Tesho Akindele shares his favorite memories with FC Dallas

November 8, 2015. With FC Dallas in danger of exiting the playoffs and in need of a goal, Dallas manager Oscar Pareja subbed on Tesho Akindele and Walker Zimmerman in the 84th minute. Akindele would open the scoring within seconds of coming on, only for Chad Marshall to restore Seattle Sounders’ aggregate lead in the 91st minute, but Zimmerman would score immediately after to send the tie to extra time. Dallas would end up prevailing in a penalty shootout and avenging last season’s playoff elimination to Seattle. 

​“That was one of my favorite memories from Dallas,” revealed Akindele to Big D Soccer. “We were subbed on, we needed to score in order to advance, and with my first touch of the entire game, I scored. The crowd goes crazy, we’re thinking we’re gonna go through, and then Seattle score in stoppage time, and so we’re like ‘Oh man, now we’re out on away goals, and then Walker scores. The two subs scored in the last five minutes of the game and then we went to a penalty shootout, and Walker and I both took PKs and scored – Walker took the last one, actually, and won it. To do that at home was unbelievable.”

​Born in Calgary, Canada to a Nigerian father and a Canadian mother, Akindele was eight years old when he moved to Colorado, where he quickly fell in love with soccer and started playing for his high school team. He rejected a move to Colorado Rapids’ academy to play for the Colorado School of Mines, where he became a four-time All-American and the club’s all-time leading goalscorer with 76 goals. Pretty soon, Akindele realized that this could be his full-time gig. It’s why, 3.5 years into a 4-year engineering degree, Akindele decided to drop out and pursue a professional soccer career. His intuition was proven right as Dallas selected him with the sixth overall pick of the 2014 MLS SuperDraft, becoming the highest-drafted NCAA Division II player in MLS history. 

​After starting his professional career on the bench, a season-ending injury to creative talisman Mauro Díaz would open the door for Akindele to enter the starting XI and emerge as an indispensable figure in attack. Akindele would score 7 goals and 4 assists in the MLS regular season as well as find the back of the net in his first of three postseason appearances, enough to see him win the 2014 MLS Rookie of the Year award. He went up against some of the most imposing defenders in Major League Soccer, none of whom were more difficult than ex-USMNT veteran Maurice Edu.

“I always go back to my very first year, I played against Maurice Edu and he was just a beast, man. It was at the end of his career, and he had some injury problems, but part of it was because I was just starting to play, going up against a seasoned veteran for the national team, and he dominated me…he was the toughest opponent of my career. I think his career got cut short from injuries, but he was a really good player who physically bullied me. I remember there was one game when there was a free kick coming in, and I was ready to run in the box and grab my chance to get a goal.  I start running, and just get jammed at the line and flew back, I didn't even get into the box, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I'm playing against men now, you know, this isn't college kids anymore.”

Akindele would help Dallas return to their first major final in six years, with Dallas winning the 2016 U.S. Open Cup and the Supporters’ Shield, only to end up losing to Seattle in the Conference Semifinals and be denied a first-ever MLS Cup. After a memorable chapter in Texas that saw him score 28 goals and 13 assists in 164 appearances, Akindele was traded to Orlando City in December 2018 in exchange for $100,000 of Targeted Allocation Money in 2019 and $50,000 of General Allocation Money in 2020.

“I knew that I was going to get traded, it wasn’t a surprise. We talked and they were actually respectful about the situation. They asked me what I wanted to do at the end of my contract, and I said, ‘I think it was a good time for me to be traded, and they agreed and said they would help make sure that I found a good place. My wife was pregnant at the time with my son, who was born one week after I got to Orlando. Dallas handled it really well, and they were really respectful to me the entire time.”

Having ended Dallas’ 19-year trophy drought, Akindele helped Orlando win their first-ever major title with the 2022 U.S. Open Cup, racking up 21 goals and 7 assists in 121 appearances during his time in Florida before hanging up his boots in December 2022 at the age of 30. Today, he spends his time in Charlotte raising his two sons and working as a real estate developer for Camp North End. However, he still finds time to follow his two former teams, both of whom are headed to the MLS Cup playoffs.

“I like Dallas’ striker right now, Petar Musa, he’s got a lot of confidence and is just a powerful player. I saw him take a PK over the weekend, and he just banged it into the top corner. I love guys who are playing like that. Dallas is doing really good, and even going back to the soccer culture, I think Dallas, since I left, has done a good job of improving the fan base over there. You know, when I was playing in Dallas, there were not that many sold-out games, and now, you're seeing more sold-out games…I think the organization has done a good job of curating the fan base over there.”