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Will Cleary, a Stanford graduate and the son of two educators, brings academic discipline and eagerness to learn to Charlotte’s back line
Will Cleary advancing the ball on DC United. (Photo courtesy of Charlotte FC.)
Charlotte FC fullback Will Cleary is a quick study. In a span of five months, he went from being selected in the first round of the MLS SuperDraft to his first Major League Soccer start. Now, he has a regular spot in Charlotte’s rotation, first filling in for and now often starting ahead of veteran Nathan Byrne.
Cleary opened the season with Crown Legacy, Charlotte’s MLS Next Pro team, and debuted with the first team in the U.S. Open Cup in April. He made his first MLS start and assisted his first MLS goal in a 1-0 win over New England in May. And he has started five of Charlotte’s nine league games coming out of the World Cup break, scoring his first goal in a 3-1 win over D.C. United.
Cleary was in the starting 11 for four straight games before Wednesday’s 2-1 come-from-behind win in Montreal. His rise through the ranks has been even quicker than striker Patrick Agyemang, who made just one MLS start in the 2023 season after Charlotte drafted him in the first round.
“(Cleary’s) attitude and application are top drawer,” said Charlotte FC coach Dean Smith. “He wants to learn, he wants to get better, and that's the pleasing thing.”
That Cleary is a fast and eager learner makes a lot of sense, considering he grew up on the campus of a boarding school. His dad, Joe, is a math teacher and his mom, Nancy, is the director of admissions for The Loomis Chaffee School, a prestigious high school in Windsor, Conn. Normally, students have to wait until ninth grade to roam the campus. Cleary had free rein his whole life.
When he was born, his parents lived in an apartment attached to a dormitory while serving as resident advisors. When he was in first grade, they moved to a house on school grounds.
“He had a whole community looking out for him,” his mother, Nancy Cleary, said this week. “Everybody knew who he was. He would walk out the front door and could take his ball and go find a student to kick around with him, or play floor hockey with him if that's what he wanted. He had access to a lot of really interesting people and also an element of freedom that a lot of kids aren't able to have.”
William, as Cleary is known to his family, idolized Loomis Chaffee’s varsity soccer team as a kid. He served as a ball boy and by middle school was getting to jump in on some of their drills in practice.
At Loomis, Cleary excelled in three sports, including basketball and lacrosse. In an age when young athletes are encouraged (to put it nicely) to specialize in one sport, he resisted. His parents knew the value of playing multiple sports. His mother was the first 1,000-point scorer in women’s basketball for Division III Williams College and was inducted into the New England basketball Hall of Fame. His father played soccer and lacrosse at Siena College.
His mother said his coaches at Loomis knew him so well they were willing to give him the flexibility to pursue other sports.
“I think playing other sports is what helped me the most in keeping my feet quick enough,” said Cleary, who converted from central midfield to fullback at Stanford. “Basketball for 1-v-1 defending (in soccer) was really big, especially when I was first learning to be a fullback — seeing those similarities between moving your feet and getting your body between the ball and the opponent.”
Cleary on the move as a midfielder in high school at Loomis Chaffee (left) and as a 5-year-old playing for “Team Portugal” with his local town recreation team. (Photos courtesy of Nancy Cleary.)
Nancy Cleary said Loomis’ soccer program is so strong, he didn’t have to worry about turning down a chance to play for the New England Revolution’s Academy because driving two hours each way three nights a week “wasn’t sustainable.”
Cleary played club soccer but managed to stay close to home and not disrupt an already busy schedule. During the summers in high school, he played both pickup and league games against Agyemang, the striker Charlotte transferred to Derby County last year, who grew up seven miles away in East Hartford, Conn.
“He was always so good,” Cleary said. “He had the speed, the frame and such good feet. We were like, ‘This guy's going to do something.’”
Cleary was a standout in the classroom and on the field. He was recruited by Harvard and Williams College, among others. Cleary said Stanford offered the chance to pursue both soccer and academics at the highest level. (Harvard was coming off an 0-16 season at the time.)
Cleary, who was named a first-team Academic All-American, set a goal of graduating from Stanford in three-and-a-half years, so if MLS drafted him his senior year, he wouldn’t have to choose between school and soccer commitments. He was ready and available — and refreshing his Twitter feed — on the couch with his parents, older sister and their dog, Leo, when Charlotte FC drafted him 22nd overall in December.
“We're all refreshing, refreshing, refreshing,” Nancy said. “Thankfully, he was the first person who saw it, which was good. He said, ‘I think I just got drafted by Charlotte.’ He was so excited. He was excited about the team and the location and being drafted, period.”
Charlotte FC’s assistant general manager, Bobby Belair, who’d interviewed Cleary at the MLS Player combine, said the club thought it would have to trade up to get Cleary and couldn’t find a deal at the right price to do it.
“We were pumped when he fell to us,” Belair said.
Cleary graduated with a degree in management and engineering, with the idea that he could use those skills in any business setting. He has put his pursuit of a master’s on hold while playing for Charlotte FC.
He’s rooming with Charlotte FC center back Morrison Agyemang and Andrew Johnson, whom he played with for Crown Legacy to start the season. They live in an apartment complex in Plaza Midwood, where Crown Legacy goalkeeper Issac Walker is close by. Without a lot of studying to do anymore, Cleary said he enjoys his time away from soccer playing pool, ping-pong or a game of “soccer tennis” on a tennis court near their complex. He has been learning to use an air fryer and studying MLS soccer.
He’s taking it upon himself to learn from veteran players, too. When he missed a week of practice for an ankle injury, Cleary sought out captain Ashley Westwood to go over some pressing the team had worked on in practice. The two sat down with an assistant coach and studied video for 30-45 minutes.
He’s leaned on Byrne for his expertise on fundamental defending and decision-making. He’s worked on crosses at the end of practices with left back David Schnegg.
All of the preparation has helped Cleary earn the trust of his coaches. Byrne got the start Wednesday in Montreal in a midweek game, but Schnegg is suspended Saturday for yellow card accumulation, which could mean Cleary is right back into the lineup.
Smith upset with Westwood multi-game suspension; Cincinnati’s star also out
As soon as captain Ashley Westwood got his second yellow card in short succession for arguing with a referee over taking an elbow to the head against the Houston Dynamo on Saturday, he and Charlotte FC knew he would miss the game Wednesday in Montreal with a one-game suspension for what became an automatic red card. What they learned after traveling to Montreal on Tuesday was that Westwood would also miss Saturday’s game in Cincinnati.
Westwood was also fined for failing to leave the field in a timely manner.
MLS informed Charlotte that Westwood’s back-to-back yellow cards would count against his season total, giving him eight, so he would be suspended an additional game Saturday for yellow card accumulation.
"I don't quite understand it,” Charlotte FC coach Dean Smith said. “In the major leagues in football, and certainly from where I'm from, if two yellows are shown and a red card, then the red card supersedes the yellows, and it's just a one-game ban, and he'll still be on seven cautions.
Smith also took exception to the fine for failing to leave the field.
“He's had to go and give his (captain’s) armband to somebody,” Smith said. “We can't do anything about it, (but) I think he's been really hard done by. Unfortunately, there's consequences for players and not a lot of accountability for officials. They say they're held to a higher standard. It doesn't look so this time to me.”
If it’s any consolation, and it should be, Cincinnati’s superstar Evander is sitting out Saturday’s game as well because of yellow card accumulation. Evander has 13 goals and 11 assists on the season. Cincinnati midfielder Obinna Nwobodo will also be out serving a red card suspension.
Up next: Charlotte FC (11-7-6) vs. FC Cincinnati (8-8-7)
When/Where: Saturday, 7:30 p.m. TQL Stadium, Cincinnati
How to watch: Apple TV. Find information about how to subscribe here.
How to listen: WFNZ 92.7 in English, WOLS 106.1 in Spanish.
Notable
Charlotte FC has lost just one MLS game since the World Cup break, going 5-1-3, and has won its past two road games, in Montreal and Atlanta.
Liel Abada has five goals and four assists in 11 games in all competitions since the World Cup break. Allan Saint-Maximin assisted Abada’s goal Wednesday, giving the new winger four assists in the past three games. Charlotte is still awaiting his first MLS goal.
With a secondary assist to help Saint-Maximin set up Abada’s goal in Montreal, Pep Biel reached double digits in assists for the season. His 10 assists and 11 goals make him just the 22nd player in MLS history to reach double digits in goals and assists for consecutive seasons. Biel had 10 goals and 12 assists last year. The pass also tied Biel with Karol Swiderski, the club’s first designated player, for the most goal contributions in Charlotte FC history with 48.
Cincinnati is coming off a 5-0 loss in Philadelphia where it had no answer for the 16-year-old star Cavan Sullivan. He assisted three of the goals.
Carroll Walton is a longtime baseball writer with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution now in her fifth season covering Charlotte FC. She would love to hear from you. E-mail her with questions, suggestions, story ideas and comments!