A relationship that goes back more than a decade has led to what Pacific FC head coach James Merriman describes as “one of the biggest signings in the Canadian Premier League’s short history.”
Winger Kekuta Manneh, with 171 games played in Major League Soccer, is coming to play for the Tridents. The connection began when Merriman coached Manneh, 28, as a youth in the Vancouver Whitecaps pre-residency and academy centre programs.
Manneh went on to play for the Whitecaps in MLS from 2013 to 2017, scoring 23 goals and adding 12 assists in 123 games for the ‘Caps before being dealt to the Columbus Crew in an MLS trade. He was also with Pachuca in Mexico’s top-tier Liga MX and with FC St. Gallen of the Swiss Super League. He returned to MLS with expansion team FC Cincinnati in 2019 and has also played MLS with the New England Revolution and Austin FC up to 2021. Manneh has 47 goals in 221 professional games.
“He will absolutely have a great impact on our team. Kekuta is an incredibly humble character and I look forward to the season working with him,” said Merriman, in a statement.
“Since the first day of training with our team, [Manneh] has clearly shown his motivation to help us win. He’s ambitious and wants to enjoy his football again.”
Nicknamed Scoots, for a reason, Manneh is known for his speed down the wings. He made an immediate impact at B.C. Place with six goals and two assists in 20 games as a Whitecaps rookie in 2013. Manneh became the youngest player to score a hat-trick in MLS history that season as an 18-year-old by recording three goals in a game against the Seattle Sounders. It was also the first hat-trick in Whitecaps’ MLS history.
Manneh’s highest market value, from 2017 through 2019, was listed at $1.3-million Cdn. by Transfermarkt. He was born in The Gambia and became an American citizen in 2016. The former Under-20 selection for The Gambia received a call-up to the U.S. national team for a friendly against Paraguay in 2018 but did not get in the game off the bench.
Manneh will become the most MLS-experienced player in the five-year history of the CPL and is among several of the Tridents who came up in the Whitecaps’ academy system.
“I’ve played with a lot of people who have played for this club [PFC],” said Manneh, in a statement.
“I have been in touch with them and watched their games over the years. The excitement of the fans, and the direction the team is going in, is something I wanted to be a part of. It all was really, really exciting to me, so that all factored into the decision to come here.”
PFC now has 21 players under contract ahead of its CPL opener against expansion Vancouver FC on April 15 at Starlight Stadium in Langford.
