FRISCO - At just 12 years old, Thomas Roberts’ family made a sacrifice to provide the best path for their son’s soccer future. The Roberts uprooted their lives in Little Rock, Ark. and moved to Frisco with dreams of Thomas playing at the highest level.
On Wednesday, the family’s sacrifice paid off as the 17-year-old attacking midfielder signed his first professional contract.
“It’s just a lot of hard work, you know I moved my whole family here for this to happen and for this to finally become my life now, it’s just really exciting,” he said. “Now that the opportunity has come, I just have to take it now and work my way up the program.”
“It means a lot for the club, it means a lot for the player, but I think it is very worthy to recognize the effort of the family,” head coach Oscar Pareja said. “The dedication that they have put into this kid, and now there is a young man with the completion of his dreams. I appreciate the loyalty that they have had with the club…There are many people around who have been a part of this and we should be proud.”
In the five years since joining the FC Dallas Youth system, Roberts’ trajectory has taken off. In the last two seasons, the midfielder has played up with an older age group and excelled, appearing in 44 Development Academy games and scoring 11 goals. Eight of those coming just this past season with the U-19s.
Earlier this year, Roberts joined now fellow Homegrown Chris Richards for a 10-day training stint with FC Bayern Munich through the two clubs’ partnership.
“Thomas is a very technical player, he is very smart,” Pareja said. “He dominates very well the position underneath the forward, but has been working as well through the process in the Academy as a midfielder. He can occupy other spaces, his technique and the way he sees the game, he’ll help us and promote a good, good young player who can potentially, someday a national team player.”
“There’s so many good players that come through here and they’re all technically very good, tactically very good,” club President Dan Hunt said. “The thing about Thomas that is so unique is his skillset to break lines and be a risk-taker, that really is something is very unique to him, where he can totally seize a game in just a moment. And I think that’s a special, unique characteristic.”
Signing a pro deal is just the start for Roberts, though. He’ll be training with the first team for the remainder of the 2018 season and could, at some point, be added to the MLS roster for this season if he impresses the pro team staff. He still has two years of eligibility at the Academy level as well, to continue his growth with consistent minutes until he makes a pro debut.
"I feel like I’m really smooth on the ball. I try to do a lot of fancy passes and all that and I try to get on the goal sheet too, but I think the best thing about me is my passing ability,” Roberts said of his strengths on the field, while also recognizing the areas he still needs to mature. “The defensive aspect of the game [is the next step]. I have to get better at 1v1 duels and I need to get stronger too, but that will come over time.”
