Gentile and Francois turn pro

• by Soccer America , Jan 22, 2014

[MLS 2014 COUNTDOWN] Giuseppe Gentile, the 2011 Soccer America Freshman of the Year at Charlotte, and Christiano Francois, who redshirted at Maryland in 2013, have left college and signed MLS contracts, making them available for a Waiver Draft.

UPDATE: Gentile was taken by Chicago, while Francois went to D.C. United.

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Gentile, who moved to North Carolina from Switzerland in high school, scored 27 goals in three seasons with the Eagles.

Francois, who has played with the Haiti under-17 national team, is a product of St. Benedict's Prep in New Jersey that produced Tab Ramos, Claudio Reyna and Gregg Berhalter, among others. He scored five goals in his freshman year at Maryland but was academically ineligible in 2003.

Neither player signed Generation adidas contracts.

CHIVAS USA LANDS KIWI. Tony Lochhead doesn't exactly fit the mold of the kind of player Chivas USA had in mind when it relaunched its Mexican push in 2013, but the 32-year-old defender has signed with the club.

He is no stranger to Southern California, having starred at UC Santa Barbara. He later played in MLS for the New England Revolution before returning home to play for Wellington Phoenix in Australia’s A-League.

He was a member of New Zealand's 2010 World Cup team.