Revolution Acquire Colombian Defender Brayan Ceballos
Ceballos joins the Revs following stints in Colombia, Brazil, and Ukraine.
The New England Revolution bolstered their back line Friday morning when the club announced the acquisition of Colombian center back Brayan Ceballos from Brazilian Serie A side Fortaleza Esporte Clube.
After starting his career with Colombian side Deportes Quindío’s youth system, Ceballos ascended to the first team before joining Fortaleza in 2021. Ceballos’ time with Fortaleza saw loan spells with Colombian side Junior FC and Ukrainian side Dynamo Kyiv, most recently.
Since joining Kyiv in July, Ceballos has only appeared in four matches for Dynamo, where he tallied one goal over 178 minutes.
The 23-year-old has 110 appearances since debuting for Quindío and has tallied four goals along with 26 yellow cards and one red over 8,256 minutes.
The Colombian defender also has youth international experience. Ceballos has four appearances for the nation’s under-23 team and clocked 360 minutes.
Ceballos joins the Revolution on a three-year TAM deal that sees him stay in New England through the 2027 MLS season with a club option for 2028.
After a rough 2024 season that saw the Revs allow a staggering 74 goals, Sporting Director Curt Onalfo is “confident Brayan’s presence will help us improve our defensive record for the 2025 season and beyond.”
“His athleticism, tenacity to win duels, aerial ability and composure in possession make him a great fit to help strengthen our team at the central defender position’” head coach Caleb Porter added. “At only 23 he still has room to grow, which also excites me.”
Ceballos becomes the second addition to the revamped Revolution back line this offseason. He joins Malian defender Mamadou Fofana, who joined the Revs from Amiens on December 3.
"tallied four goals along with 26 yellow cards"
That seems wild to read. Is he gonna give Polster a run for the money?
Through all of these recent signings of foreign players from this or that lower-middle level of foreign country professional soccer, I have to wonder what is the point of Revs Academy, Revs2, college soccer, even USL soccer, when they aren’t a pipeline to anything for any of them besides one or two obvious future stars.
Is the notion that MLS was going to nurture homegrown talent just a joke now completely abandoned?