In search of a second chance, Gedion Zelalem returned to America.

Once considered the top teenage prospect in American soccer, Zelalem spent the bulk of his career playing with Arsenal’s development program. He would never make an appearance for its senior team despite touring with the team and being tabbed a reserve in multiple games.

“Obviously the quality of the players in the EPL are magnificent—some of the players there are,” Zelalem told FloFC after Sporting KC’s win over the Montreal Impact. “I always say that [when] I’m not scoring, you can see there’s a lot of quality players.” 

He signed with Sporting Kansas City after recovering from an ACL tear injury that took almost twice as long the normal time period.

“I haven’t played 90 minutes in about two years,” Zelalem said. “I have played about four, five, games in those two years. Not a lot, but happy to be here.” 

It may take even more time before Zelalem will be given the opportunity to play a full 90 with Sporting KC. The club’s roster features veteran midfielders Roger Espinoza and Ilie Sanchez, and recently acquired Kelyn Rowe from the New England Revolution. 

Zelalem made his U.S. debut on loan to Sporting KC’s USL affiliate, the Swope Park Rangers, logging 59 minutes. He was listed as a reserve in Sporting’s win over the Montreal Impact, but wasn’t used as a substitute despite the team holding a 5-0 advantage. 

Sunday, April 7, against FC Cincinnati, Zelalem made his MLS debut in a lineup with just three starters. In 59 minutes, most of the time he played away from the action and only got handful of a passes made to him. Gianluca Busio played on the wing with Sanchez being the team’s primary distributor.

Throughout the match Zelalem seemed cautious of his lengthy injury. He didn’t seem to take as many chances defensively as Sanchez, and Sporting’s offense didn’t take flight until Zelalem was off the field.

“Nothing is really different in that when we recruit players to come into the club, we do it because we think that they have the qualities that fit the way that we play,” Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes said of Zelalem in a press conference. “Short term, it’s going to be seeing where he is fitness-wise and all that then we’ll build him from there.”

Espinoza didn’t play Sunday, but when asked after the match against Montreal, Zelalem still said he felt like the veteran midfielder could be a good mentor to him with Sporting KC. 

“The way he tracks his runners and the way he’s aggressive defensively, I think I can definitely learn from that,” Zelalem said. “He’s a good example I can look up to.” 

Settled in Kansas City, Zelalem drew interest in the club because of the 4-3-3 Vermes likes to play. 

“Soccer over there [in Europe] is like the number one thing, I guess you can compare it to basketball or American football here [in the U.S.],” Zelalem said. “We still have way to go in that aspect, but like I said its growing.”

Zelalem and Sporting KC will play host to Rayados on Thursday in the second leg of the Concacaf semifinals.

Andrew Rosenthal is a sports writer based in the Kansas City area. He studies journalism at the University of Kansas and contributes to the Lawrence Journal-World. Find him on Twitter.