Fort Wayne Football Club has added goalkeeper Marc Bonnaire to the roster in advance of Saturday’s 2 p.m. match at the Charlotte Independence.
Bonnaire joined the club on a 25-day contract as an emergency replacement for Aurie Echevarría, who is with Puerto Rico’s National Team for the CONCACAF Nations League matches and will be away at least through Oct. 5.
“I’m very excited to be joining Fort Wayne FC,” Bonnaire said. “Thank you to the club and staff for the opportunity. I am looking forward to helping the team in any way I can.”
The addition of Bonnaire, 24, is pending league and federation approval.
“We are excited to welcome Marc Bonnaire to Fort Wayne while Aurie is with the National Team,” Fort Wayne FC head coach Mike Avery said. “It is a very important time for the club with the end-of-the-season stretch and a push towards playoff qualification, and it is critical we have all our bases covered heading into October.
“Marc is a talented goalkeeper who had a good career at a top college program in West Virginia University, and he is coming off a strong USL League Two season with the Laredo Heat. Marc is ready for this opportunity, and we are grateful this all worked out for him to join us.”
Bonnaire, who hails from Warrenton, Virginia, appeared in 45 matches for West Virginia between 2022 and 2025, compiling a 28-6-10 record with 18 shutouts, a 1.13 goals-against average and a .648 save percentage.
In 2025, he was 13-4-3 with eight shutouts and a career-best save percentage of .667, a season after he was selected to the United Soccer Coaches All-Southeast Region Second Team. The Mountaineers won the conference championship in 2024 and reached the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament in 2023.
During this summer, Bonnaire helped Laredo reach the playoff semifinals in USL League Two, the pre-professional tier in which Fort Wayne FC competed from 2021 to 2025. The Heat lost to eventual-champion Vermont Green FC.
Fort Wayne FC (10-9-7) faces the Charlotte Independence (17-5-5) at 2 p.m. Saturday in Charlotte, North Carolina. Bernd Schipmann and Bonnaire will be the goalkeepers on the roster for the Autumn Gold & Black.
Puerto Rico, meanwhile, has remaining Nations League matches Sunday against Dominica and Oct. 1 and 4 against Cayman Islands. Echevarría has been named to Puerto Rico’s senior roster four times in his career.
About Fort Wayne Football Club
Fort Wayne Football Club, founded in 2019, is a professional soccer club playing its first season in USL League One in 2026. The club plays home matches at Ruoff Mortgage Stadium, which opened May 2, 2026, and is a soccer-specific venue. In pre-professional USL League Two, Fort Wayne Football Club won division titles in 2023, 2024 and 2025. For more information, visit FortWayneFC.com.
About United Soccer League
Founded in 1986, the United Soccer League (USL) is the largest and fastest-growing soccer organization in the United States, impacting more than 200 communities nationwide. The USL is the first and only organization to offer a comprehensive youth-to-professional pathway for both men and women under one ecosystem. This structure includes four men’s leagues: the newly announced, top-tier professional Division I league, the USL Championship (Division II), USL League One (Division III), and USL League Two (pre-professional). The women’s pathway includes the top-tier USL Super League (Division I), which debuted in 2024, and USL W League, the country’s leading pre-professional women’s league. The USL also oversees USL Academy, a progressive talent development platform, and USL Youth, a premier national youth platform.