After two-and-a-half seasons with Belgian Pro League side Royal Antwerp F.C., Colorado Springs native Sam Vines is nearing a deal to return to the Colorado Rapids, club sources told The Denver Post.
Over the next 48-72 hours, Vines is expected to fly back to Colorado and complete a medical exam before finalizing the deal, sources said. Upon completion of the deal, Vines will be the third U.S. Men’s National Team player the Rapids have signed in the January transfer window.
The 24-year old left back joined the Rapids Academy at age 13 before signing a Homegrown deal with the club at age 18. Since his MLS debut on Oct. 21, 2018, he’s never looked back.
In MLS, he started 49 of his 53 matches played, tallying two goals and four assists before being transferred to Antwerp early in 2021. His best year in Colorado was 2020, where he scored a goal and assisted three others. That season, he was the only Rapids player to play every single minute.
In February of 2020, Vines became the first Rapids Academy product to start a match for the USMNT in a friendly against Costa Rica, which the U.S. won 1-0. A year later, he became the first Rapids Academy product to be named to the USMNT for a senior international tournament (CONCACAF Gold Cup).
In total, he has nine caps for the national team and has recorded one goal and one assist.
During the 2021 Gold Cup, which the U.S. won, Vines was transferred to Antwerp of the Belgian Pro League. During his tenure there, he appeared in 38 matches, starting 34 of them. He tallied two goals and an assist.
In the 2022-23 season, Vines started all 15 of the matches he played on the way to helping Antwerp win the Belgian Pro League championship. The club’s third-place finish in the regular season earned it a spot in the UEFA Champions League this year.
Due to a clerical error that could not be fixed, Vines was mistakenly left off Antwerp’s Champions League roster, meaning he would miss out on the group stage of the competition. Antwerp’s group included Spanish La Liga’s FC Barcelona, Portuguese Primiera Liga’s FC Porto and Ukrainian Premier League’s Shakhtar Donetsk.
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