This is a list of first-round draft picks made by D.C. United of Major League Soccer. D.C. United were an original MLS franchise, joining the league in its inaugural 1996 season.

Every year during January, each MLS franchise seeks to add new players to its roster through a collegiate draft known as the "Major League Soccer SuperDraft" which is more commonly known as the MLS Draft. Teams are ranked in inverse order based on the previous season's record, with the worst record picking first, and the second worst picking second and so on. The exception is teams that qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs, as teams that reach further levels in the playoffs receive a later selection in the draft, with the tiebreaker being regular season record. The MLS Cup champion picks last in the draft, while the MLS Cup runner-up picks second-to-last. Clubs have the option of trading away their picks to other teams for different picks, players, allocation money, or a combination thereof. Thus, it is not uncommon for a team's actual draft pick to differ from their assigned draft pick, or for a team to have extra or no draft picks in any round due to these trades.

United have selected number one overall four times: Freddy Adu, Alecko Eskandarian, Jason Moore, and Nikola Markovic. D.C. United's first selection as an MLS team was Raúl Díaz Arce, a Salvadoran international striker who previously played for Firpo of the Primera División de Fútbol de El Salvador. The team's most-recent first-round selection was Richie Aman, an attacking midfielder from Washington.

Player selections

GK Goalkeeper DF Defender MF Midfielder FW Forward

Selected number one overall Enshrined in the National Soccer Hall of Fame Draft Player name Position College Notes Year Pick Original Allocations 1996 IP 10 Raúl Díaz Arce FW 1996 IA 4 Jeff Agoos DF Virginia 14 Jaime Moreno FW 24 John Harkes MF Virginia 34 Juan Berthy Suárez MF College Draft Era 1996 2 Eddie Pope DF North Carolina 1997 10 Danny Care DF Clemson 1998 No first-round draft pick 1999 1 Jason Moore MF Virginia SuperDraft Era 2000 12 Bobby Convey MF Project-40 2001 3 Mark Lisi MF Clemson 4 Ryan Nelsen MF Stanford 8 Santino Quaranta MF Project-40 2002 8 Justin Mapp MF Project-40 11 Daouda Kanté DF FIU 2003 1 Alecko Eskandarian FW Virginia 5 David Stokes DF North Carolina 2004 1 Freddy Adu MF IMG Soccer Academy 2005 No first-round draft pick 2006 7 Justin Moose MF Wake Forest 2007 11 Bryan Arguez MF IMG Soccer Academy 2008 No first-round draft pick 2009 6 Rodney Wallace DF Maryland 7 Chris Pontius FW UC Santa Barbara 2010 No first-round draft pick 2011 3 Perry Kitchen MF Akron 2012 6 Nick DeLeon MF Louisville 2013 17 Taylor Kemp DF Maryland 2014 2 Steve Birnbaum DF California 2015 17 Miguel Aguilar FW San Francisco 2016 11 Julian Büscher MF Syracuse 2017 12 Chris Odoi-Atsem DF Maryland 2018 No first-round draft pick 2019 14Akeem WardDFCreighton 2020 21Simon LefebvreGKTemple 2021 4 Kimarni Smith FW Clemson 5 Michael DeShields DF Wake Forest 2022 No first-round draft pick 2023 2024 7 Jacob Murrell FW Georgetown 2025 15 Hakim Karamoko FW NC State 2026 1 Nikola Marković DF NC State 8 Richie Aman FW Washington

References General References

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