Canadian defender Nikola Markovic expected to go high in MLS SuperDraft

The MLS SuperDraft goes Thursday with Canadian defender Nikola Markovic expected to go high in the three-round draft.

The North Carolina State centre back is one of four underclassmen to sign Generation Adidas contracts with Major League Soccer, adding to their desirability, given that such deals do not count against a team’s salary cap budget.

D.C. United has the first overall pick, with Atlanta going second and FC Dallas third, having acquired the pick from CF Montreal.

Vancouver has all three of its picks, including the 29th overall selection in the first round. CF Montreal has a second- and third-round pick (46th and 63rd overall) while Toronto FC only has a second-round selection (36th overall).

Orlando, Colorado and Dallas will be major players in the draft, with 10 first-round picks between them.

Orlando has the fifth, ninth, 14th and 20th picks, while Colorado has the sixth (from Toronto), 10th and 19th. Dallas has the third, 16th and 21st.

Two Canadians, University of Portland fullback Nikos Clarke-Tosczak and SMU midfielder Charles-Emile Brunet, were among the 45 players invited to the Dec. 10-13 MLS College Showcase in Mesa, Ariz.

Markovic wasn’t at the showcase because North Carolina State was busy in the NCAA tournament. The Wolfpack lost 3-2 to the Washington Huskies on a golden goal in Monday’s championship game in Cary, N.C., with Markovic assisting on one of the North Carolina State goals.

The six-foot-four 205-pound sophomore from Gatineau, Que., was named ACC Defensive Player of the Year, also earning All-Conference, All-Region honours. Markovic spent a year and a half with the CF Montreal academy and has trained with Toronto.

Clarke-Tosczak, a left back from Edmonton, earned all-WCC honourable mention as a junior at the University of Portland. He logged a team-high 1,643 minutes for a Portland defence that allowed just 12 goals all season.

Clarke-Tosczak was with the Vancouver Whitecaps academy from 2020 to ’23, spending the next two years with the Rhode Island Rams in the Atlantic 10 conference before moving to the Pacific Northwest.

Brunet, a sophomore midfielder at Southern Methodist University, was named to the all-ACC third team this season after scoring two goals and adding six assists in his first season with the Mustangs. The Montreal native is the son of La Presse sports columnist Mathias Brunet.

Three forwards could disappear quickly off the draft board (assuming the freshmen sign Generation Adidas contracts with the league to become eligible).

Virginia’s Nicolas Simmonds, a Jamaican youth international, scored 10 goals and added five assists for the Cavaliers as a freshman this season.

Grand Canyon’s Junior Diouf, from Senegal, scored 18 goals and added six assists as a freshman. Simmons and Diouf were both first-team all-Americans.

Georgia Southern’s Ricky Louis, a sophomore, led the Eagles with nine goals and three assists this season. He was named a third-team All-American.

Simmonds and Louis also signed Generation Adidas contracts, along with Clemson freshman Ghanaian midfielder Kwaku Agyabeng. University of Washington forward Richie Aman, meanwhile, signed a contract with the league as a pre-signed senior.

Clemson midfielder Ransford Gyan could also draw attention. The Ghana native, a first-team all-American, was named ACC’s Midfielder of the Year after scoring eight goals and adding eight assists as a sophomore.

On Wednesday, Aman, Diouf and North Carolina State junior forward Donavan Phillip were named finalists for the 2025 MAC Hermann Trophy, which goes to the top NCAA soccer player.

The MLS draft has changed over the years, reduced to three rounds but now open to sophomores and juniors as opposed to just seniors as in the past. With some of those picks electing to stay in school, that dilutes the talent available because the teams drafting them have a two-year window when it comes to their rights.

Canadian forward Marcus Caldeira, like Markovic, one of 15 semifinalists for the Hermann Trophy and a first team all-American, was drafted in the first round (20th overall) of the 2024 draft by Minnesota United, which has this off-season to sign him or lose him.

The West Virginia attacker was named both the Sun Belt’s Player of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year, also making the All-Sun Belt first team. The six-foot-two 193-pound senior from Mississauga, Ont., has 42 goals — ranking third in West Virginia history — and 15 assists in 84 appearances over four seasons with the Mountaineers.

The influx of foreign players to NCAA schools has both widened the talent pool and made it more complicated, given international roster slots are prized by MLS teams.

Draft picks can be used in a variety of ways.

Toronto traded its 2025 first-round pick (ninth overall) in a December 2024 deal for Thiago Andrade. TFC flipped the Brazilian forward a month later, selling him to Japan’s Cerezo Osaka for a tidy profit.

But it works both ways.

In 2023, Colorado used a first-round pick obtained from Toronto in the Mark-Anthony Kaye deal to take future Canadian international defender Moise Bombito. The July 2022 deal also netted Colorado midfielder Ralph Priso, a 2023 international roster slot and up to US$1.05 million in general allocation money.

Who is not taken in the draft is also important

Midfielder Alonso Coello, for example, went undrafted before joining Toronto FC II in April 2022 after three years (2018-2021) at Florida Atlantic University. The Spaniard signed with the first team in April 2023 and is now an important part of the TFC midfield.

Canada’s Cyle Larin went first overall in the 2015 draft and went on to become MLS Rookie of the Year with Orlando City before taking his talents to Europe.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 17, 2025.