FRISCO - Brandon Servania and his family made a sacrifice in 2015 to better his young career as a player and on Wednesday, it paid off.
The Wake Forest freshman became the 19th Homegrown signed by FC Dallas, just months removed from his time with the U-18 Academy team. Born and raised in Birmingham, Ala., Servania, his parents and younger brother Jaden moved to Frisco three years ago with the sole intention of joining the FCD Academy.
A U-16 National Championship, a Dallas Cup Super Group title and a stellar college season later, his dream is becoming a reality.
“It just means a lot,” Servania told FCDallas.com. “We, as a family, sacrificed a lot for me to and my brother and moved from Alabama, where I've lived my whole life. Just being able to make the jump from the Academy to finally signing pro is just a dream come true.”
“He's growing quickly. His freshman year has been unbelievable,” Technical Director Fernando Clavijo said. “[Brandon is] an incredible talent and he's coming along well. We could not pass on [the opportunity to sign] him. He’s a player that we need to have in our team.”
A year ago, Dallas was signing a trio of Homegrown directly from the Academy. Servania practiced with the pro team in Frisco, but wasn’t quite ready in his development to be a full-time member of the First Team.
Instead, the midfielder went to NCAA soccer powerhouse Wake Forest and made an immediate impact starting 20 games, picking up three goals and finishing second on the Demon Deacons in helpers with 11 assists.
“They all become the players that we want at different ages. Sometimes they mature a little bit quicker than others,” Clavijo said of the variation of Homegrown signings. “I think that the freshman year that he had in college really helped him to really play the amount of games that he's never played before [in a short span].”
“I bonded a lot with those guys there and we became a family and especially looking at the seniors, their work rate and how much time they put into just getting better every day,” Servania said. “When we didn't have training, they would still go out and lift or run or just get some touches. The work rate is the biggest thing I learned.”
He knows his signing won’t directly translate into minutes right away, but Servania hopes work ethic will translate for him down the road.
“Honestly I'm just going to work as hard as I can and do my best,” he said. “I’m not going to count all the minutes I get [right away]. It doesn't matter as much as my development, especially the first year and then I'm just going to help the team to do as well as we can this year.”
