{"id":12061,"date":"2022-03-22T14:24:26","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T14:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/hartford-athletic-signs-liberian-defender-joel-johnson"},"modified":"2022-03-22T14:54:11","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T14:54:11","slug":"hartford-athletic-signs-liberian-defender-joel-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/hartford-athletic-signs-liberian-defender-joel-johnson","title":{"rendered":"Hartford Athletic signs Liberian defender Joel Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Liberia. <\/strong><\/span>USL Championship side Hartford Athletic have signed defender Joel Johnson ahead of the 2022 season, pending league and federation approval. Johnson is a proven veteran of the USL Championship, as he comes to Hartford after spending an impressive six seasons with former USL Championship club Charlotte Independence.<\/p>\n<p>Dating back to the 2016 season, he played over 12,000 minutes across 146 games for the club. In 2021, he even added three goals to his already notable track record as a defender.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m incredibly excited to start this new chapter with Hartford,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cIt\u2019s been great getting to work with Coach Watling and the guys throughout the preseason. They\u2019ve been incredibly welcoming and I can\u2019t wait to get out on the pitch with them tomorrow against Pittsburgh.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Prior to entering the USL Championship, the Liberia international spent a season with Real Ja\u00e9n of the Spanish Segunda Division B, making 16 appearances and recording 1,267 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving admired Joel in many games against him last season, we made it a priority to make this signing,\u201d said Hartford Athletic head coach Harry Watling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA player with a fantastic skillset &amp; experience at many levels, we see Joel being one of the stalwarts of our side for the 2022 season. He brings us excellent delivery and great defensive play, it\u2019s another signature we are delighted to attain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Born in Spain, Johnson joined Valencia CF\u2019s youth system at an early age and progressed through the ranks, making his professional debut with Valencia B at 17-years-old.<\/p>\n<p>He would go on to make 69 appearances for the Spanish third division side, recording 3,440 minutes from 2009-2012. The club opens the 2022 home schedule on April 2nd at 7 PM against Atlanta United.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\">Liberia<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Liberia. USL Championship side Hartford Athletic have signed defender Joel Johnson ahead of the 2022 season, pending league and federation approval. Johnson is a proven veteran of the USL Championship, as he comes to Hartford after spending an impressive six seasons with former USL Championship club Charlotte Independence. Dating back to the 2016 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":12060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17,16],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-12061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-liberia","tag-liberia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hartford Athletic signs Liberian defender Joel Johnson - Liberia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"USL Championship side Hartford Athletic have signed defender Joel Johnson ahead of the 2022 season, pending league and f ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/hartford-athletic-signs-liberian-defender-joel-johnson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hartford Athletic signs Liberian defender Joel Johnson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"USL Championship side Hartford Athletic have signed defender Joel Johnson ahead of the 2022 season, pending league and f ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/hartford-athletic-signs-liberian-defender-joel-johnson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Liberia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-22T14:24:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-22T14:54:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/img-6239e2f51e1f0.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"901\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/hartford-athletic-signs-liberian-defender-joel-johnson#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/hartford-athletic-signs-liberian-defender-joel-johnson\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Hartford Athletic signs Liberian defender Joel Johnson\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-22T14:24:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-22T14:54:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/hartford-athletic-signs-liberian-defender-joel-johnson\"},\"wordCount\":299,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/hartford-athletic-signs-liberian-defender-joel-johnson#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/img-6239e2f51e1f0.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Liberia\",\"Liberia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/hartford-athletic-signs-liberian-defender-joel-johnson#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/hartford-athletic-signs-liberian-defender-joel-johnson\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/hartford-athletic-signs-liberian-defender-joel-johnson\",\"name\":\"Hartford Athletic signs Liberian defender Joel Johnson - 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