PAWTUCKET, R.I. – Rhode Island FC announced on Friday it had signed reigning USL Championship Player of the Year Albert Dikwa to a multi-year agreement ahead of the club’s inaugural 2024 season. The transaction is pending league and federation approval.

Dikwa claimed both Player of the Year honors and the league’s Golden Boot with 20 goals last season, which helped propel Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC to the Players’ Shield in the USL Championship. The Cameroonian striker averaged a goal every 114.7 minutes, accounting for 40 percent of Pittsburgh’s goals on the year. Dikwa recorded one hat trick and tallied five two-goal performances over the course of the season.

“Albert is a massive signing and we could not be more thrilled to welcome him to the state of Rhode Island,” said RIFC Head Coach and General Manager Khano Smith. “As a club, we have high standards and expectations for how we want to represent our community.

“By adding the league’s best attacker, highest goal scorer and most valuable player, we are taking our roster to the next level. Albert is always a threat, knows how to get himself into the right spots and has really come into his own over the last two seasons.”

The 17th signing for RIFC and fourth of 2024, Dikwa also had an impressive campaign for the Hounds in 2022, finding the net 11 times in 35 games. The 26-year-old recorded four assists in 2,446 minutes and 26 starts. Prior to joining Pittsburgh in Aug. 2020, Dikwa played two seasons for Saint Louis FC from 2018-2019 after signing his first professional contract with Orlando City B in 2017.

Analysis

Rhode Island had already made moves that set a marker as to where the club aims to be in its inaugural season – making goalkeeper Koke Vegas its first signing in club history, and its acquisition of JJ Williams via a transfer deal with the Tampa Bay Rowdies among them – but Albert Dikwa’s arrival is the biggest statement yet that Head Coach Khano Smith’s side intends to contend immediately.

The immediate fascination will be to see how Dikwa and Williams work as a forward partnership, with Prince Saydee potentially offering speed and service on the flanks for the attacking duo. The qualities each bring do seem to offer a fit. Dikwa is as pure a finisher as this league has seen as he enters his prime, while Williams can do it all, including create. As the lineup on paper continues to emerge, this preseason will be something to watch closely in Pawtucket.