The Union’s developmental pipeline has, in recent years, been defined by sets of brothers.
The Aaronsons (Brenden and Paxten) have moved from Medford to the first team to Europe. The Sullivans (Cavan and Quinn) have made history by playing together in the way the Aaronsons never did.
Next on the conveyor belt are the Pierre brothers, albeit with a twist. As older brother Nelson Pierre finds his way in the soccer world away from Philadelphia, younger brother Neil Pierre is one of the Union’s most promising Academy products, at the center of Union II’s ongoing playoff run.
Their journeys have diverged as each has reached his late teens. But the 2025 Union season could begin with both players in camp vying for first-team minutes.
That the family has produced one speedy forward and one steely center back seems a product of countless duels at home in Harrisburg.
“A lot of 1-v-1s,” Nelson said recently. “Couple of fights, couple of thrown objects. Yeah, it was fun.”
Nelson was the trailblazer. The forward joined the Union Academy in 2014, in the YSC Academy Class of 2023. The February before graduation, he signed for the first team, the 20th Homegrown in club history.
Nelson’s move to YSC brought change for Neil, who was in fourth grade when the family relocated to Blue Bell.
“I was really happy for him,” Neil said. “He’s achieving his goals. That was his first step. It was like, OK, I’m following in his footsteps. I get to have him as a mentor.”
It hasn’t panned out yet for Nelson. He scored five goals in 20 games (seven starts) in MLS Next Pro in 2022, then four goals and four assists in nearly double the minutes in 2023. With first-team minutes not forthcoming, the Union loaned him to Swedish club Skovde AIK for 2024. That move didn’t work, Pierre limited to 102 minutes in the Swedish Cup and no league appearances.
He was recalled in August and sent to USL’s Charlotte Independence, where he scored once in eight appearances totaling just 89 minutes. Nelson logged 222 minutes of game action for club in a pivotal developmental year ahead of his 20th birthday in March. He did feature prominently for Haiti’s Under-20 team at the CONCACAF U-20 Championships in July. But the bumps in Nelson’s path have been an adjustment for Neil, as well.
“Initially, I was really happy for him because he was going to Europe,” Neil said. “That’s another one of his goals. But now, I’m kind of at home and missing my brother. It’s starting to hit me now that I’m chilling at the house with no one to hang around with. But I’m proud of him.”
In Philly, Neil has continued to blossom. He was part of consecutive Generation adidas Cup U-17 champions for the Union Academy in 2023 and 2024, named to MLS’s Best XI this year. He signed his first pro contract in July 2023 with Union II when he was just 15 and has already played more than 2,400 minutes at that level.
He scored twice in seven games last year and has one assist in 22 games (20 starts) this year. His 1,828 minutes were fifth on Union II, which finished second in the Eastern Conference. He’s gone the distance in both Union II playoff games and is likely to start Saturday when the club welcomes Columbus Crew 2 to Subaru Park for the Eastern Conference final.
Pierre, who turned 17 on Oct. 19 and is 6-foot-5, has played about as much as Olwethu Makhanya, signed last summer by the first team on a U-22 Initiative deal. Pierre is regarded by many at the club as more pro-ready, even at his age.
“You look at Neil and it’s easy to forget he just turned 16 because he towers above everybody,” Union II coach Marlon LeBlanc said. “He’s still very, very young. He’s incredibly talented. He has a profile for a center back, and at such a young age to bring him in and have him experience the success he’s had has been fantastic.”
“If you think back to the very beginning of preseason, when Neil got thrown into the deep end against Flamengo in Fort Lauderdale, he really rose to the occasion,” Jim Curtin said. “He played a really good half against as good a competition as a 16-year-old can see at the time. He did a great job. I think he’s getting better and better each week with Union II.”
LeBlanc calls Pierre “mature beyond his years.” He’s been a staple of youth national teams, with 13 appearances at four levels from U-15 to U-19. Such is his standing within the talent pool that he twice captained the U-16s.
“I was kind of shocked initially, but it was a very happy experience, a good experience,” he said. “I’m happy to still be with them.”
Neil Pierre remains committed to the U.S., though he’s eligible through his parents to follow Nelson to Haiti – “the U.S. is treating me really well and I’m playing with them so, so far so good,” he said. He had an assist in two starts in the October window with the U-19s.
Center back is one of the positions the Union have successfully developed in the past, via Auston Trusty and Mark McKenzie. With a massive regression defensively this season, their 55 goals allowed tying the franchise record on the way to missing the playoffs, the defensive corps needs a refresh at the least.
Neil Pierre could be one of the answers.
“I think Neil fits that mold where, you can’t teach 6-foot-5 and a presence in the back, but also an ability to pass the ball through the lines, to dribble when you have to, to make a hard challenge,” Curtin said. “So he checks a lot of boxes and certainly has a lot of physical attributes too that are appealing.”
