Back in December, while collegiate soccer players around the nation tuned into MLSsoccer.com for live coverage of the MLS SuperDraft — similar to the NBA and NFL drafts — awaiting eagerly with their families, junior men’s soccer forward Daniel Ittycheria was driving home peacefully.
“I didn’t really want to watch because I didn’t really want to get my hopes up and then be disappointed,” Ittycheria said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian.
Suddenly, Ittycheria received a text from his agent — it was good news. On that windy afternoon of the 20th, four-time MLS Cup champions D.C. United selected Ittycheria in the second round of the MLS SuperDraft. They called him immediately, followed by a wave of support from his teammates, friends, and family.
“I almost crashed actually,” Ittycheria laughed. “I almost got into a little accident when my phone was blowing up a bit.”
The achievement is not hard to believe when looking at the season Ittycheria, the draft’s 40th overall pick, just had.
Nine goals and an assist, an Ivy League Championship, and the Ivy Tournament Most Outstanding Player are his credentials on paper, but that goes much further when looking at his game. Ittycheria is the complete striker — quick, explosive, dominant in the air, strong, intelligent on and off the ball — yet, he did not expect the call.
“It was always a dream,” he commented. “But I never really thought about it because I honestly didn’t think it was possible.”
Growing up in a predominantly tennis family, Ittycheria strayed, showing a passion for soccer early on. Playing at local club NJ Elite throughout elementary school, Ittycheria made the first big move of his soccer career when he changed schools in sixth grade.
“I went to a new middle school, and I met this friend who was playing for PDA,” Ittycheria said, referring to the Players Development Academy, a top development site for new talents in Jersey that works in conjunction with the MLS.
“At the time his team, which was my age group, was asking for new players. So he told me to, you know, come for practice,” he explained to the ‘Prince.’
After he was offered the spot, the then small Ittycheria did not see any significant game time just yet. In the meantime, he was accepted to The Pingry School, an elite private school a few minutes away from his home where his older brother also attended. Ittycheria also played on Pingry’s varsity soccer team but did not have a breakthrough until the pandemic.
“During COVID, I kind of had a growth spurt,” he recalled. “My freshman year, I was, I want to say, five-five, and then after COVID — my sophomore year going into junior year, I grew up to like six foot, six-one.”
With this change, it was the perfect time for Ittycheria to start taking soccer more seriously. “My sophomore year, I realized that I didn’t really have that much time left playing.”
Set on his sights for Division I soccer, Ittycheria grew physically and improved his skill. After earning a spot on PDA’s U19 MLS Next team, which competes at the highest level nationally, he was flying: 11 goals in his first 10 matches in the MLS Next league, 20 goals and 10 assists as a senior for Pingry, and leading his school to state semifinals during his final year.
Ittycheria finished his high school career with a whopping 32 goals in 33 games and was named an All-American for his performances. His sights turned towards trying to get that Division I offer.
“I was just trying to reach out to schools here and there,” Ittycheria said, eventually communicating with around eight Division I programs. Although he had numerous Division 3 offers, Princeton was the only Division I school that took a chance on him.
“It was kind of self-explanatory to go there,” he added. “I knew I wanted to play Division I.”
College soccer, however, provided a different challenge from high school or MLS Next competition.
“For a lot of players, you know, especially the MLS Next players, who come to college, it’s a lot different,” men’s soccer Head Coach Jim Barlow told the ‘Prince.’ “You get to college, and the game goes 100 miles an hour and never slows down.”
Although he appeared in most matches, Ittycheria only started three games his freshman season, scoring his first ever goal for the Tigers against Virginia Tech on Oct. 18, 2022. He added three more assists and an Ivy League Rookie of the Week award to his debut season, but these stats did not put him anywhere near headlines at the time.
“Yeah, I mean freshman year, I came in, not really fit, didn’t really expect anything,” Ittycheria reflected. “Obviously I wanted to play, but to be honest, probably shouldn’t have played, and didn’t play as much as I wanted to.”
“I think part of it was him getting frustrated with himself or when things didn’t go well, and being able to deal with that adversity in a way that was productive,” Barlow continued. “I think there were times where he was really hard on himself.”
Ittycheria worked on these aspects in the off-season, improving not only his physical attributes but also on his mental strength.
“He’s become more of a leader. He’s become a guy that wants more responsibility and a guy that is able to let adversity roll off of him a little better than he was in his first year.”
And the rest was history. Although Princeton missed out on the Ivy League championship his sophomore year, Ittycheria netted an incredible nine goals in 14 starts for the Tigers in his breakout season.
“I think Danny’s a player who has had crazy development,” junior defensive midfielder Jack Jasinski said in an interview with the ‘Prince.’ “If you look at his development curve, it’s almost like a straight vertical line, like he’s just getting better at such a fast rate. So I think he has huge potential.”
Ittycheria’s sophomore season also included his favorite memory from his Princeton soccer career.
“Probably the goal I scored against Rutgers,” he said when asked about his favorite moment, referring to the 2–1 season opener in the fall of 2023. “I’m a Jersey guy, I know a lot of the Rutgers guys, I know a lot of the coaches pretty well, so I guess I always look forward to that game the most.”
For his performances, Ittycheria was named first-team All-Ivy, but he was mostly ready and looking forward to helping lead the team into the next season.
“We’re coming off a pretty disappointing year as a team, so I know it sounds a little cliché, but being super competitive in practice and pushing each other to be better is going to be super important,” he told the ‘Prince’ leading into the 2024–2025 season.
In his junior season, Ittycheria was the most clutch player for the Tigers, scoring four game winners to help Princeton book a spot in the Ivy League Tournament.
The highlight came in the tournament’s semi-final, where Princeton was down 2–0 to second-seed Cornell in the opening twenty minutes. Ittycheria scored a soaring header to bring the Tigers back into the game, and in overtime, he scored once more over the Cornell defense to win the match for Princeton.
“I had a blast playing and I knew that we would get the win,” Ittycheria had written to the ‘Prince’ following the thrilling upset over Cornell. “We still have one more to go, and we are not satisfied at all.”
In front of MLS scouts, at the most crucial times of the season, Ittycheria performed, following up the Cornell game with another goal against undefeated Penn in the tournament final. The Tigers emerged victorious with an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
“It was a tournament that had stars from Penn, who had already been drafted last year, and a couple players from Cornell who we knew were going to get drafted this year, including the returning Offensive Player of the Year,” Barlow said. “For Danny to shine in that tournament like he did kind of opened some eyes to people in the League.”
The tournament performance, no doubt, helped etch his name into the Eligible Players list, the MLS SuperDraft pool of 477 players from over 150 schools, scouted and selected by MLS teams.
Although Ittycheria was drafted his junior year, unlike the NBA or NFL drafts, the MLS allows players who are drafted but still in college to stay in school for up to two years. Ittycheria has elected to finish his career at Princeton and graduate with a degree in Economics.
“I kind of expected to play at Princeton, and then kind of just ride it out for four years and, you know, be done with it,” he said about his original plans, which included a possible career in consulting or something in sports. “I think it’s my passion, my love.”
That is great news for the Tigers, who are coming off a thrilling Ivy League Tournament Championship title and an NCAA Tournament appearance.
“He’s not an unknown quantity now,” Barlow noted. “It’s a fun challenge for him being a guy that everyone’s aware of now that he had a really good year, and now the target’s on our back and on his back to not let us defend the title or get back to the tournament, and it’s a fun challenge for all of us.”
Ittycheria became only the 11th player in Princeton history to be drafted to the MLS. He’ll join Kevin O’Toole ’22, the only active Princetonian in the MLS, once he makes his debut.
In the meantime, his teammates are ecstatic about his accomplishments.
“He kind of kept it quiet to himself, so only a few guys really knew he was talking to coaches,” junior midfielder Jack Hunt said. “And so I think it caught the whole team a little bit by surprise, and everyone was extremely happy. Obviously, everyone knew he was capable of accomplishing that and getting drafted.”
For now, Ittycheria will get back to normal Princeton junior life, working on his junior paper, dealing with classes, and enjoying competitive ping-pong at University Cottage Club, where he is a member.
However, for the New Jersey kid with only one Division I offer, getting drafted to the MLS is an acknowledgement of hard work, perseverance, and belief in one’s self.
“I think that’s a really cool story, and one of those reminders to never count yourself out, and I think it’s very inspirational and impressive,” Hunt told the ‘Prince.’
Bryant Figueroa is an assistant Sports editor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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