FC Dallas signed academy forward Benjamin Flowers to a Homegrown contract on Wednesday, and at 15 years and 84 days old he is the youngest player ever to sign a professional deal with the club. The contract runs through 2030-31 with an option for 2031-32.
Flowers is the 49th Homegrown signing in club history. A Longview, Texas, native, he joined the academy in 2021 at age 10 and is eligible to represent either the United States or Mexico internationally.
His path to the first team is already underway. Flowers earned his first call-ups to train with the senior side this year and has played three matches for North Texas SC, the club’s MLS Next Pro team, most recently in a 3-0 win over St. Louis CITY2 that opened Texas Health Mansfield Stadium.
The professional debut came earlier. On March 21 against Houston Dynamo 2, at 14 years, 11 months and seven days, Flowers became the second-youngest player to appear for North Texas SC and the 38th FC Dallas academy player to reach MLS Next Pro.
Club president Dan Hunt framed the signing around the academy’s purpose, calling it a proud day and crediting Flowers’s work and his family’s support for getting him here. Chief soccer officer André Zanotta called it an important milestone while stressing that it is a starting point rather than a destination, and said the club expects to keep developing him in Frisco before the next stage of his career.
The academy résumé behind the deal is already well traveled. Flowers has played the MTU Cup in Germany, Copa Cronos in Guadalajara, the Generation adidas Cup and the Dallas Cup. At the U-15 level for the United States, he scored twice in three appearances this year.
