Austin FC acquires Sofiane Djeffal with first pick of MLS Re-Entry Draft

Austin FC has selected midfielder Sofiane Djeffal with the first pick of the 2022 MLS Re-Entry Draft Stage 1, the club announced Thursday afternoon.

Initially, Austin had the 26th pick in the Re-Entry Draft Stage 1 but traded that pick and $50,000 in 2023 General Allocation Money to D.C. United to move to the top of the list.

“We’re excited to welcome Sofiane to Austin,” said Austin FC Sporting Director Claudio Reyna via press release. “He’s a promising young talent with a bright future, and we believe he’ll be a positive addition to our team and our locker room.”

Djeffal’s professional career began with D.C. in 2022 after being selected in the second round of the MLS SuperDraft with the 36th overall pick. He performed well in preseason training and was signed on Feb. 25, making his debut as a late substitute the next day in a 3-0 win over Charlotte FC. He made 28 appearances, 19 of them starts, for D.C. in his rookie season, registering 27 interceptions, eight key passes, and one assist. 

D.C. declined to renew his contract at the end of the '22 season. 

Before starting his professional career, Djeffal was a standout at Oregon State University, where he was named to the All-Pac-12 First Team four times, the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in 2018 and was voted Pac-12 Player of the Year and named a MAC Hermann Trophy semifinalist in his senior year in 2021. Through four seasons with the Beavers, he scored 20 goals and assisted 21 more in 66 appearances, starting all but once.

Two MLS experts, The Athletic's Pablo Maurer and MLSSoccer.com's Matt Doyle, expressed surprise that Djeffal was made available via this mechanism and tweeted very "D.C.'s loss is Austin's gain" styled tweets following the news.

As a young player, Djeffal spent more than a decade in the academy system of his hometown club, FC Nantes of France’s Ligue 1. The 23-year-old Nantes native will occupy both Supplemental and International roster designations.