Nashville SC loan defender Jack Maher to San Diego Loyal for the 2021 season

NASHVILLE, TN – Nashville SC announced Friday that center-back Jack Maher has been loaned to San Diego Loyal of the USL Championship for the 2021 season. From the release:

Nashville Soccer Cub announced today it has loaned defender Jack Maher to San Diego Loyal SC of the USL Championship through the 2021 season. Nashville SC has the ability to terminate the loan agreement at any point throughout the loan.

Nashville SC selected Maher with the first ever pick in club history and second overall in the 2020 Major League Soccer SuperDraft, presented by adidas. The 21-year-old center back appeared in three matches in 2020 including his MLS debut on Oct. 11 as a sub against Sporting Kansas City. His first career start came in a 3-1 victory at Houston Dynamo FC just three days later.

Maher, 21, has only been part of the match day squad in two of Nashville’s six matches so far in 2021. While playing time is much needed for his development, it was expected that he’d see the field over the summer with Walker Zimmerman potentially missing time on international duty. However, MLS veteran Jalil Anibaba seems firmly entrenched as the club’s third-choice center-back. Playing under Landon Donovan in USL is a good opportunity for his development.

At this point, Maher desperately needs to see the field. It doesn’t seem like that will happen in Nashville in the near future.

Author: Ben Wrightis the Director of Soccer Content and a Senior MLS Contributor for Broadway Sports covering Nashville SC and the US National Team. Previously Ben was the editor and a founder of Speedway Soccer, where he has covered Nashville SC and their time in USL before journeying to Major League Soccer since 2018. Raised in Louisville, KY Ben grew up playing before a knee injury ended his competitive career. When he is not talking soccer he is probably producing music, drinking coffee or hanging out with his wife and kids. Mastodon

Twitter