Goalkeeper Josh Cohen is expected to sign a contract with Atlanta United in Major League Soccer, multiple sources told ESPN.
Cohen, a California native, most recently played for Maccabi Haifa in the Israeli Premier League, where he was named the league’s player of the season in 2020-21 and helped guide the team to the UEFA Champions League. Cohen has been without a club since leaving Maccabi in the summer.
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A deal is expected be completed in the coming days.
In June, Cohen was called in to United States men’s national team training camp ahead of the Concacaf Nations League Final Four but was not included in the roster for the competition.
In September, The Athletic reported that a representative for Cohen filed a complaint that alleged Atlanta United violated MLS rules while negotiating with Cohen, who was on the club’s discovery list (a league mechanism that allocates the rights to certain players outside the league to specific teams should they come to MLS).
According to the report, it was alleged that Cohen received a contract offer well below his perceived market value and that there were no further plans to negotiate with the club.
It’s unclear at what point the climate changed and the parties resumed negotiations.
Atlanta United’s starting goalkeeper, Brad Guzan, 39, is under contract for 2024, but has not publicly said he will return for his eighth year with the club. Guzan suffered a ruptured Achilles in 2022 that cost him most of the season and was sidelined for several weeks this season with a torn MCL.
Cohen played college soccer for UC San Diego and for the Burlingame Dragons in the USL Premier Development League before stints with the Orange County Blues (now Orange County SC), Phoenix Rising and Sacramento Republic in the USL Championship.
