With numerous big names off the board early in free agency and the transfer market, the holiday period hardly saw a slow down across the USL Championship as clubs continued to build toward the 2026 season, even with another high-impact transfer landing this week we’ve talked about here. At the same time, there were notable names added – and in one case, re-signed – over the past 11 days that could make an impact this season. 

Here are 11 that have occurred since our first roundup of the offseason which should have your attention as the new year approaches. 

11. Lexington SC signs goalkeeper Oliver Semmle 

As part of the overhaul that has brought numerous big names to Lexington SC, the club announced on Tuesday the arrival of Oliver Semmle as a free agent signing to join Logan Ketterer and Brooks Thompson as its third shot-stopper in the squad. After both Ketterer and Thompson logged sub-60 percent save percentages in the 2025 campaign – at least partly accounting for the disparity between LSC’s Expected Goals Against mark (37.51xGA) and goals conceded mark (42) – it certainly makes sense to add to the competition. 

Semmle was certainly solid enough while on loan at North Carolina FC last season as his time with the Philadelphia Union wound down. The 27-year-old recorded five shutouts in 11 appearances across the regular season and playoffs and basically broke even in his Goals Prevented mark, allowing 15 goals on 15.06 Expected Goals on Target while putting up a save percentage of 68.1%, an improvement on his time in 2023 with Louisville City. If Lexington is going to go where it’s aiming this season, though, adequate goalkeeping may not be enough. Whether it’s Semmle or one of the returning pair, someone’s going to have to step forward and shine.

10. Miami FC signs defender Arthur Rogers 

As tremendous as FC Tulsa’s rise was this year, there will be a sense of what could have been if Arthur Rogers had been able to stay fully fit across his two seasons with the club. The English full back logged five assists and 26 chances created in 2,150 minutes in the Championship over the past two seasons but was unfortunately a contributor to the club’s broadcasts more often than anyone would have liked to hear, as entertaining as it was, as injuries hampered his time in Oklahoma. 

In heading to Miami, Rogers will aim to reset and help a club that made progress in Head Coach Gaston Maddoni’s first year in charge, and that could use the 29-year-old’s quality on the flanks. You shouldn’t need reminding that Rogers’ prior two seasons in USL League One at Northern Colorado Hailstorm saw him log 20 assists and 172 chances created in 58 appearances in League One – an average of 2.7 chances created per 90 minutes – to claim Defender of the Year honors in consecutive seasons. Offering that sort of service consistently could help Miami take another step forward.

9. Sporting Club Jacksonville signs Edgardo Rito 

When Edgardo Rito landed in Oakland in 2022, he delivered a breakout year that fulfilled the promise of the rapid right-sided wingback we’d first seen with New York Red Bulls II three years earlier. The Venezuelan logged five goals and seven assists while earning All-League First Team honors, part of what was to this point the most entertaining Roots side we’ve seen in the Championship. 

Since then, it’s been a question of Rito trying to recapture the magic of that season. After a mid-season transfer to Hartford Athletic in 2023 – after which he logged two assists in 19 appearances – to his campaign with Phoenix Rising in 2024 which saw him dribbled past (12) almost as often as he beat a defender one-on-one (13), the 29-year-old has arrived to be part of Sporting Jacksonville’s inaugural USL Championship season.  

There’s still the potential for Rito to come good here, more likely in a role with fewer defensive responsibilities. The question will be whether he can find the form of 2022, a season that at this point makes up for more than half his goal contributions in the league overall.

8. Monterey Bay FC acquires Wesley Leggett from Charleston Battery

Wesley Leggett’s acquisition by the Charleston Battery late in the regular season felt like a good fit at the time it happened, but the forward never seemed to find his feet in the Lowcountry as he logged only 108 minutes across four appearances in the regular season and playoffs. Even with the Battery’s attacking departures this offseason, when Monterey Bay came calling the Battery were happy to listen and made the deal to send the 24-year-old out West. 

For Leggett, this will be a chance to find a way forward from his career-best 2024 in which he logged eight goals and two assists before taking a step back as United stepped forward overall this year. His numbers in the Championship are solid – Leggett has scored 13 goals in 3,641 minutes overall while putting up a 61.4% shooting accuracy rate and 18.6% shot conversion rate. As Monterey Bay looks for more production in the final third, we’ll see what the New Jersey native can do.  

7. New Mexico United signs Justin Rennicks

If you have a very long memory, you might recall the dramatic winner Justin Rennicks scored for the United States U-20s against France at the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland. He was teammates at that point with the likes of Tim Weah, Sergiño Dest, Chris Richards and Mark McKenzie, all of whom have gone on to become part of the senior national team. 

As can happen, though, that wasn’t the path for Rennicks, who after playing for the New England Revolution as a Homegrown signing – logging two goals in 1,310 minutes in Major League Soccer – headed to play the past two seasons in Finland’s top flight at AC Oulu. He bagged 10 goals and three assists in league play for a side that has typically sat in the lower half of the standings since its promotion for the 2021 season, a solid return.

The question now will be whether Rennicks’ return to the USL Championship after a loan stint with North Carolina FC in 2019 will more resemble that of Detroit City’s Darren Smith – who bagged double-digit goals this past season for Le Rouge – or former Monterey Bay FC striker Adam Larsson, who is now back in Scandinavia with Danish second-tier club  Hvidovre, with those two each having brought solid resumes with them from Finland previously. 

6. Tampa Bay Rowdies sign Yanis Leerman

When you think about the key figures in Loudoun United’s first trip to the USL Championship Playoffs, some names will definitely come to mind, like 2025 USL-C Young Player of the Year Abdellatif Aboukoura or veteran Florian Valot. One that might not, but certainly should, is center back Yanis Leerman, who put in a stellar campaign on the back line while recording a team-high 120 clearances and 21 blocked shots in 1,922 minutes across the regular season and playoffs.  

The 27-year-old graded out third on the club with a +4.71 Goals Added mark – which also placed him in the top six among center backs in American Soccer Analysis’ database – as his ability to disrupt opponents and distribute out of the back for United helped the side to its most successful season. As he heads to what could end up a bigger spotlight for the Rowdies this offseason, that level of solidity is likely to be a key part of the club’s rebuild after the departures of Aaron Guillen, Forrest Lasso and Roberto Castellanos.  

5. Oakland Roots SC signs defender David Garcia 

Pound-for-pound, there haven’t been many more consistent players in USL League One over the past three seasons than David Garcia. Across three different stops – most recently earning All-League First Team honors with Spokane Velocity FC while helping the side reach the League One Final – he’s graded in the Top 10 in Goals Added above Average among outfield players per American Soccer Analysis, sitting as the third-best center back in the league behind Nick Spielman and this year’s Defender of the Year Jordan Skelton at +4.69 rating since the start of 2023. 

With little left to prove at that level, it made this the perfect time to step into the USL Championship for the 25-year-old Spaniard, who won the League One title in 2023 with North Carolina FC and the USL Cup with Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC in 2024 before heading to the Pacific Northwest this year. A solid distributor who also won 64.3 percent of duels and 69.7 percent of aerial duels this past League One season, Garcia should be a good fit for what new Roots Head Coach Ryan Martin is aiming to implement in Oakland.  

4. Las Vegas Lights FC signs winger Ben Mines

It’s a little bit wild to think that 25-year-old Ben Mines just completed his 10th season in the professional ranks, having first seen action for the 2016 USL Championship title-winning New York Red Bulls II as a 16-year-old, but he heads to Las Vegas after a career year at Loudoun United that helped spark its first trip to the playoffs. Mines was used primarily off the bench for Loudoun, logging only 1,048 minutes across 27 appearances in the regular season and playoffs, but recorded three goals and seven assists to help deliver key late-game moments.  

Now we’ll see how he fits into Lights Head Coach Devin Rensing’s rebuild of the roster in Las Vegas. There’s a chance Mines could step into the right wing slot should the side look to employ either a three-player front line or a 4-2-3-1 system that proved effective at Rensing’s last stop in Charleston. Mines might not be the one-on-one player others might be – he completed only six dribbles at a 28.6 percent success rate for Loudoun last season – but his ability to stretch the field and make incisive passes could see him make a positive impact for his new club.

3. Birmingham Legion FC re-signs Sebastian Saucedo

For the most-part, these stories are going to feature players arriving at new clubs this offseason. Given the frustrating nature of Sebastian Saucedo’s time since signing with Birmingham Legion FC in June – where he logged only 68 minutes and five appearances in the USL Championship while hampered with injury – the start of the new year offers a clean slate for the former United States U-23 international, who at 28 years old still could have plenty to offer his new club. 

Saucedo previously played for current Legion Head Coach Mark Briggs at the start of his career, recording five goals and two assists on loan with Real Monarchs SLC across 448 minutes in the 2017 and 2018 seasons before ascending to Real Salt Lake and more recently five-and-a-half years during which he competed for Pumas UNAM, Toluca and FC Juarez in Liga MX. The creativity he can bring to the final third may be key to pulling Legion forward after recording only 36 goals in 30 games last season. If he’s back to full fitness, Saucedo will be one to watch.

2. Miami FC signs goalkeeper Eloy Room

Since Eloy Room’s time at Columbus Crew came to an end midway through the 2023 season, at first glance it might not seem like things had gone great in the intervening year-and-a-half. Returning to the Eredivisie with Vitesse Arnhem, he recorded 150 saves but got tagged with 74 goals in 34 appearances for a 2.18 goals-against average as the side suffered relegation. He then served as a back-up at Cercle Brugge over the first half of this campaign, failing to record an appearance. 

What the 36-year-old’s underlying numbers showed, though, was Room was hardly the problem at Vitesse. Over the campaign, he posted only a +2.6 Goals Prevented mark, while for Curaçao he remained one of the key figures in its run to claiming a first trip to the FIFA World Cup this summer. In 11 WCQ appearances, Room recorded more shutouts (6) than goals (5), posting a save percentage of 85.7% and a Goals Prevented mark of -0.96. For a Miami side in need of an upgrade between the sticks this season, the veteran certainly seems to fit the bill.

1. Detroit City FC acquires Maxi Rodriguez from Rhode Island FC

By the numbers, Maxi Rodriguez’s campaign with Rhode Island FC was a solid one after signing as a free agent with the club this time last year. The 30-year-old bagged six goals and four assists in 2,203 minutes across the USL Championship and USL Cup, helping the side reach the Semifinals in the latter competition with two goals and two assists, but by the end of the season it felt like Rodriguez had fallen out of favor, starting only two of his final 10 appearances in the Championship. 

All of that taken into account, a return to Detroit City FC – where Rodriguez became a cult hero as the club moved up the professional ranks before taking 2024 USL Championship All-League First Team honors with 10 goals and five assists – makes all the sense in the world. For a Detroit side that lacked secondary scoring after Darren Smith following Ben Morris’ midseason injury to finish with only 33 goals in the regular season, Rodriguez’s qualities reunited with Head Coach Danny Dichio’s system should help Le Rouge push on this year.