MAJOR League Soccer (MLS) club, Chicago Fire FC, yesterday announced that the Club has signed Guyana’s Omari Glasgow to an MLS NEXT Pro professional contract, pending league and US Soccer Federation approval and receipt of his ITC and P1 visa.

Glasgow, according to Chicago Fire, will be under contract through the 2023 season, with a Club option for 2024. His Financial terms were not disclosed.

The 18-year-old forward will join another Guyanese, Curtez Kellman, who picked up an MLS NEXT Pro professional contract with Sporting Kansas City in February.

“Omari is a quick winger who has the quality to make an impact with the first team in the coming seasons,” said Chicago Fire FC Technical Director Sebastian Pelzer.

Pelzer added that Glasgow “has an understanding of the game that can project at the MLS level and we look forward to continuing his development.”

Glasgow, who hails from Beterverwagting (BV), joins Chicago Fire from Western Tigers, having also played for Fruta Conquerors.

Internationally, Glasgow has represented Guyana at the Senior, U-20 and U-17 age levels. Glasgow has earned four caps for the Guyana senior team, most recently participating in 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches against the Bahamas (4-0), St. Kitts and Nevis (0-3) and Puerto Rico (0-2).

Meanwhile, president of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Wayne Forde congratulated Glasgow on his signing, adding “we’re very proud of him. As you know he’s one of our exciting players, developed through our academy programme over the past couple of years.”

With Glasgow and Kellman being two of the GFF’s most prized young players who picked up professional contracts so far this year, Forde said their move would show that the Federation is “working very hard behind the scenes to have more players go out.

“The U16 Boys will head out to Europe in April is part of a broader strategy to create some network within Europe as well.

“We want to see our players in some of the highest leagues around the world. It has been proved that in those leagues when they come back to participate in the Regional tournaments, they will do very well. We’ve seen evidence of that in Canada, the USA and Mexico, which are the strongest three nations in our confederation and there’s no reason why Guyana shouldn’t be part of that small group,” Forde said.

The GFF boss pointed out that Guyana’s new-found wealth can provide the necessary resources that can allow them to develop players robustly in the next couple of years