TRANSFER TRACKER STATUS: Signing
FC Dallas have signed academy product Nolan Norris to a first-team contract in a three-year deal with options for 2026 and 2027, the club announced Wednesday.
The 17-year-old defender becomes the 35th player to sign a homegrown contract for Dallas, tying a league record with Real Salt Lake.
“I'm blessed. Since I joined the academy at the age of 12, this is something I've envisioned since that day,” Norris said in a release. “And for this to come true, it's just a testament to the hard work and all the support my coaches, teammates and everybody that's put into me. And the hard work starts now. So I’m really excited.”
Norris joined the FC Dallas academy at age 12 in 2017, winning the 2018 Dallas Cup and 2019 Bayern Adidas Campus Cup with his academy sides.
The newly-promoted defender currently plays for FC Dallas's U-19 Academy team, but also spent parts of the 2022 season with the club's MLS NEXT Pro affiliate, North Texas SC, where he garnered just over 500 minutes in 10 appearances (five starts).
In addition to his success with the academy, Norris has earned various call ups to United States youth national teams, most recently joining the US U-19 squad that won the Slovenia Nations Cup in September 2022.
The Fort Worth native steps into a storied tradition of FC Dallas academy products to turn pro. Other top players to emerge from the pipeline include Weston McKennie (Juventus), Kellyn Acosta (LAFC) and Jesús Ferreira (FC Dallas) – all of whom made the United States' 26-man roster for the World Cup.
READ MORE: MLS Transfer Tracker presented by Avant
