2026 will be Aedan Stanley‘s first year with DCFC after signing a contract that will keep him in Rouge and Gold through 2027, with an option for the 2028 season.
Stanley joins Detroit City after spending the past two seasons with Indy Eleven. His 2025 season would be cut short, as he suffered an ACL injury in his 11th game of the season in May. In 2024, Stanley would appear in 38 matches for Indy across all competitions. Across the 3,303 minutes played, Stanley would lead the club in assists with seven total assists. His best performance of the year came when he recorded two assists in Indy’s 3–1 victory over Miami FC, which earned him USL Championship Player of the Week honors.
Before joining Indy, Stanley played two seasons in South Beach with Miami FC. During the 2022 and 2023 seasons, he appeared in 69 matches and provided seven assists for the Florida club. Before Miami, Stanley spent the 2021 season with MLS team Austin FC, after being selected 21st overall in the MLS SuperDraft.
Stanley joined USL Championship side Portland Timbers 2 in 2020, where he started all 16 matches in a Covid-shortened season, playing all 1,440 minutes, and recorded two assists. Before joining Timbers, Stanley spent two seasons at Duke University, where he made 37 appearances for the Blue Devils. During his freshman season with Duke, Stanley started all 20 games at center back, led all field players with 1,921 minutes played, and went the distance in 19 of the 20 games. Stanley would be named to the All-ACC Freshman Team, the All-ACC Academic Team, and the ACC Academic Honor Roll, and was rated the No. 10 rookie by Top Drawer Soccer. His sophomore season would see him start 17 games, in which he would record his first point as a Blue Devil with the game-winning assist in the win over Furman.
The Columbia, Illinois native started his soccer journey in the Saint Louis FC Academy, making his PDL debut on June 16th, 2016, for Saint Louis FC U23. He later made his debut in the USL on September 24, 2016, in a 2–2 match against OKC Energy. Over three seasons, he accumulated 20 appearances for Saint Louis FC. Stanley also represented the US Youth National Teams, first in June 2015 when he was called up to the United States under-16 team for the Open Nordic Cup. He then joined the United States under-18s for the Vaclav Jezek Tournament, making his debut against Slovakia on August 16, starting in the 3–1 win.
