When Chris Richards was emerging in the youth soccer ranks in Birmingham, Ala., the lack of a professional club in the state meant the route forward to meet his potential meant he was going to have to head elsewhere.

In Richards’ case, that meant Texas, first at Texans SC in Houston and then to the FC Dallas Academy. There, he quickly became one of the top defensive prospects in the country, signing a Homegrown Player deal with Dallas on his way to a professional journey that has now taken him to the Premier League with Crystal Palace and the United States Men’s National Team.

But Birmingham has always remained close to Richards’ heart. When Birmingham Legion FC entered the professional ranks in the USL Championship in 2019, it quickly landed on Richards’ radar.

On Thursday, he went a step further, becoming an investor in Legion and in turn becoming the latest current United States Men’s National Team player to invest in a club in the USL’s professional ecosystem.

“This means everything to me,” said Richards of his investment. “It’s the city I was raised in and the city that made me, so to be able to give back to it and the people who formed this soccer community around it means the world to me.”

Richards is the third active USMNT player to invest in the USL Super League, Championship or League One in the past year. Last May, Tim Weah became part of the ownership group at the Super League and Championship’s Brooklyn FC, while in January, Tyler Adams became part of Westchester SC’s ownership as it prepares for its inaugural season in USL League One.

The same concept applies elsewhere within the USL’s ownership ranks. Former USMNT player Michael Parkhurst became an early investor in Rhode Island FC, while more recently Ozzie Alonso – whose professional career in the United States began in the former USL First Division with the Charleston Battery before becoming an icon at Seattle Sounders FC in Major League Soccer – joined the ownership group of the Super League’s Spokane Zephyr and League One’s Spokane Velocity.

Richards himself has been no stranger to Legion games, visiting the club each of the past two summers. During those visits he got the chance to learn more about the club’s plans, talking with President Jay Heaps and Legion investor Dominique Wilkins, conversations that paved the way to his own investment in the club.

He’s also well aware of the talent in the Birmingham area that has a chance to flourish as Legion continues to grow. Both Richards and fellow Birmingham native Tanner Tessmann have earned recent call-ups to the USMNT with more players dotted around the professional ranks.

“We've had a lot of players [from Birmingham] become successful,” said Richards. “Now with the Legion, we have a professional circuit for local talent. Being able to grow that and have kids around Birmingham and Alabama see that this is a proven model is something that's really important to me.”

With the USL’s planned expansion at all levels of the professional game – including the introduction of a new men’s Division One league in 2027 or 2028 – and the opportunities that will provide for more talent to see a pathway to the professional ranks in their local communities, the trio of Richards, Adams and Weah may be trendsetters for the years ahead.