On April 19, 2026, Jeremy Medranda-Bermeo, a senior at the Morgan school, made his pro debut with CT United FC, an MLS (Major League Soccer) Next Pro team, where he and his team played against NYC FC II. He was called up from the U19 academy team, which was in the MLS Next Allstate Homegrown Division (better known as MLS Next 1), and was ready to pursue this opportunity, where he made the starting eleven of that match.
MLS Next Pro is a men’s professional soccer league in the United States and Canada, serving as a development bridge between the academy and the actual professional league, making it a division or two down from MLS (Major League Soccer) and giving Medranda a step ahead in achieving his dream of playing professional soccer for his career.
For Medranda, soccer started early for him, at just a few years old. “I started playing soccer when I was 2,” Medranda began. “I started playing the sport because my father was always at the fields, and was really close to being a professional, and that’s where my love for the game developed, and even probably where it was generally from.”
With this talent that his father had, it seemed clear that Medranda was going to be born a star. However, it didn’t end up happening in the way he had always imagined.
“At the start, I was playing in EDP soccer [Elite Development Program], one of the worst leagues in the U.S. for competitive soccer,” Medranda said. “I was one of the worst on the team at the time, where I was playing in Ginga FC (a premier soccer club) because I was really oversized and wasn’t really that strong either.”
Nonetheless, with where he is today, hard work and passion came through his body and overtook him in a positive way. “Over time, I improved a lot and eventually got called up to the Hartford Athletic Academy,” Medranda shared. “From there, I started playing better and then got called up to the first team for Hartford Athletic, playing for the team at 16 years old.”
Playing for Hartford Athletic was a huge responsibility, such as missing school to commit his time with the team, but it allowed Medranda to gain exposure to a semi-professional level, which would help him get in contact with his future team the following season due to his performances.
After an entire season with Hartford Athletic, which was the 24-25 season, he got scouted to an MLS Next 1 academy, which was CT United. But with this change, his performances changed too. “I had a really rough fall season, playing with lower confidence than usual and not playing up to my high expectations,” Medranda said.
But as usual, Medranda’s persistence eventually paid off as his game evolved. “When the spring season came around, I was playing with much [more] confidence and was putting up good numbers with the academy,” Medranda said. “ These performances that I had have brought me up to the professional level.”
In the academy, Medranda had 3 goals and 2 assists in 4 games, making for an impressive ratio. Right after that, he got called up to the first team, which was the actual professional team, which unfortunately made him unable to finish the season with the academy, but he could show his talent in the pro leagues.
Once he landed in pro territory, Medranda immediately had to adjust, since there were differences to the academy team, where he said, “It’s obviously really different and hard to adjust for me in this team since I played CAM (center-attacking-midfield) with the academy and got brought to the fullback position (Left-Back or Right-Back) with the first team.”
“But for differences, I’d say it’s about mistakes and work ethic,” Medranda added. “In the first team, mistakes are not tolerable, and every time you make a mistake or do something wrong, you always have to redeem yourself. For work ethic, it’s incredible how much faster the game is and how much more demanding it is physically and mentally as well. But apart from that, I treat every game like it’s my last, and I just want to go and do what I love and give it my all.”
Being in this pro team also has its benefits compared to other leagues or teams in general, even when it comes to other difficulties. “I decided to play with this pro team because I want to get recognized, and I want exposure and potentially make a move to an MLS (Major League Soccer) team or a European team in the future,” Medranda said. “But for right now, my main goal is to keep playing with this first team and hopefully get some national team action as well, which would be playing for the USA youth team.”
Since Medranda is a senior and this year he is graduating, he recently committed to play soccer for a D1 school, the University of New Haven, but with this pro team call-up, things have changed. “Right now, I don’t know 100% what my plan is. It’s leaning more to the side to stay with this MLS Next pro team and hopefully make a move to a bigger club or a move over to Europe,” Medranda explained.
“But obviously, I have to keep performing and keep working hard to reach my goals, which is what I have been doing my entire life to reach where I am today,” Medranda concluded.
