San Diego FC's Manu Duah "can play at the highest level" | OneFootball

By Jon Arnold

Manu Duah got drafted. Then, he disappeared.

Fans could be forgiven for having forgotten about Duah. The first overall pick in the 2025 MLS SuperDraft, he was lauded as usual. Shortly after, San Diego FC shut him down.

SDFC scout Brian Cronin had put Duah forward as the type of player who could be the then-expansion club’s first-ever draft pick. But even when Duah was at the MLS Combine, San Diego wanted him to rest to make sure a lingering knee issue was totally right. He didn’t train in preseason. He didn’t debut until the summer.

In full bloom

There’s no missing Duah now; he rarely disappears from a match. The 20-year-old defender is a commanding presence at the back for San Diego, finishing the 2025 campaign with more than 1,000 minutes, placing No. 15 on the annual 22 Under 22 list and starting all five of the club’s Audi MLS Cup Playoffs matches last year.

He entered this season, which San Diego have started undefeated ahead of Matchday 5's Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire contest with Real Salt Lake at Snapdragon Stadium (7 pm ET | Apple TV), as one of MLS’s biggest prospects.

After the slow start last season, Duah entered this year ready to take on the responsibility of being one of SDFC’s most dependable starters.

“I really came into the year prepared,” he told MLSsoccer.com. “The coaches had something planned for me, and I also had my own thing planned, so both of us worked together to help the team as much as possible.”

Duah also set several targets for himself during the offseason, including scoring his first professional goal. He checked that off the list in the first game of the year, scoring on legendary goalkeeper Keylor Navas to help SDFC to a 4-1 win over LIGA MX grande Pumas UNAM in a 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup series San Diego advanced from.

Duah's development

While Duah may seem like an overnight success crossing off objectives with ease, there is hard work and opportunity behind any story like his.

A Kumasi, Ghana native, Duah was in a program called New Life Academy, similar to the Right to Dream program SDFC are part of. Given the chance to focus solely on soccer or to pursue a pathway that blended the sport with more traditional education, Duah opted to take on more schooling.

That helped him move from Ghana to the U.S., where he enrolled in the Dunn School, a Santa Barbara-based boarding school with a history of producing MLS talent. Fellow top draft pick Abu Danladi also went to the school, as did Sahid Conteh, a Ventura County Fusion vet who coached Duah in college at UC Santa Barbara.

Dunn School “helped me a lot to adapt from Ghana to the U.S. They taught me how things work in the U.S.,” Duah said, bolstering his English-language skills, furthering his education and helping him navigate a pro pathway. In addition to playing with UCSB, he also played in MLS NEXT with Santa Barbara Soccer Club.

When SDFC kept Duah in Southern California by selecting him with the top pick, the club expected a player who would contribute quickly, but it didn’t want to rush him onto the field. And when he did take the field, it wasn’t where some fans might have expected.

Rising star

Tyler Heaps has a keen understanding of what it takes for a center back to make it at the top level. Before taking his current role as San Diego FC’s sporting director and general manager, Heaps worked as head of analysis and insights at AS Monaco during a time in which the Ligue 1 club moved both Benoît Badiashile and Axel Disasi to Chelsea in the English Premier League. Both were also earning call-ups for the France national team.

In Duah, Heaps sees many of the same qualities that led that duo to the highest level of the sport. In fact, Heaps said, Duah moving abroad is something the club is already viewing as all but a certainty.

“I think he's a player that if he continues to grow and take steps, he can play at the highest level in the world. And I don't say that lightly,” Heaps said. “We’ve already said this with Manu and his agent that it’s probably not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.

“If he continues to play at a high level, I think it could be sooner rather than later, so it’s one that we’re preparing for. But, again, for us it’s about making sure that Manu continues to take steps and making sure he continues to get opportunities to do that.”

Part of the opportunity was putting Duah at center back in the first place. While there was always the possibility for him to become a defender because of his 6-foot-4 frame and profile, he had come up playing as a No. 6. That made him a stronger player, SDFC felt, with his calmness on the ball and ability to pass out of trouble. But they also wanted to use his space-eating and aerial ability in the best possible way.

“It was a process. We knew in the draft that he could play center back because of his ability on the ball and his calmness,” Heaps said. “Now, that transition happened a lot quicker because of need. He started to train quite often at center back because we had injuries.”

A June 7 game Heaps recalls as “a random international break friendly against Club América that wasn’t even on television” served as Duah’s first start at center back, with several other SDFC players who had seen limited action in 2025.

“He was exceptional. He did things in that game that really opened our eyes,” Heaps said. “The ability to defend space, the ability to step into midfield, the ability to attract pressure and to be able to still play high-quality passes.

“I think from that moment and from that game, the trust started to really grow. Every time he got an opportunity, he took it.”

Sky is the limit

While Duah is aware that bigger opportunities may be coming soon, he insists that right now he wants to push toward a first major trophy with SDFC.

“It’s everyone’s goal to play for a top European team, but right now I’m just more focused on the season,” Duah said. “I’ve not been thinking about that much. It’s more about what you can do to help the team win games, win a trophy. I’m not really focused on a European move or anything.”

But his teammates who have played in top competitions in Europe don’t expect him to stick around long. While SDFC star Anders Dreyer, a veteran of Brighton & Hove Albion, Rubin Kazan and Anderlecht, among other stops, loves playing with Duah, he sees the opportunity the center back has to excel abroad.

“He’s amazing. He’s humble. And he’s just a kid that, as I see it, is ready for maybe a bigger step in his career,” Dreyer said. “He’s still only 20. It’s not often you see a center back like him so mature at that age. It’s so nice to play with him because he’s very good with the ball as well. We need that in this system. He can find me, for example, in the pocket with good passes.”

A European club might not be the only team outside of San Diego to find Duah a useful addition. He’s yet to have any contact with Ghana manager Otto Addo, but many fans of the Black Stars are tracking his progress and wondering if Duah could be a helpful addition ahead of this summer’s 2026 FIFA World Cup.

“Hopefully I get a chance to display myself for my country,” Duah said. “Yes, I would do it. If not, I’m still just doing what I do best, focusing on the present and doing as much as I can do right now. I haven’t heard anything from anyone, but if I do, I’d gladly be down to help my country.”

Living in the moment

It has been a rapid rise for Duah, going from a player who was only starting to see the training ground at this time last year to being asked if he might make his World Cup debut this summer. He wasn’t sure he’d be in the San Diego lineup, much less having the team work out a plan to replace him if the right offer arrives from a top European squad.

But Duah continues trying to grind and become better, helping San Diego and taking it all in with a smile on his face as he evaluates just how far he’s been able to come in a year.

“I always appreciate all the moments, little things in my life right now. Where I am is by God’s grace, and I have to enjoy what I have right now,” he said. “I know bigger things are coming, but right now it’s just about the little enjoyment you get with the hard work you put in.”

There is little doubt that seeing Duah on the field, playing center back and helping his team, will become standard for fans, whether in San Diego or Europe. Now that he’s up and running, Duah doesn’t look likely to disappear again any time soon.