After meeting the FC Cincinnati technical staff at the 2019 Major League Soccer Player Combine in Orlando, Fla., Ben Lundt said FCC was the club he hoped would draft him. That wish came true.
Cincinnati selected Lundt with the No. 37 pick in last Friday’s SuperDraft — the club’s final pick at the event in Chicago.
“It’s super exciting, to be honest,” Lundt said. “Cincinnati was the team I was hoping for. I had really good conversations with the staff in Orlando. I’m really happy it worked out.”
Lundt arrives at FC Cincinnati after three seasons at Akron, where he was the starting goalkeeper for a side that won three-consecutive Mid-American Conference championships.
The 6-foot-6 German keeper played 64 matches in college, amassing 27 clean sheets and 180 saves. Last year, he made 20 appearances and collected 12 clean sheets.
Lundt was the second keeper FCC selected in the SuperDraft. Michigan State product Jimmy Hague was selected with pick No. 30.
“I’m really, really excited,” Goalkeeping Coach Jack Stern said. “Both are good with their feet. Both are tall guys. Often when you have tall guys, they struggle with their feet, but both are competent with their feet so they’ll help us play out of the back. We have a quite strong profile that we want to stick to.”
Stern noted Lundt’s ball control was noticeable during evaluations before the draft.
“He has a really fantastic range of distribution,” Stern said of Lundt. “Tall goalkeepers, it’s really rare to see someone with long limbs have such good detail in distributions. That was definitely something that stood out.”
Lundt said he’s happy he gets to stay in Ohio after playing college soccer in the state. Before that, the 23-year-old had played with the Hertha BSC youth teams, including the Under-17s and U-23s.
His experience playing in Germany should translate well as Lundt begins his professional career in America. At the SuperDraft, he mentioned saving shots as one of his biggest assets.
Lundt is the expansion club’s fourth goalkeeper added this offseason, which is the most the team has had at any point in its four-year history. That depth might lead to goalkeeping competition entering the club’s first preseason as an MLS team.
That won’t faze him, though. For now, there’s excitement from joining the club he was hoping to join and to stay in a state that is “home.”
“My girlfriend is from Ohio and her family is from Ohio,” he said. “I feel home in Ohio so I’m super excited to stay here.”
