da premier bet： The ex-soccer player has emerged as a star in the NFL and could be a difference-maker for the league's most discussed team

da aviator aposta： For several years now, Harry Kane has flirted with the idea of swapping football for football. The Bayern Munich star has said many times that, someday, just maybe, he could see himself kicking in the National Football League. What a wild turn of events that would be: seeing one of the best strikers of a generation lining up on Sundays to ply his craft in a whole new world.

Kane, though, wouldn't be the first to make that transition and, if he were to make the move, he almost certainly wouldn't be the best. Brandon Aubrey is already living that dream, having gone from MLS Draft pick to arguably the best kicker in the NFL.

Seven years to the day after being taken by Toronto FC in the MLS Draft, Aubrey finds himself starring in a different sport. His skill with his feet never led him to superstardom in soccer, but that trusty right foot ultimately led him further than he could have believed.

The Dallas Cowboys, the NFL's most famous team, will begin their push toward the Super Bowl on Sunday, and the former soccer player may be their best weapon in their pursuit of long-awaited glory.

The road to Draft day

Every young player dreams of hearing their name called on draft day, and Aubrey is one of the lucky few who had that opportunity. Every young player also dreams of playing for their hometown team. Aubrey is lucky in that regard, too, as he suits up for America's team, the Cowboys. The road there didn't come via the gridiron, but rather the pitch.

Aubrey was one of many players to emerge out of the Dallas area and onto the pro scene. He was no exception, having shone locally as a youth player for Dallas Texans SC, the club that produced the likes of future U.S. men's national team stars Clint Dempsey and Omar Gonzalez. As a high-schooler, he was an award-winner at Plano Senior High before growing into a role at Notre Dame, where he was one of the best defenders in the country entering the MLS Draft.

On a day that saw future USMNT star Miles Robinson go second overall to Atlanta United, Aubrey was selected at No.21 by Toronto FC. And thus started a professional career that no one could have ever predicted.

AdvertisementGettyA 'lonely' career

Those who follow MLS know how the importance of the Draft has dwindled in recent years. With clubs largely focusing on their own academies, few MLS Draft picks ever really make an impact at the senior level and, unfortunately for Aubrey, that was the case with his career at Toronto FC.

“[Toronto] tried to make it easy on me and mentioned that they were going to loan me full-time to the USL [lower-division] side so I could go out and get some experience leading a young core of players coming up through the academy,” Aubrey told MLSSoccer.com. “And I kind of got lost in that transition, where I'm with the first team, I'm in that first team locker room, but I'm out to training with the second team before the first team gets there.

“And then while the first team is training, I'm going through my meetings and getting my food, and then I'm out of there. So it was kind of a weird one, a lonely one, one that I might not have been ready for the challenge of.”

He spent that one season with Toronto FC II before being released from his contract. Ahead of the 2018 season, he was picked up by the Philadelphia Union's second team, Bethlehem Steel, but, after just one season there, he was released yet again.

“I would say I wasn't fully prepared for that first opportunity in MLS, where you get on a superstar team, where you have theMichael Bradley, Jozy Altidore, Sebastian Giovincos that you've been watching your whole life, where you followed it really closely and maybe have that feeling where you might not actually belong,” Aubrey told MLS.

“So that was the biggest test for me, probably a thing I didn't get over quick enough in MLS, and by the time I had gotten over it and started to perform well in practices, the decision had already been made.”

And so, at just 23, Aubrey was at a crossroads, staring down the end of an all-too-brief career as a professional athlete. As it turned out, though, his dreams of being a pro athlete weren't over; he was just playing the wrong sport.

Transitioning to football

In the end, credit goes to Aubrey's wife, Jenn. If not for her, there's no way he'd have gotten this far.

Out of work and doing some real soul searching, Aubrey found himself doing what most Americans do on an average winter Sunday: watching the NFL. That day proved anything but average, though, as, after watching a kicker miss a long field goal, Jenn said words that changed the trajectory of Aubrey's career, and life.

"You could do that".

And so he tried. After getting out onto a field to prove that he could, in fact, place kick, Aubrey began training with kicking coach Brian Egan as he started his transition to football. Off the field, he worked full-time as a software engineer and trained in the mornings and evenings. It began to pay off in 2022 when Aubrey was chosen to be the kicker for the Birmingham Stallions in the USFL, a newly-formed spring football league created to fill the needs of a hungry fanbase desperate for more football once the NFL season ends.

That league largely featured up-and-comers desperate for an NFL chance. Aubrey was one, having taken a 50 percent pay cut from his day job to join the Stallions with the hopes of someday making it to the world's biggest league.

And, after two seasons in the USFL, the call came. Aubrey was going home.

GettyA brief history of the Cowboys

For the uninitiated, the Cowboys occupy a unique space in the NFL. They're the Manchester United of the league: the team that many love, but many, many more hate with every fiber of their being. They're the most valuable NFL team and are known as "America's team".

Like Manchester United, though, the Cowboys are a team desperate for a return to the glory days. They dominated the 90s, led by stars Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith but, in the years since, the team has struggled to recapture the magic. They've made it to eight Super Bowls, but have not reached the big game since 1996.

This season, like many before it, there's hope down in Dallas. After a 12-5 season that saw them finish atop the NFC East, the Cowboys head into the NFL Playoffs among the favorites. In the NFC, the San Francisco 49ers seem the clear frontrunner, but the Cowboys are just behind them among the teams hoping to make a run to this year's Super Bowl.

Led by quarterback Dak Prescot, superstar linebacker Michah Parsons and receiving sensation CeeDee Lamb, the Cowboys have the pieces to make it. However, playoff games are often defined by small margins, which is where their big weapon, Aubrey, fits into the picture.