Mike Grella was one of those players that Leeds United took a chance on when he initially came on trial with the Whites. The then 21-year-old United States youth international scored a hat-trick of goals in a reserve fixture against Barnsley, prompting the club to initially offer him a half-season contract.
At the time, reserve-team manager Neil Thompson said on the club website, as quoted in the linked article above, “That’s all you can do as a striker. He was tidy around the ball and his finishing was good. He’s still a young lad. He’s showed a good attitude in training, but strikers are there to score goals and he did that.” After a successful trial, the club offered Grella a full deal, signing the Glen Cove native to a three-year deal midway through August 2009.
It just didn’t work out for him at Elland Road, with loan deals to first Carlisle (three goals) and then Swindon (one goal) complementing his 42 (33 from substitutes bench) appearances for Leeds United, scoring five goals. Come August 2011 and it was clear that the skillful, yet considered inconsistent forward’s career was not to be at Leeds United and the club allowed him to join Brentford on an emergency loan, before announcing that his contract had been cancelled ‘by mutual consent’ on August 31 2011 via an article on the club website.
https://twitter.com/WALMOT33/status/753442484676624384
Grella then bounced around clubs leaving Brentford for Bury, Bury for Scunthorpe who released him on a ‘mutually agreed’ basis, as the 2013 summer transfer window started up. A half-season in Danish football with Viborg FF saw him make five appearances in Danish football before moving back Stateside and taking up with NASL Fall Championship side Carolina RailHawks FC in April 2014. By December of that year he was an unattatched player before he hit the motherlode.
On February 18, the once promising US Youth international was picked up by MSL side New York Red Bulls and has never looked back. Last season, the 2015 MLS season, Grella made 40 total appearances for the Red Bulls and showed his wings scoring 10 goals and providing 8 assists. Part of these 10 goals was the following (below), timed at 7 seconds from kick-off and the fastest in MLS history.
Grella has gone on from last season to notch a further six goals and three assists in 19 MLS games this season as the now 29-year-old continues to pay back the faith the New York Red Bulls showed in him when picking him up last season.
