Miles Robinson is back in Orange and Blue for his third season and is locked in for the future after signing a contract extension at the end of the 2025 season. The American defender, who has made 38 appearances with the United States Senior Men’s National Team (in addition to his appearances for Team USA at the Olympic Games), is a Cincinnati man through the 2027 season, with options for 2028.
The Arlington, Massachusetts, native first joined FC Cincinnati ahead of the 2024 season as one of the club's marquee MLS free-agent signings in club history and has fully ingrained himself in both the club's culture and the community.
Serving as captain 25 times since joining the club, Robinson has been challenged too and has embraced a greater leadership role within the team. That growth hasn’t been easy, but he says the change he’s undergone over the last few years with FCC has been significant.
“First and foremost, I'm feeling grateful, I'm feeling honored to be a part of this club,” Miles Robinson said in a sit-down interview ahead of the MLS season with FCCincinnati.com. “I think I've continued to grow, and I think in terms of these last two years, my growth has been exponential.
“Even just mentally. I think I'm becoming more one with myself, who I want to be and who I see myself to be in the future. So I'm feeling pretty confident.”
Robinson’s leadership has extended to the community, where the MLS All-Star says he has fallen in love with the passion and civic pride Cincinnatians display – comparing the energy that The Bailey brings every week to how locals feel about their city away from matchday.
“I think just how dedicated the people are to the city itself,” Robinson shared. “I like that it's very tight knit, people are proud to say this is where I'm from. This is who I am. The people really rep where they're from, and that energizes me to be part of it and make a difference.”
In 2025, Robinson received a commendation from Cincinnati City Hall for his work in the community as a Black History Month honoree and has been an ambassador for “Black Players for Change,” an Independent organization of over 170 players, staff and coaches from MLS with the mission of promoting inclusion across sports. He also founded Miles of Change at the end of 2025, a foundation with the mission of “investing in the next generation of leaders by nurturing talent, amplifying culture and breaking systemic barriers by using arts, athletics and education.”
Already, Robinson and his foundation partnered with the United Way of Cincinnati and helped share information on food insecurity, mental and physical well-being, youth mentorship and emotional wellness education. For Black History Month, he also shared a series of key pieces of literature for young people to further explore Black History, including works by Fredrick Douglas, Gordon Parks, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Maya Angelou, and President Barack Obama.
“I'm grateful to experience this type of growth and want to share what I can,” Robinson said of his time at FC Cincinnati and his desire to impact his community in a more direct way off the field. “Just to be able to represent to the youth that I think they can be very powerful in their own right, I think that's where I draw my inspiration now. With where we stand as a country right now, I would rather put faith in the youth and try to tell them the truth of all aspects that I see. Try to share that those truths can very much change how people see the world.”
As the season has gotten underway, Miles Robinson’s community action has not stopped, but his leadership for The Orange and Blue has been visible on the pitch more often through these first few weeks of the season.
After joining FCC just over two years ago and taking on a captain role more and more since then, Robinson says his growth as a person off the field has been tied to his growth as a player in the locker room. But really, when you combine those two things, there are some real leaps he never expected from himself but also didn’t feel happening along the way and only now can see how far he’s come.
“I think there are some unrecognizable traits, or aspects of myself, that I couldn’t have expected. Whether it be my game, or how I handle myself. But I think overall I'm grateful to experience this type of growth,” Robinson said, wearing a smile suggesting he may not have realized just how much change he had experienced in his time at FCC. “But it's hard to rush growth. I think you have to almost let time take your hand and just let you grow slowly and surely. And I think that's kind of what's happened.”
On the pitch, Robinson says he’s excited for a 2026 season where FC Cincinnati return a lot of talent and can build on a strong, but incomplete 2025 season. He feels one element of this year’s squad that makes them special – and poised for success – is the diversity the team shares, as well as the mindset they are able to unite around.
“You think about all the great players we have on the team, you think about the talent that's coming in to train day in and day out, and obviously that gets me excited just to be out there and compete with the guys,” Robinson said about the start of the 2026 season. “Because overall, I think mostly guys, that's just what they love to do in the first place. They love to compete. They love to train hard. We've got a diverse team, but if we can put all the diversity aside and play as one, so (I think) we're going to have a great season.”
Miles Robinson and The Orange and Blue continue their 2026 season after opening MLS action with a win and advancing to the Round of 16 in the Concacaf Champions Cup. Up next for FC Cincinnati is a face-off with Toronto FC on Sunday Night Soccer on March 8 at 7p.m., followed by the continuation of the Concacaf Champions Cup against Liga MX giant Tigres UANL.
“We want to get better every day,” Miles Robinson said, in closing. “We want to show that we can grow every day. And if we do that, I think the sky's the limit.”
