Over the course of a professional career, individual accomplishments by players or coaches will always stand out. Earning individual honors or building a resume that adds up to becoming a league legend is something anyone would be happy to hang their hat on.

Ask most players, though, and what they want most of all is to take home silverware.

“I told my teammates today when I announced that I was retiring that winning championships opens a lot of doors,” said Sacramento Republic FC legend Rodrigo López on a recent edition of USL All Access. “It changes your career, it changes everything.”

López, of course, has won the USL Championship Final, doing so in Republic FC’s inaugural season in 2014. So have other longtime league standouts, with Speedy Williams earning the fourth crown of his career last year with Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC. Others like Louisville City’s Sean Totsch, San Antonio FC’s Mitchell Taintor and New Mexico United’s Kalen Ryden have also won it all – Ryden doing so with Real Monarchs SLC in 2019.

For other league legends, though, the opportunity to play in a USL Championship Final has yet to present itself. Consider 2025 USL Championship Golden Playmaker Aodhan Quinn of Indy Eleven. He’s the league’s current all-time leader in regular season minutes and closing in on Kenardo Forbes for the all-time assists lead but has yet to make a USL Championship Final appearance in his illustrious career.

That makes every postseason an opportunity to be grasped by every club, every player. Here are five veterans who’ve yet to win it all for whom a title would add an extra dimension to an outstanding career.

1. Russell Cicerone, Sacramento Republic FC

Russell Cicerone has become one of the USL Championship’s stars, accumulating more than 100 goal contributions (73 goals, 28 assists) in 240 appearances across the regular season and playoffs. Entering his seventh postseason appearance, however, the 30-year-old has yet to reach a USL Championship Final.

Cicerone has won a Players’ Shield in his career as part of FC Cincinnati’s 2018 squad but got closest to reaching the Championship Final two years ago with Republic FC when he scored the opening goal in the Western Conference Final before Phoenix Rising FC’s late rally. Sacramento’s going to be wanting to send Rodrigo López into the sunset with a second title, but it would be a worthy reward for another of the league’s all-time greats as well.

2. Conor Donovan, North Carolina FC

Having competed for the Capital Area RailHawks as a youngster, Conor Donovan returned home with North Carolina FC for a second time this season. After helping NCFC to success this year, the 29-year-old has logged 244 appearances and more than 20,000 minutes across the USL Championship’s regular season and playoffs but has yet to appear in a USL Championship Final in his career.

The center back went close two seasons ago with former club Sacramento Republic FC, reaching the Western Conference Final, but had the misfortune to be credited with the own goal that sparked Phoenix Rising’s comeback to deny Sacramento a conference title. Hopefully for Donovan and NCFC, that fortune swings in the opposite direction as he looks to lift the first silverware of his career.

3 & 4. Joe Farrell & Jordan Scarlett, Hartford Athletic

There has been plenty of success for Joe Farrell and Jordan Scarlett to enjoy in their respective careers. During his time at Phoenix Rising FC, Farrell won the Western Conference title twice in 2018 and 2020 and the Players’ Shield once in 2019. For Scarlett, there were two Eastern Conference titles in 2020 and 2021 and one Players’ Shield in 2021 with the Tampa Bay Rowdies, while earlier this year, they helped Athletic claim its first piece of silverware in club history, winning the USL Jägermeister Cup.

So far in Farrell and Scarlett’s careers, which span 268 appearances and 208 appearances respectively across the regular season and playoffs, the USL Championship title has eluded them. If Athletic can make a run, it would put both players in the record-books as the first to win a USL Championship Players’ Shield, USL Jägermeister Cup and USL Championship title.

5. Augustine Williams, Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC

There have been few strikers as prolific as Augustine Williams in the USL Championship’s history. The Sierra Leone international ranks second among active players with 87 goals in the regular season and playoffs – trailing only two-time winner Cameron Lancaster of Louisville City – while recording 263 appearances, but Williams has only reached one USL Championship Final previously in his career.

That came, of course, with the Charleston Battery two years ago, while last season he helped Indy Eleven reach the Semifinals of the U.S. Open Cup, recording a team-high three goals during the run. With the Hounds having yet to reach a Final in the USL Championship era despite finishing on top of the East twice, Williams leading his new club to its first league title would put a smile on the face of one of the league’s great goalscorers.