Rhode Island FC have sold their all-time leading scorer to Scottish Premiership side Heart of Midlothian, and the fee set a club record. JJ Williams is Edinburgh-bound — and the Ocean State club has a hole in attack it won't fill easily.
The 6-foot-4 forward leaves with 30 goals from 77 appearances across three seasons, including 11 this campaign alone. That's not just top scorer numbers — that's the identity of Rhode Island's attack walking out the door mid-season while the club sits seventh in the Eastern Conference.
What Hearts are getting
Williams is a genuine handful at this level. His 2024 playoff run told you everything: a hat-trick against Indy Eleven, two more against Louisville City, then a goal in the Eastern Conference final. Rhode Island rode him to the USL Championship final, and while they fell to Colorado Springs Switchbacks, Williams was the reason they got that far.
Hearts are a club that knows how to use a physical, goal-hungry striker. A player who can do what Williams did against Louisville City — who are as good as USL gets — will not look out of place in the Scottish Premiership. Whether he translates immediately is the real question, and it's a genuinely interesting bet for anyone tracking Hearts' top-four ambitions this season.
Rhode Island's season just got harder
This is the second marquee departure Rhode Island have absorbed in 2025. Clay Holstad went to FC Dallas on loan back in June. Losing your creator and your finisher in the same season, while competing for a playoff spot, would test any USL side.
Head coach Khano Smith framed it as proof of concept — and he's not wrong. A club three years old sending players to Europe and MLS is genuinely significant. But Smith still has to figure out how to win on August 29 at FC Tulsa, and then at home against Louisville on September 5, with his best forward now 3,000 miles away.
Rhode Island did score three times without Williams against Monterey Bay FC last Saturday, so the attack isn't dead. But there's a difference between one good game and sustaining a playoff push. They need a signing. Fast.
"It is a major milestone to become a player in the global football marketplace within three years," Smith said. That milestone, though, has a cost — and Rhode Island FC are the ones paying it right now.
