Minnesota United’s Anthony Markanich isn’t the only one in his family playing pro soccer

Minnesota United defender Anthony Markanich has carved out a role with the Loons since Minnesota traded for him near the end of last summer. He’s the team’s backup left wingback, a position that comes with more potential playing time than other backup roles.

We’ve seen the position’s importance already this year, as Markanich has started four of five games after an injury to starter Joseph Rosales — and it’s still unclear which player will start Saturday night against Real Salt Lake.

Not that competition is anything new for the 25-year-old Markanich. Given that his identical twin brother, Nick, is also a pro soccer player, it’s fair to say that he’s been competing his entire life.

“Oh, we fought over everything,” Anthony said.

The twins have an older sister, Taylor, who also played college soccer — but maybe should have become a referee instead, after the amount of discipline she had to dole out. “When we were growing up, she’d just put us in time out,” Anthony said.

Anthony scored a goal in preseason for the Loons. It might not go on his official record, but it still put him in the lead on the 2025 Markanich family scoresheet, on which Anthony now leads Nick 1-0.

This is likely what Anthony wants to focus on, given that last season, Nick finished the year ahead 30-0.

Nick, the younger of the two by eight minutes, had a breakout season last year for Charleston in the second-division USL Championship. He scored ten more goals than any other player in the league and seven more than anyone else in American men’s professional soccer — enough to earn him a transfer to Europe, to play for CD Castellón in the Spanish second division.

Distance makes things harder for the two, just to keep track of each other’s career. “You have to download a weird app to watch it,” Anthony said of the Spanish second division.

The two are competitive, of course, but like most twins, they’re also tightly knit. They wouldn’t have ended up playing four years together for Northern Illinois if they hadn’t also wanted to stay together.

“As kids, we always wanted to go to different schools,” said Anthony. “But as we grew older … we didn’t want to do that anymore. I don’t see any other way. We couldn’t have done it.”

After four award-filled years at Northern Illinois, both were drafted in the 2022 MLS SuperDraft — Anthony 26th, and Nick 30th overall.

Anthony says he talks to his brother every day, sometimes three times a day, despite them being on different continents. And he points out the silver lining: Castellón doesn’t play during the summer, and the Loons don’t play during the winter, so they can visit each other during the other’s season.

Anthony may be the backup to Rosales with the Loons, but that’s a role that has a built-in vote of confidence. Rosales, who’s been a regular with the Honduras national team, was already set to miss four or five games this year, just due to international soccer.

“We’ve now got someone really pushing Joe [Rosales], really competing with Joe, and someone that I can rely on — but also the players can rely on,” coach Eric Ramsay said of Anthony. “I feel like he’s one of those guys that you get a consistent level of performance from. … He’s pretty quiet off the pitch, but he’s a real competitor on the pitch, and I’m sure when the players see him in the lineup, you know what you’re getting from him.”

Rosales, who quietly was among the best left backs in MLS last year, is always going to be in demand from other teams, too. In trading for Anthony, the Loons have made certain that if an offer they can’t refuse comes in for Rosales, they’re already set.

And if the Loons decide they need a young, left-footed striker who has already scored plenty of goals in the States, well, Anthony has the number of someone they can call.

7:30 p.m., Saturday at Allianz Field

TV; radio: Apple TV+ and MLS Season Pass; 1500-AM

Minnesota (2-1-2) is looking for its first win since March 1. Real Salt Lake (2-3-0) has alternated good wins (2-0 over Seattle, 2-1 on the road at Houston) with bad losses (4-0 to San Jose, 3-1 to expansion San Diego, 1-0 to Dallas after a 23rd-minute red card). Last year, though, they played Minnesota four times and drew all four games, counting the Loons’ two penalty-shootout wins in the playoffs as draws. All-time, the two teams have 11 ties in 19 MLS matchups.