Soon after Fanendo Adi joined Minnesota United as an assistant coach for its Under-19 academy team in October 2022, the former star striker with the Portland Timbers got into a disagreement with his direct boss.

Adi and U19 head coach Noel Quinn were watching a training session when Adi pointed to precocious midfielder Kage Romanshyn.

“‘That’s a special player,’ ” Adi recalled to the Pioneer Press in October.

“‘No way, you don’t know what you are talking about,’ ” Adi recalled Quinn saying. “I’m like, ‘Yes, out of the whole field, he’s the special one.’ ”

Adi’s view has since been corroborated. The Loons announced Wednesday that Romanshyn, an 18-year-old product of Apple Valley, has signed a two-year MLS NEXT Pro contract through 2025, with a club option for 2026.

Romansyhn has climbed up through MNUFC’s academy ranks, making more than 50 appearances for the U17 and U19 squads from 2021-23. He will continue to be a part of the Loons’ developmental team, MNUFC2, this upcoming season. Last year, he participated in the MLS NEXT All-Star Game in Annapolis, Md., a showcase for academy-level players at MLS clubs.

“It was super exciting,” Romanshyn said about signing his first pro contract last week. “It felt like a lot of the hard work has paid off. But at the same time, this is just the beginning, too. This is where the hard work really starts now.”

That sentiment — here’s the real starting block — has been uttered by MNUFC sporting leaders. The gradual uphill ascent to this point becomes a much steeper grade to bona-fide pro.

And the Loons could really use a homegrown player or academy prospect to truly break through into MLS.

Since 2017, the club has had only three homegrown signings — St. Paul goalkeeper Fred Emmings, Minneapolis forward Patrick Weah and Maplewood left back Devin Padelford.

Padelford, 21, is the closest to becoming a regular, getting 154 minutes of playing time across eight MLS matches last season. He appears to be amid a position battle with Joseph Rosales in preseason training, which is taking place in Tucson, Ariz., for the next week.

Romanshyn, also in Tucson with six other MNUFC2 or academy players, started playing soccer when he was four or five years old. His first team was a Cub Foods-sponsored outfit in Bloomington in the first grade, followed by stints at the Dakota Rev and St. Croix soccer clubs.

His mother Alana Jensen and stepfather Jonny Jensen said Kage stood out on that very first team.

“He just looked like his coordination was more developed than the other kids his age,” Alana Jensen said. “I was like, ‘Dang, he might he might be really good at sports.’ ”

Alana was a standout volleyball player and pole vaulter in high school in Mora, Minn., while Kage’s father Keith Romanshyn, who now lives in Shoreview, was a star quarterback growing up in Massachusetts. Alana and Jonny Jensen are now big into CrossFit workouts and competitions.

“He’s always had the dream to be a part of the team and kind of find his own journey,” Alana Jensen said.

Before Romanshyn was playing with older kids, “he was always thinking two steps ahead of everybody else,” Jonny Jensen said. “When he would play with kids his own age, half the time he was passing the ball where they should have been going and they weren’t able to keep up with his thought process.”

Romanshyn has had a few setbacks, too, including a broken wrist from mountain biking and a femoral hernia that led to weight gain and other side effects. He has since slimmed back down while still on the shorter side of 5 foot 9.

“I think that kind of makes you the athlete you are today, when you go through having to come back from a setback from (a) young age,” Alana Jensen said.

The Jensens credited the help of Loons U17 coach Justin Ferguson for putting an arm around Romanshyn’s shoulder when he needed it.

“He was one of the more important coaches in Kage’s life; (Kage) was going through a hard time,” Jonny Jensen said. “(Ferguson was) really helpful and kept him on the path.”

His birth name is Keith Romanshyn Jr., after his father, but he often goes by Kage, a nickname his mother gave him. Some experienced Loons players have their own spin on it, jokingly calling him “Keith” or “Junior.”

Romanshyn — a name of Ukrainian origin and pronounced Roe-MAN-Shinn — recently graduated high school from an online academy and is forgoing college right now to pursue his pro soccer dream. He has been doing multiple workouts a day for the past six months, sometimes with tailored help of his Crossfit-trained mom.

“I think this season, I really want to develop physically,” Romanshyn said last week. “And honestly just learn, trying to soak in everything from all the pros, especially Wil Trapp and stuff. I think he’s a great role model.”

One idea Adi had for Romanshyn after that first glimpse was to have the 16-year-old rub elbows with Trapp, the Loons’ veteran captain defensive midfielder. Romanshyn fancies himself as a central midfielder or central attacking midfielder.

But what was it exactly that Adi saw in Romanshyn on first sight?

“The touch, the understanding,” Adi explained. “With kids, when you see 16-, 17-year-old players, they will go for the ball. They don’t check their shoulders (for incoming defenders), no matter how good they are. They will just focus on the ball and won’t check what is next for him.

“They can be technically good; Kage was technically good,” Adi continued. “First thing before he got the ball, he checked his shoulder. His move, his touch on the ball; those are a few things I saw. I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah, he’s the one.’ Just his ability.”

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