Defender-turned-forward Christian Chaney has had a wild and successful past few months, and he’s looking to carry that form over into the USL.

The 22-year-old, recently signed by Sacramento Republic FC, had signed a professional contract with Armenian club FC Ararat Yerevan in March and trained in Europe for two months before returning to the States and rejoining PDL club Fresno Fuego. Without missing a beat, Chaney scored 13 goals and provided one assist in 12 regular-season games. He earned 2016 PDL All-League Team honors for his accomplishments.

Despite achieving so much in a busy five-month period, Chaney wants more.

“My goals right now are to make an appearance in the next five matches, and hopefully I can show people that I’m capable,” Chaney said. “I’ve heard people say, ‘Chaney’s not ready for the USL. I don’t think he’s ready.’ I’m out to prove everyone wrong yet again.

“I’m training as hard as I can to be on the field this Saturday against the Portland Timbers 2.”

Chaney has not always been the goal-scoring machine he turned out to be during the 2016 PDL season. The new Republic FC signing played as a center back for Fresno City College, but he slowly moved forward over time and never looked back.

Now with a Republic FC side eager to make waves and earn titles as the 2016 regular season comes to a close, Chaney looks back at those experiences playing in defense as educational opportunities.

“I’ve played everywhere from center back to center-mid to center-forward, so that experience is crucial – knowing how a defender would want to defend you, knowing how to move off of a defender,” Chaney said. “As a defender playing against forwards, I watched their movements a lot; I spent a lot of time on YouTube watching top-level forwards like Neymar and Luis Suarez, and sort of play off of that. I know that I have the skill, the ability and the strength and size, so I try to focus more on how and when I can execute.

“I play to my strengths, using my size to control the ball, hold the ball. Playing to my strengths is the reason why I got so many opportunities in front of goal. I didn’t try to stray too far, dribble the whole time or do things that I’m not capable of doing yet. I just played to my strengths – holding the ball, one-two passes, making diagonal runs. Getting in front of defenders for crosses at the near post is one of my best skills in the game, and my team did a very good job finding me, so that helped.”

Republic FC is currently in a three-way tie atop the Western Conference standings alongside Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC and Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2. Cameron Iwasa leads the team in goals with nine, while 12 other players have penciled their names in on the score sheet this year.

Chaney, having trained with the club for two weeks now, hopes to become the 13th Republic FC player to find the score sheet.

“I’m just going to take the rest of the season step-by-step,” Chaney said. “I try not to worry too much about where I’m going to be after this season or if I’m going to play for the rest of the season. I go day-by-day, train hard every day, put in the work that I can while I’m here. I just try to live in the moment in savor it because there’s thousands of players who would love to be in this situation, and a lot of people take it for granted, so I’m just trying to stay on this train as long as I can and push myself.”