The US is one of the few developed nations that was never close to being competitive on the world stage of football. However, whilst being currently in a strong position to qualify for the Qatar World Cup, the US has been slowly upping its development of footballing talent.
Let’s take a look at the shortlist of the USA’s top players.
Christian Pulisic
At just 23 years old, Pulisic has made a big impact in arguably the most competitive league in the world: the Premier League. Coming from Borussia Dortmund, who are renowned for their incredible youth development, Pulisic made his debut at age 17. In 2019, Chelsea purchased the winger, who seemingly added a better end game to his arsenal of talents, increasing his goals and assists. Experiencing both leagues at such a young age, similar to Sancho, is only going to be beneficial to his development.
Pulisic has fittingly been given the “Captain America” nickname, and is no doubt the favourite to be USA’s highest goal scorer in future tournaments at betting.net
Pulisic cost Chelsea £58m, despite him being only 21 at the time. He was seen as a replacement for Eden Hazard, who is his footballing idol, and will no doubt be seen as the US’ biggest hope at world cup success heading into 2022.
Gio Reyna
Another player to come from the US and to play for Borussia Dortmund is Gio Reyna. The attacking midfielder is still only 18, and became the youngest player to play 50 Bundesliga games in history – and incredible feat, particularly with other very young talent is in the same team, such as Bellingham.
Most of Reyna’s game come in the 2019-20 season, in which he was the youngest player to ever play in the Bundesliga (the record was previously held by Pulisic). Renya got injured in November and is feared to be out until 2022, but would no doubt remain confident in returning back to his position in the Dortmund first team.
Reyna was included in The Guardian’s “Next Generation 2019), but will look to add more goals and assists to his game in the coming years.