Center back Aaron Long on Tuesday was named the Red Bulls’ fifth captain in their last seven MLS seasons.

The previous four skippers either were traded or left the club after short tenures in that role – Dax McCarty, Sacha Kljestan, Luis Robles and Sean Davis. Davis, last year’s captain, left the club for Nashville SC during the 2021 postseason.

Head coach Gerhard Struber named Long captain.

Long, 29, is the first player in franchise history to sign with Red Bulls II, earn promotion to the senior team and be named captain. The Oak Hills, Calif. native signed with the USL Championship side on March 10, 2016 and earned USL defender of the year that season, while anchoring a Red Bulls II backline and team to the league title.

He was promoted to the first team on Feb. 22, 2017 and has been a mainstay for New York’s and the USMNT’s backline. For the club, he has recorded 135 starts, 140 appearances, 12,041 minutes, nine goals and four assists across all competitions. Long has paced the backline to 48 clean sheets across all competitions (37 MLS regular-season/5 Concacaf Champions League/4 MLS Playoff/2 Lamar Hunt U.S Open Cup) and help lead the Red Bulls to their third Supporters’ Shield in 2018. His eight goals in MLS regular-season play is the most by a defender in franchise history.

For the USMNT, Long earned his first cap on Oct. 17, 2018 in a friendly against Peru. He has anchored the USMNT to 10 shutouts, worn the captain’s armband five times and tallied three goals and two assists in 1,713 minutes.

New York Red Bulls All-Time Captains
1996: Peter Vermes
1997 – 98: Tony Meola
1999 – 2002: Tab Ramos
2003 – 04: Eddie Pope
2005: Youri Djorkaeff/Amado Guevara
2006: Youri Djorkaeff/Amado Guevara/Tony Meola
2007: Claudio Reyna
2008: Claudio Reyna/Juan Pablo Angel
2009 – 10: Juan Pablo Angel
2011 – 14: Thierry Henry
2015 – 16: Dax McCarty
2017: Sacha Kljestan
2018-2019: Luis Robles
2020: Sean Davis
2022: Aaron Long

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.