Charlotte FC select Maryland's Bender first overall to headline MLS SuperDraft

The young midfielder heads to the MLS expansion side after earning honors as a First Team All-American last season

Charlotte FC selected Maryland midfielder Benjamin Bender with the first pick of Tuesday's MLS SuperDraft as the expansion club prepares for its debut season.

Bender will head to Charlotte after playing two seasons at Maryland, having earned honors as a first team All-American and unanimous Big Ten Midfielder of the Year selection after scoring seven goals and providing five assists in 18 games.

Charlotte's pick was followed up by four more Generation Adidas selections, with those players not counting against teams' salary budgets while they retain GA status.

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What happened?

After Charlotte chose Bender, FC Cincinnati selected goalkeeper Roman Celentano from Indiana with FC Dallas adding St. Louis forward Isaiah Parker.

Houston Dynamo selected Thorleifur Ulfarsson, an Icelandic forward out of Duke, with St. Louis defender Kipp Keller rounding out the top five.

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San Jose Earthquakes perhaps got the steal of the draft, with forward Ousseni Bouda falling to them at 8.

Seen as one of this class' most talented players, Bouda, who comes from Burkina Faso, starred for Stanford last season, leading them in goals and assists.

Bender's big day

Selected first overall, Bender will now head to a Charlotte FC team very much still under construction.

The squad is still very much being built out, with the club yet to sign a Designated Player, although there are some familiar faces in former Leicester star Christian Fuchs and MLS veterans Harrison Afful, Chrsitian Makoun and Antone Walkes.

"Every time there's a new team that enters the league I think that the whole city is just super excited and ready to go," Bender said.

"I know the fans of Charlotte are going to be itching to see the team win and win right away and I think that coming into an expansion club is a good scenario for me. I think I have the ability to make an impact, so I'm just really excited to hit the ground running."

First round in full

Pick	Player	Position	School
1.Charlotte FC	Benjamin Bender	Midfielder	Maryland
2. FC Cincinnati	Roman Celentano	Goalkeeper	Indiana
3. FC Dallas	Isaiah Parker	Forward	St. Louis
4. Houston Dynamo	Thorleifur Ulfarsson	Forward	Duke
5. Austin FC	Kipp Keller	Defender	St. Louis
6. FC Dallas	Lucas Batlett	Defender	St. John's
7. New York Red Bulls	Matthew Nocita	Defender	Navy
8. San Jose Earthquakes	Ousseni Bouda	Forward	Stanford
9. Inter Miami	Ryan Sailor	Defender	Washington
10. Nashville SC	Ahmed Longmire	Defender	UCLA
11. Chicago Fire	Kendall Burks	Defender	Washington
12. Columbus Crew	Patrick Schulte	Goalkeeper	St. Louis
13. San Jose Earthquakes	Oskar Agren	Defender	Cemson
14. FC Cincinnati	Ian Murphy	Defender	Duke
15. San Jose Earthqyakes	Jojea Kwizera	Forward	Utah Valley
16. Vancouver Whitecaps	Simon Becher	Forward	St. Louis
17. Minnesota United	Tani Oluwaseyi	Forward	St. John's
18. Orlando City	Jack Lynn	Forward	Notre Dame
19. Atlanta United	Erik Centeno	Forward	Pacific
20. New York Red Bulls	O'Vonte Mullings	Forward	Florida Gulf Coast
21. LA Galaxy	Farai Mutatu	Forward	Michigan State
22. Sporting KC	Esai Easley	Defender	Grand Canyon
23. Colorado Rapids	Mohamed Omar	Midfielder	Notre Dame
24. Chicago Fire	Jacob Jackson	Goalkeeper	Loyola Marymount
25. Columbus Crew	Philip Quinton	Defender	Notre Dame
26. Colorado Rapids	Anthony Markanich	Defender	Northern Illinois
27. Portland Timbers	Justin Rasumussen	Defender	Grand Canyon
28. FC Dallas	Tsiki Ntsalbeleng	Forward	Oregon State

The big picture

The MLS Draft has taken on less importance over the years for a variety of reasons.

The rise of MLS academies has seen most of the top American and Canadian players signed up at an earlier age, foregoing the college process altogether or signing with clubs after previously featuring for them at the youth level.

Additionally, the league has signed a significant amount of young foreign players in recent years, with several South American stars opting to continue their careers in MLS.

However, several MLS Draft picks have gone on to star in the league and beyond in recent years, including Leeds' Jack Harrison, Club Brugge's Tajon Buchanan and West Brom's Daryl Dike, all of whom came through the draft process.

U.S. men's national team stars Miles Robinson and Walker Zimmerman have also broken out after being selected in the MLS Draft.