Forever a Lion: A Chat with Dennis Chin

"I believe in Dennis Chin! I believe in Dennis Chin!"

Long-time Orlando City fans may remember chanting this at one time during the four-year tenure of striker Dennis Chin. “Chinny,” as he was affectionately known, was one of the longest tenured players for Orlando City’s USL squad. He also holds the record for most goals scored in an Orlando City uniform, with 29 goals over 84 games.

A part of the roster cuts when the team moved up to MLS, Chin was forced to look for a new team for the 2015 season. Recapping his off season journey, Chinny remarked, "Long story short — I was overseas and some things didn't go to plan, so I decided that my best move was to come back for a bit and I was, at the time, speaking to guys from Orlando City that were playing elsewhere. Rob Valentino, Carl (Woszczynski), and a lot of those guys were at Arizona and said they were building a nice little team here."

(Listen to the full interview in the player below)

Chin has only been there a few weeks with Arizona United, a late roster addition in March. He was only able to play in the final preseason game against Phoenix College, in which he scored one of the four goals for the team. Officially signed just two days before the club’s season opener, Chin has scored two goals in two games and had the game-winning assist in the club’s latest win against LA Galaxy II.

Even though he has moved on from Orlando City, Chin is still thankful for his time with the Lions. "I learned the pressures of being great, you know? It didn't come easy, obviously," said Chin. "We had to work every single day. We had to be getting better every single day, because everyone was out for you."

Chin also commented on the mindset that is instilled with Adrian Heath's club. "It's not easy playing what you love to do and some people might take it for granted, but that's one thing you don't do at Orlando City is take what you're doing for granted," he said. "I've learned so much there and that's one of the main things I took away from the whole thing."

Although Chinny is no longer with the team, he still keeps up on the goings-on in Orlando. "Kevin (Molino) is like one of my best friends so we speak almost every single day, so I'm very involved in what's going on over there."

So even though Chinny is no longer in Orlando, his heart will always be purple.