alongside 12 returning players from the USL Cup-winning side of 2025.
