Knoxville Rolls Out First New Signings of 2025
A striker from Pittsburgh Riverhounds, defender from the Jamaican Premier League
Image credit Pittsburgh Riverhounds
Knoxville’s squad reported for preseason this morning, which brought the announcement of two new players joining in 2025: Babacar Diene and Jaheim Brown.
Diene is a 28 year old striker who spent the 2024 season with USL Championship side Pittsburgh Riverhounds, making four starts in 23 appearances, with a goal and two assists.
Originally from Thies, Senegal, Diene played for Rider University and FC Motown prior to signing with Pittsburgh. With Rider, he scored 13 goals en route to winning the MAAC title in 2023. Diene also won the 2022 NPSL championship with FC Motown.
“Babacar is a talented, hardworking center forward that is highly motivated to score goals,” said One Knox head coach Ian Fuller in a team press release, “he's got the right mentality and work-rate for that position. We're itching to work with Babacar to get him scoring goals and contributing in attacking areas.”
He’ll join a front line in need of support after the team scored the fewest goals in regular season play last year. Striker Kempes Tekiela scored 12 across all league competitions, and was joined late in the season by Stavros Zarokostas, who added two goals in his ten appearances. Both return for 2025.
Brown is a young right back who made 17 appearances for Jamaican Premier League club Waterhouse FC in the 2024-2025 season. He’ll add depth to one of the strongest defensive corps in the league, one that gave up the fewest goals in 2024.
“I'm extremely excited for Jaheim to join us from Waterhouse in Jamaica,” said Fuller, “he’s an extremely talented and energetic full-back with an incredibly high ceiling.”
He continued, “Jaheim's abilities on both sides of the ball are massive.”
In 2024, One Knoxville finished fifth in the table, falling to Greenville in the opening round of the playoffs. They’ll start this season on a four match roadtrip, at Spokane, Texoma, Greenville and Naples before returning home to host FC Tulsa in Jägermeister Cup action. That will also be the team’s season debut at the brand new Covenant Health Park, just outside of Old City Knoxville.