BIOGRAPHY
Franuel "Frankie" Amaya was born on September 26, 2000, in Santa Ana, California. He is a midfielder for Major League Soccer.
Amaya played club soccer for Pateadores SC in Orange County, California. With the club, he helped the team win the region's West Conference and was named the West Conference Best XI. Ahead of the 2018 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, Amaya was listed as a four-star recruit by TopDrawerSoccer.com, and ranked number six overall in the IMG Academy Top 150 for his graduating class. Amaya was also listed by TDS has the number one club player in Southern California, and the number four midfielder nationally.
During the 2018 season, Amaya, made 14 appearances with UCLA, 10 of which were starts. Amaya made his college soccer debut on August 24, 2018 against Coastal Carolina. With UCLA, Amaya scored twice, with his first goal coming on September 22, 2018 against UC Santa Barbara in a 1–3 loss. Amaya tallied two assists on the season with his first coming on August 28, 2018 against UC San Diego, and his second coming on October 13, 2018 against San Diego State. Amaya did not appear for any more matches with UCLA after October 28, as he joined the U.S. under 20s for the 2018 CONCACAF U-20 Championship. At the conclusion of the 2018 Pac-12 Conference men's soccer season, Amaya was honored with Freshman All-American, First Team All-Pac-12, and Second Team All-Far West Region honors.
On January 4, 2019, Amaya signed a Generation adidas contract with Major League Soccer forgoing his final three years of college eligibility. On January 11, 2019, he was drafted first overall in the 2019 MLS SuperDraft by FC Cincinnati.
On July 16, 2020, Amaya scored his first professional goal for FC Cincinnati in the group stage of the MLS is Back Tournament against Atlanta United, in which was the only goal of the game, a 1–0 win for FC Cincinnati.
On April 9, 2021, Amaya was rumored to be traded from FC Cincinnati to the New York Red Bulls. The trade, which was officially confirmed on April 20, was in exchange for $950,000 in general allocation money, with an additional $125,000 of potential allocation money depending on performance incentives. On April 25, 2021, Amaya made his first appearance for New York in a 3–2 loss to Los Angeles Galaxy. On May 8, 2021, he scored his first goal for New York in a 2–0 victory over Toronto FC.
Amaya made his debut with the United States national under-20 team on March 21, 2018, against France. He was also named to the squad for the 2018 CONCACAF U-20 Championship in November 2018.
On November 30, 2020, Amaya was called up by the United States national team for a friendly against El Salvador. On December 1, he was removed from the squad after contracting COVID-19 and was replaced by Andres Perea.
