The USL Championship announced Thursday that Charleston Battery forward Nick Markanich was named the August Player of the Month, presented by Konami eFootball. Markanich becomes the league’s first and only two-time winner of the award this year.
Markanich lit up the August schedule and led the Championship in goal contributions with five goals and two assists across five matches. This included a sensational hat trick against Orange County on August 24 that underscored the Battery’s 6-0 win that night, adding to his lead in the Golden Boot race. He also tallied one goal and one assist each in the wins over Indy and Memphis.
With 25 goals to date, Markanich is the top goalscorer across all American domestic leagues. In fact, he has more goals himself than El Paso, Monterey, Phoenix and Hartford have overall all year.
“Nick has been exceptional all season long,” said Head Coach Ben Pirmann. “He has produced in terms of goals and assists, but he continues to provide our team with so much more. There is no surprise that he continues to earn awards as I anticipate he will earn more throughout the duration of the season.
“Nick is focused on helping his team and winning games for the Battery. He understands that he has a job to do, but he also loves his teammates and goes to work with them each and every day.”
The Player of the Month honor caps off Markanich’s accolade-filled August where he was named to the league’s Team of the Week three times (Weeks 22, 23, 25) and earned Player of the Week for Week 25.
Markainch has now won the award twice, for April and August, after being nominated four times overall in 2024.
Markanich earned 45% of a weighted poll to win the award that included the USL Championship Technical Committee, a national panel of independent media representing every USL market and an online fan vote held at USLChampionship.com.
