Former Defender AJ Soares Training With Orlando City SC?

According to ESPN's Jeffery Carlisle, former New England Revolution defender AJ Soares is training with Orlando City SC.

Hearing that soon-to-be-out-of-contract D A.J. Soares is training with Orlando. The #NERevs still have his #MLS rights. #OCSC

— Jeff Carlisle (@JeffreyCarlisle) June 18, 2016

Soares left New England after the 2014 season and signed with Viking FK of Norway to an 18-month contract. There were reports from Norway last month that Soares was going to be leaving Viking at the end of the year. Soares' good friend Servando Carrasco plays with OCSC and both attended school and played soccer for the Cal Golden Bears.

Soares started in 32 matches for the Revolution in 2014 as well as five playoff matches New England lost in the MLS Cup Final to LA Galaxy. He appeared in over 100 games in MLS scoring six goals with one assist and made over thirty appearances with Viking FK in Norway since he signed in February of 2015.

The Revolution gave up a lot of MLS commodities when they acquired Kei Kamara from the Columbus Crew via trade earlier this season. The Revs do hold Soares' MLS rights and could recoup some of those assets if Orlando wants to sign the centerback for the rest of 2016. While Soares might not command a first round pick like Michael Parkhurst did when the Revs sent his rights to the Crew a few years ago, New England should be fairly happy with a middle round draft pick and/or various allocation monies.

Soares was a solid center back for the Revolution two years ago and many were sad to see him leave. However, since we don't need a reason to show it, here's the clip of him shoving LA keeper Jaime Penedo down to the ground in the 2014 MLS Cup Final.

GIF: Revs player helps up injured goalte- oh, wait…never mind. pic.twitter.com/Juql3sw0RT

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) December 7, 2014

Best of luck AJ, hope to see you back in MLS soon, even if it's not in New England.