MLS: Top 5 full-backs in the league right now
By Matt Coles
1. Ryan Hollingshead
Taking the top spot on our list of the best full-backs to currently play in the American top flight is a man who has spent his entire professional career with FC Dallas, Ryan Hollingshead.
The defender spent four years with the UCLA Bruins during his collegiate career, featuring over 80 times for the side during that spell, in which he scored 16 goals, earning All-Pac-12 honours three straight years from 2010 to 2012.
MLS Career & Honours:
- FC Dallas (2014-)
———————
- MLS Humanitarian of the Year – 2017
———————
- Supporters’ Shield – 2016
- U.S. Open Cup – 2016
Hollingshead was selected by FC Dallas with the 20th overall pick in the 2013 MLS SuperDraft but chose not to sign a contract for the season so that he could help his brother with charity work, building churches in California and helping out at an orphanage in Haiti. He then signed a professional deal with the Texan side ahead of the 2014 term.
The American showed his abilities in a multitude of positions over the next few seasons, showing his adaptability as he was able to play at both right-back and left-back, along with playing further forward on both wings as well.
He featured 33 times for FCD during the 2015 campaign, his second in the league, scoring twice and assisting 3 other goals, before starting all four of the club’s post-season matches later that year. Hollingshead also played in both playoff games for the club a year later.
After suffering a broken vertebra during a road traffic accident in January 2017, Hollingshead was forced to miss the start of the season. However, during that time, and throughout the 2017 term, his work off the field saw him named the MLS Humanitarian of the Year.
The 2019 term showed by the defender is the best in the business right now, as he featured in all 34 regular-season matches for the Texan side, as they reached the post-season for the first time in three seasons.
Mainly playing at left-back throughout the campaign, Hollingshead scored a career-high six goals, along with recording a joint-career-high three assists. Across several categories, he was the best passing full-back in the league last season, along with winning more aerial duels than any other attacking full-back. He also showed he knowledge of the game, making more interceptions per 90 minutes than any other outside back in the league.
MLS: Top 5 goalkeepers in the league right now. dark. Next
Hollingshead played the entire 180 minutes of FC Dallas’ first two regular-season matches in 2020 before the league being suspended for the COVID-19 pandemic, and he will be looking to show his abilities when the season gets underway once more next month.