Position: Forward
Birthdate: August 8, 2000
Hometown: Paoli, Pennsylvania
Pronunciation: Chris Donovan
Height: 6-foot
Previous Team: Philadelphia Union
Before Louisville City FC: A proven scorer, Donovan has tallied 23 goals in 114 professional appearances across all competitions between the Union and the club’s reserve team, Philadelphia Union II. He has also totaled seven assists.
In 2025, Donovan made 20 regular-season appearances including six starts for the Philadelphia senior team as it won the Supporters’ Shield, awarded to the MLS regular season champion. He also appeared in one of the club’s MLS Cup Playoff games.
Donovan was also a member of the 2022 Philadelphia team that advanced to MLS Cup.
His professional tally includes 18 goals in 35 appearances from 2022 to 2024 for Union II in MLS Next Pro, a third-tier league in the American soccer pyramid. He averaged a goal every 143 minutes at that level, a strike rate that would have ranked sixth among USL Championship players with 10 or more goals in 2025.
In college, Donovan played for the Drexel Dragons of the NCAA Division I Coastal Athletic Association (CAA). He led the team in scoring in each of his last three seasons. As a senior in 2021, Donovan earned the CAA Player of the Year award and a place on the All-CAA First Team. He was also a member of the MAC Hermann Trophy watch list.
He led the team to its best success in a decade, earning appearances in back-to-back CAA Tournaments for the first time since 2012-2013.
Donovan was also named to the All-CAA First Team as a junior in 2020 and sophomore in 2019, and he earned CAA All-Rookie honors as a freshman in 2018. The United Soccer Coaches named him United All-Atlantic First Team as a junior in 2018. In 2022, he won the John Semanik Award, given annually to a male and female senior Drexel athlete who best exemplify scholarship and athletic ideals.
Overall at Drexel, Donovan started 58 of the 60 games in which he appeared, scoring 30 goals and tallying 13 assists. He was the second player in Drexel history to be selected in the MLS SuperDraft and the third to earn an MLS contract.
While in college, Donovan played for West Chester United in 2019, while the club was a member of the National Premier Soccer League, and in 2021 in USL League Two — both are pre-professional collegiate summer leagues.
From Paoli, Pa., Donovan played high school soccer at Conestoga High School, where he led the Pioneers to two state championships. As a senior in 2017, Donovan scored 56 goals en route to First Team All-State and All-American honors. He was Pennsylvania’s Gatorade Player of the Year for boys soccer in 2018.
