Montreal Impact winger Dominic Oduro is the most-traded active player in MLS, having been dealt six times in his career and playing for seven different teams. The 31-year-old opened up to FourFourTwo magazine's Scott French about what it’s like to move around so much and which are his favorite and least favorite cities (so far).
“The first trade was very devastating,” he said, recalling his 2009 move from FC Dallas to the New York Red Bulls. “I got the call, and I didn't know what it was going to be like. I thought the team loved me, so in my mind, I thought maybe I was going to stay in Dallas forever. But you learn. You get a new coach who wants his own players, he wants his own system, you don't fit into his system, so you've just got to find a new home.”
Nowadays, Oduro said, he’s used to moving around. He’s single, and he’s learned to always rent, never buy. And when he gets the call, he doesn’t take it personally.
“They try as much as possible to smooth it out for you personally,’’ he said. “But for me, once that call comes and they say you're traded, I don't need any other information... Sometimes they try to explain it, but with me, I just get it. I'm like, 'Listen, I'm good. Let's move on.'”
Oduro came from Ghana at 19 to play college soccer at Virginia Commonwealth, and played his first three professional seasons with Dallas. His second stop, with the Red Bulls, lasted only a few weeks before he was traded to the Houston Dynamo.
“It was so funny. I was staying in a hotel the whole time in New York, and after preseason, I found an apartment,’’ he remembered. “And one week after the first game, I signed a lease. Then the following week, I got traded.
“The truck had literally just come and moved all my stuff into that apartment, and then the following week I had another truck coming to move it all out.’’
From Houston, he was traded to the Chicago Fire; then to Columbus Crew SC; then to Toronto FC and most recently, to Montreal. So how do you adjust to a new city and a new team, he was asked?
“You don't,’’ he said. “You just have to buy into it, you know? That's how it is. That saying: You go to Rome, you do as the Romans do? That's exactly what you've got to do. You just have to find a way to fit in.’’
To see which cities are his favorites (and his least favorite), which barbershops are best at shaping his ever-changing hairstyles and many more reflections from one of MLS' most well-traveled players, be sure to check out the full interview in FourFourTwo.
