Rhode Island FC Signs Gabriel Alves

Rhode Island FC announced the signing of Gabriel Alves as they continue to build their roster for 2024.

Photo Courtesy Of Birmingham Legion

Rhode Island FC announced the signing of Gabriel Alves as they continue to build their roster for 2024.

Alves spent last season with the Birmingham Legion FC — who finished seventh in the USL Championship Eastern Conference — featuring primarily as a left back across 30 appearances. Alves started in eighteen matches and contributed two goals in his first season of professional soccer with the Legion.

Prior to the 2023 season, the 23-year-old from Sao Paulo, Brazil played for Marshall University starting with his freshman season where he was named to the All-Conference Freshman Team and Marshall were Conference USA and NCAA Division 1 National Champions. Alves was a team captain in 2022 and was named to the Sun Belt All-Conference First Team, the United Soccer Coaches All-Southeast Region First Team, and was invited to the 2023 MLS Showcase.

Alves will be familiar with RIFC head coach, Khano Smith as they spent the 2023 season together with the Legion in Smith’s final season there as an assistant coach.

According to FotMob, Alves achieved an overall match rating in 2023 of 6.76 for the Legion, completed 77.7% of his passes, had .97 successful dribbles per 90 minutes, and chipped in two goals. He scored both his goals across a three-game stretch, the first was the game-winning goal in a 1-0 victory over Hartford Athletic on March 25. The second came two games later as the only goal for the Legion in a losing effort, 1-2, against Phoenix Rising FC.

One area of development to watch out for in 2024 for Alves will be cutting down on his yellow card accumulation. He picked up 9 yellow cards in only 1,652 minutes, which equates to .49 yellow cards per 90 minutes. That’s essentially a yellow card every other game, a rate RIFC and Alves will be keen to see decline in his 2nd year of USL Championship play.

The Legion decided not to pick up the option on Alves contract for 2024, making him available as a free agent. Coming to RIFC as a young player with a year of USL Championship experience and a coach who knows him well will give him a great platform to showcase his talents.