Brown has 38 Goals with 22 Assists in 109 USL Championship Appearances
TULSA – FC Tulsa has executed a trade to bring in a proven USL Championship goalscorer and creator for the 2022 season. The club announced on Tuesday morning that it has acquired 29-year-old Jamaican international forward Brian Brown from New Mexico United in exchange for forward Jerome Kiesewetter, pending league and federation approval. FC Tulsa will assume Brown’s contract that the forward signed with New Mexico United prior to the 2021 season.
In his 109 appearances in USL Championship regular season play since the start of the 2016 season, Brown has scored 38 goals and added 22 assists, which rank 33rd and t-31st respectively in USL Championship history. Over his 6,824 all time minutes in the league, Brown has .79 goals plus assists per 90 minutes played.
“Brian is a well-rounded striker who can find the small spaces in the box and finish with a quick shot,” said FC Tulsa head coach Michael Nsien. “Brian can also come low and join the midfield to allow our other attacking players to use the space he creates. You can see from his time at Reno [1868 FC] that he can find goals. Goalscoring is the statistic that people always like to look at when you talk about strikers. We want Brian to have a complete season, full of goals, where he is a consistent attacking threat for our club.”
Brown became a professional at 19-years-old in 2012, signing with Montego Bay United of the Jamaican National Premier League. The next season, Brown moved to Harbour View where he won the NPL’s Golden Boot with 19 goals in 2013-14.
His success in Jamaica earned Brown a move to Major League Soccer where he spent the second half of 2014 on loan to Philadelphia Union. He scored two goals and added an assist in just 230 minutes of MLS action. In 2015, Brown again went on loan to the U.S., this time joining Indy Eleven, who was playing in the NASL. In 22 appearances across the NASL’s Spring and Fall seasons, Brown scored five goals and was the joint leading scorer for Indy Eleven.
In 2016, Brown spent his first season in the USL Championship when he was loaned to Charlotte Independence. He scored nine goals, helping Charlotte Independence to a Playoffs berth and added an assist in the first round of the playoffs.
Brown made his official full-time move to the USL Championship in 2017 when he signed with expansion side Reno 1868 FC. Over three seasons with Reno, Brown scored 28 goals with 16 assists including a career-best 2018 season where Brown scored 16 goals with six assists, both career bests.
In the midst of 2019 when Brown had scored eight goals and added five assists in just 11 matches, Reno transferred the Jamaican to FK Partizani Tirana, a top division side in Albania. Brown immediately made an impact in Europe, helping lead Partizani to an Albanian Super Cup title where he came off the bench to score three goals in the final, equalizing in the 88’ minute to force extra time and scoring in the 94’ and 99’ minutes to win 4-2.
Over 41 total matches with Partizani including UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League qualifying appearances, Brown scored six goals before returning to the USL Championship in 2021 with New Mexico United. Over 17 league matches last season with New Mexico and Oakland Roots SC, where he played following a midseason loan, Brown notched two more goals and added two assists in 838 minutes.
“I’m honored and humbled to join the FC Tulsa family,” said Brown. “I’m excited to meet the entire coaching staff, new teammates and the rest of the family, and I’m looking forward to a fun and scoring-filled season.”
FC Tulsa will send forward Jerome Kiesewetter back to New Mexico United for Brown. In nine appearances for FC Tulsa in 2021, Kiesewetter did not register a goal or an assist before Tulsa loaned the forward to Sacramento Republic FC in July. In 11 appearances for Sacramento while on loan, Kiesewetter scored one goal and added one assist.
This move marks the second trade in Tulsa’s USL Championship history and first in the FC Tulsa-era of the franchise.
2022 FC Tulsa Roster
Keepers: Sean Lewis, Austin Wormell
Defenders: Bradley Bourgeois, Jorge Corrales, Johnny Fenwick, Ronald Rodríguez, Matheus Silva, Gabriel Torres
Midfielders: Eric Bird, Petar Čuić, Kembo Kibato, Lebo Moloto, Abuchi Obinwa, Ciaran Winters,
Forwards: Brian Brown, Rodrigo da Costa, Machuca, Joaquín Rivas, Darío Suárez
