From Burger King to Preseason With Almirón: Enzo Dovlo's Whirlwind Rise
A few years ago, Enzo Dovlo was working the counter at a Burger King in France. He is careful about the timeline when he tells it, because even he seems to need a second to do the math. This year, he was running through a preseason session alongside Miguel Almirón. This week, he sat down with Madison Crews to talk about his journey.
"I know I'm from afar," Dovlo said. "Two years after, I did the preseason with Miguel Almirón, a player like that. It's just incredible."
That is the shorthand version of how Enzo Dovlo got here. The longer version starts in France, runs through a college campus in Greensboro, North Carolina, and lands, for now, as a wing back on the right flank for Atlanta United 2, in a role he is still learning on the fly.
A Decision to Leave France
Dovlo's path to American soccer did not start as a backup plan. It started as a decision.
"I think it was a time for me in France where I stopped school," Dovlo said. "I wanted to play at a good level of soccer, and at the same time have the opportunity to study. So to come here, it was the best opportunity, because I could play at a good level and at the same time get a degree for my future."
That calculation led him to UNC Greensboro, the program he played for before Atlanta United drafted him. In three seasons with the Spartans, he played 56 games, all starts, and broke out in his last campaign in 2025 with ten goals and eight assists.
Learning to Live Alone
The soccer part of the adjustment turned out to be the easier one.
"I think I really improved as a man before I improved as a soccer player, because I learned to live by myself," Dovlo said. "It was the first time for me living alone, away from my parents."
Chris Rich, his college coach, became the first person to help fill that gap. "He was like a dad, my American dad," Dovlo said. "All the time, I was a little bit sad because I missed my friends. He gave me energy to keep pushing, to keep going."
His teammates carried the rest of it, at a moment when his English was still catching up to the speed of a Division I locker room. "My teammates were great with me, because my English was not good, and they were so nice about that," he said. "They spoke slowly to make sure I understood everything. It was really, really nice."
The Speed of Playoff Soccer
SDH's history with Dovlo actually predates his Atlanta United crest. I did play-by-play on two of Dovlo's SoCon tournament matches last fall, and Madison Crews had the call when Furman beat the Spartans for the championship. UNCG went on to reach the Round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament before falling to NC State. Watching him then explains some of what shows up now.
"Everything is really fast," Dovlo said of college playoff soccer. "You have school, you have your class, you have the exam, and at the same time you play maybe two times in the week. If you lose one game, you can get out of the ranking. After you win, you can go in. So everything is really fast, and I like that. I like it because the time is not boring."
He is matter-of-fact about what it demanded of him. "You have to be strong in the head, to support the pressure and everything," he said. "But when you have the mentality for that, it's a great experience."
Ask him who he studied growing up and the answer runs through two very different eras of the position he plays. He named Ángel Di María as a player he watched closely as a kid for how he carried the ball and how he struck it. Among today's players, Lamine Yamal is someone he admires for the way he takes people on.
A New Adventure
The Burger King line is the one Dovlo reaches for when he talks about being drafted. It is not false modesty. He genuinely seems to still be catching up to his own timeline, and the pride in it is plain.
But the pride came with a second, quieter thought attached. "In the same time, I was just like, okay, that's a new adventure for me," he said. "So I have to keep pushing, keep working, to keep this dream and not fall down, you know?"
Freedom Under Jose Silva
Jose Silva took over as Atlanta United 2's head coach on a permanent basis ahead of this season, and Dovlo talks about him the way a player talks about a coach who has actually changed how he sees the game.
"Jose is a really coach that I like, because he gives a lot of freedom to the players," Dovlo said. "He's strict, he pushes every day, but at the same time you feel comfortable when you're on the field. Especially for a player like me: dribble, take a risk. I really like having a coach like that."
The relationship extends past the touchline. "From the first day, he was really nice with me," Dovlo said. "Other times, I feel like I can talk to him. He's really open."
From Winger to Wing Back
At UNC Greensboro, Dovlo was an attacker, full stop. This season with the 2's, Silva has pushed him into a wing back role, which meant relearning half the job.
"At the beginning, to be honest, it was not easy, because I was formed at UNCG in a totally different way," Dovlo said. "I had just been focused on the offensive aspect. But here, I changed. I started to play wing back, and I had to defend more. I was just like, okay, I'll improve like that."
He has made peace with the trade-off. "In football now, you have to be good at both aspects," he said. "So it's good for me, and I'm happy the coach, Jose, put me in this position."
That freedom Silva talks about shows up most clearly in how Dovlo describes the attacking group in front of him, built around Cameron Dunbar and Arif Kovac. "We have really good compatibility between me, Arif and Cameron, because we're such different players," Dovlo said. Dunbar, in his description, plays a deeper, more creative role; Kovac is the more direct striker, a finisher in front of goal; Dovlo is the wide player looking to win his one-versus-one matchups. "That took some time," he said, "but now I know how Cameron moves, how Arif moves. We train every day with the guys, and I think we have a really good relationship on the field. We just love how we interlock, everywhere. That's helped."
The Debut
It was not the result the first team wanted. Atlanta United fell, 2-0, to Charlotte FC at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on August 29. But in the 70th minute, one substitution turned the night into something worth remembering anyway: Dovlo checked in for his first-team debut, and it still stands out as one of the biggest moments of his young career.
"It was really exciting, to be honest," he said. "I was just on my feet, and then I realized it. The first two or three minutes, I was just going everywhere." He paused, searching for the word he wanted, the same kind of searching that defined those first lonely months in Greensboro. "I tried to keep, how do you say, to keep down." Composure, he was told. "Yeah, exactly. To be more focused."
His uncle was in the stands that night, having flown in from France. "My uncle was here, so he was in the stands," Dovlo said. "I was really happy he could see me on the field." The trip home produced its own small moment of family pride. "The day after, he got his flight back to France," Dovlo said. "He called my dad and said, 'You see, I'm here, you're not here, you know?' It was funny. It was really funny."
What the First Team Teaches
Training sessions with the first team, including Almirón and other veterans, have taught Dovlo something about focus that he has tried to carry back down with him.
"They can switch. They can laugh, and maybe ten seconds after, they're focused," he said. "In training, the intensity is real. They don't joke on the field." He has noticed the gap directly. "Sometimes when you play small-sided with the first team, it's harder than when I play a real game with the second team," he said, "because you have to be focused all the time. If you have a bad touch, you lose the ball." When he rejoins Atlanta United 2, that is the standard he tries to bring with him. "I just try to bring this energy to the training. Bring energy, bring intensity."
Tata Martino has been direct with him about the tactical side of the game. "He really talked to me about the tactical aspect," Dovlo said. "With this coach, I realized how important tactics are in a game. You can be good, you can be a good dribbler, you can be fast. If you're not ready on the tactical side, you won't last. I learned a lot: don't be late at this moment, all the time check both sides."
The Locker Room
Dovlo did not need much time to feel at home with Atlanta United 2. "It was just better and better and better, from the first day I was here," he said. "I was with the second team and I said, okay, I like this team, I like the vibe in the locker room. We have so many different personalities. We have a guy who jokes, we have a guy who's more serious. I think this mix creates good chemistry between us."
He has watched the club's young academy products take real steps forward this season, singling out DD Sibrian and Andrew Jardines by name. "I'm really impressed by how they've improved," he said. "DD and Andrew, they really improved too, in their maturity, from the beginning. I think they really fit with the team." Jardines' rise stands out to him in particular. "I see a player like Andrew, who wasn't a signed player, and now he's in the starting eleven, one of the most important players that we have. I'm really happy to see that, and to see how this kid can move."
There is a lighter side too. Teammate Matthew Senanou has a reputation as the 2's resident chef, something Dovlo has heard plenty about but not yet experienced firsthand. "He said he's the best cook on the team," Dovlo said, laughing. "But he's never cooked for me, so I can't say. I already hear he's a good cook, though. Cameron says that, so I trust him."
Orlando This Weekend
After a 4-1 loss in Chattanooga last week, Atlanta United 2 sits fifth in the Southeast Division, just three points clear of tenth. Sunday's trip to Orlando City B is Decision Day, the final match of the regular season, and the equation is simple: a point clinches the club's first-ever playoff berth. They beat this Orlando team 5-1 back in August. They control their own destiny. Dovlo said the message from Silva this week has been simple.
"We don't need to change anything, because it's a game like the others," he said. "But if you don't have motivation for this game, I don't know how you can have motivation. It's like a final. We don't play a final, we win a final." His summary of the assignment: "We have to go to Orlando, play with personality, play with determination, and just get the three points."
Patience
Asked what he would tell the version of himself who first landed in Greensboro, unsure of his English and further from home than he had ever been, Dovlo did not hesitate.
"I think, be patient," he said. "Sometimes, especially in soccer now, you see players sixteen, seventeen years old make their debut as a professional. But I think everyone has a story. What I would tell my younger self is: be patient, keep working, and don't always doubt yourself. If you do everything that you can control, you will be proud of yourself at the end."
Decision Day for Atlanta United 2 and MLS NEXT Pro is Sunday, September 20. Atlanta is on the road at Orlando and we will have the radio broadcast here on the SDH Network. Pregame starts at 1:30 p.m., kickoff will be just after 2 p.m. Madison Crews, Jon Nelson, and I will have the coverage. Listen at soccerdownhere.net/listen.
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