Luigi Mangione’s Cousin, 24, Will Play Pro Soccer for Team Mere Miles from Luigi's Brooklyn Jail

NEED TO KNOW

• Luigi Mangione's cousin, Peter Mangione, signed with professional soccer team Brooklyn FC
• The Brooklyn-based team is mere a miles away from where Luigi is jailed ahead of his trial in connection with the murder of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson
• Peter played at Penn State University before making his professional debut

Luigi Mangione's cousin is joining him in Brooklyn after signing with professional soccer team Brooklyn FC.

Peter Mangione agreed to a deal with the Brooklyn Football Club on Wednesday, Jan. 14 and will play just a few miles away from where his 27-year-old cousin is imprisoned ahead of his trial in connection with the murder of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. 

Brooklyn FC announced it had signed Peter, 24, to its inaugural USL Championship roster, pending league and federation approval. He hails from Hunt Valley, Md., where Luigi also grew up.

Peter played at Penn State University before making the transition to play professionally. He scored 32 career goals and earned Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year honors in 2021 and 2023 as a student athlete.

The midfielder joins Brooklyn FC from the FC Cincinnati organization, where he played with FC Cincinnati 2 and made 28 appearances and secured two goals and five assists across 2,218 minutes of play.

"He brings a balanced midfield profile to Brooklyn, with the engine to cover ground and the end product to impact matches in the final third," the club wrote of Peter, in a statement announcing the news.

Brooklyn FC will play its first game in the USL Championship against Indy Eleven on March 8 at Maimonides Park, in Brooklyn's Coney Island neighborhood.

Luigi is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) just north of Coney Island in Sunset Park, where he's been held behind bars since his arrest in December 2024. MDC also held Sean “Diddy” Combs until he was recently moved to Federal Correctional Institution Fort Dix in New Jersey.

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Luigi was in court in early December for days of evidence suppression hearings ahead of his trial in connection with the death of Thompson, who was fatally shot on a Midtown Manhattan street in 2024. 

He has pleaded not guilty to murder charges at the state and federal level as well as forgery charges in Pennsylvania. Mangione is expected to go to trial later this year.

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