If the Houston Dynamo had their wish, Sebastien Ibeagha would be several years into his Dynamo career at this point.
The organization made several bids to sign the former Dynamo Academy defender after he graduated from Hightower High School in 2010 and began his college career at Duke University. As it happened, Ibeagha decided to complete his education at Duke and follow his brother Christian’s footsteps overseas to Europe. After two years in Denmark and Iceland, however, the younger Ibeagha decided it was time to come back to Texas.
“I was ready to come back, be back home,” Ibeagha told reporters after his first training session as a member of the Dynamo first team on Tuesday. “My family wanted me back here. They haven’t seen me play in like six years.”
Ibeagha wanting to come to Houston was only one part of the equation. Nearly all of the first team staff experienced turnover since the time of Ibeagha’s initial contract offerings, so the question remained whether the 6-foot-3 center back fit into Owen Coyle and Matt Jordan’s plans.
Following the end of the Dynamo’s 2015 regular season, Coyle and Jordan invited Ibeagha to Houston for a 10-day training camp to see him first-hand. Coyle also had James Clarkson, the Dynamo’s director of youth development and Ibeagha’s coach during his days with the Academy, on hand to give further insight.
“[The camp was] good for me because I was then able to see up close everything that he has in his locker,” Coyle said. “That was great and obviously to back it up James told me about him as a man. He’s a very nice young man, very humble. That’s the type you like to work with.”
Coyle spoke of the ability to continue bringing Dynamo Academy products into the fold with the first team, noting their familiarity and dedication to the club. On Tuesday alone, six Academy alumni—Ibeagha, Tyler Deric, Memo Rodriguez, Christian Lucatero, Bradley Bourgeois and Charly Flores—were on the training field.
However, the club that Ibeagha left in 2010 is not the same as the one he rejoined on Tuesday. Not only was the technical staff leading the session different, even the grass he ran on the locker he changed in were miles away from just a few years ago.
“Everything is great. It’s moving in the right direction, having your own field, not practicing at the University of Houston,” Ibeagha said. “You have your own stadium, and all that kind of stuff are signs that the organization is going back to where it was when they won two MLS championships.”
Ibeagha joins a large and diverse center back corps, with returning starters (Raúl Rodríguez and David Horst), veteran signings (Jalil Anibaba and Agus), and unproven rookies (Bourgeois and SuperDraft pick Ivan Magalhães). The numbers are deep, but Coyle says the competition is open as the team looks to improve upon their record of 49 goals against from last season.
“We want competition for places,” Coyle said. “Sometimes with injuries or internationals we were probably hurt by players missing. We want to make sure that if there are players missing it is not a huge drop-off. Those competitions for places increase the depth of the roster in terms of quality, it can only help us.
“Sebastien is one of those players I want to push to get into the starting XI. Ultimately that will be up to him, the opportunity will be there. He has an opportunity to play, it will be up to him to take it.”
That opportunity is exactly what brought Ibeagha back to the Bayou City after six years away.
“After playing overseas … looking at my development we just decided this was the best place to come back to. Especially with Owen here and what his ideas are for the future we felt that it would be a good fit, and eventually it would be good for me to be back here and back in the organization.
“Owen and the staff, Matt [Jordan], they have an idea that I believe in, and I feel that idea will take this club very far and that’s something I want to be a part of going forward.“
