INGLEWOOD, CA — Alex Freeman just might be the U.S. men’s national team’s most impactful player.
For years, American soccer fans have been lamenting the gap between the USMNT and the rest of the world. If only our best athletes chose soccer over football or basketball, if only a LeBron or a McCaffrey played soccer, we’d be right there with the Argentinas and Frances.
Freeman is that long-awaited unicorn.
In addition to a skillset that has taken the right back from an MLS reserve team to a World Cup starter in less than 18 months, Freeman’s father is a Super Bowl champion. If soccer is good enough for the son of an NFL star – Antonio Freeman led the league in yards receiving in 1998 and once held the record for longest TD reception in the Super Bowl – it could change the thinking of American kids.
In a country where the NFL reigns supreme, Freeman gives soccer credibility in a way nothing else has so far.
“This guy is just 21, he’s just getting started. There’s a lot more to come for Alex and I’m just happy that he is the best athlete in the family,” Antonio Freeman said earlier this week when father and son appeared together on Fox’s “After Hours with James Corden”.
“He’s probably going to be the richest, also.”
Given that Alex Freeman commanded a $7 million transfer fee from La Liga’s Villareal five months before the World Cup, where he’s played every single minute of the USMNT’s first two games and scored a goal, his father isn’t wrong.
Soccer in US needs another growth spurt
A large factor in U.S. Soccer wanting to host this World Cup was to give soccer’s growth here another big jolt.
The game is light years ahead of what it was in 1994, the last time the World Cup was in the United States. There are thriving professional leagues for both men and women. Soccer-specific stadiums. Media rights deals that put soccer on TVs and screens pretty much every day of the week. Homegrown players who are good enough to attract the attention – and dollars – of the big European clubs.
But soccer is still not yet at the level of the NFL or even the NBA. For it to achieve that status, American kids need to see soccer as equivalent to football and basketball rather than as a sport reserved for kindergartners and grade schoolers. If they dream of being a professional athlete, or playing in college, they have to consider soccer as an equally viable option.
Freeman helps do that.
Soccer was always Alex Freeman’s sport
The 21-year-old easily could have wound up playing football like his dad, the former Green Bay Packers star. Or basketball. Or tennis. But like most U.S. kids, he began playing soccer when he was little.
Unlike most U.S. kids, he stuck with it.
“I don’t know why he choose. It’s like my son playing lacrosse instead of soccer. You’d say, why?” USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino said. “I need to ask because I don’t know. Normally you want to imitate or follow your dad, but he went in another direction.”
Walter Payton’s son Jarrett also started out playing soccer, even earning All-State honors as a sophomore in high school. But he eventually switched to football, getting a scholarship to the University of Miami and playing in NFL Europe and the Canadian Football League.
For Freeman, football was his dad’s thing. Soccer was his sport.
“(My dad) taught me to be myself. I think he knows that being myself has gotten me to this point,” Freeman said.
Freeman was 13 when soccer became “serious, a full-time job,” Antonio Freeman recalled. Two years later, Alex Freeman was drawing interest from college coaches but had also been invited to join the Orlando City Academy.
“It was a crossroads and he wanted to play. That’s what it all came down to. Where is your heart at? And he was like, ‘I want to play soccer, Dad,’” the elder Freeman recalled.
Freeman’s father, mother and stepfather lived about 3 hours from Orlando, so Freeman initially lived with a host family.
“He just worked his tail off from there,” Antonio Freeman said. “It’s not like me and his mom and his stepdad were pushing him. We could call him and text him and motivate him that way. But his everyday life, ups and downs, he had to manage that himself. And he did that from age 15 until right now.
“A lot of credit goes to the work and dedication,” the elder Freeman added. “Alex worked his butt off and he separated himself.”
Meteoric rise
Alex Freeman signed a homegrown contract with Orlando City in January 2022, when he was 17, and played for the reserve team for most of his first two years. He got his first start with Orlando City’s senior team in March 2025, and got his first call-up to the USMNT two months after that.
Now he’s a fixture in Pochettino’s starting lineup, and a favorite of his teammates. After his goal against Australia was confirmed following a long VAR review, his teammates chased him down to celebrate him.
“He’s got a fantastic future,” Folarin Balogun said. “He’s a very humble kid, very down to earth. And I think as long as he continues to develop, and he’s able to show he’s doing it on the biggest stage, I think he’s going to have a bright future.”
Freeman made the move to Villareal in late January to ensure he’d be ready for the World Cup. His impressive performances here − he also assisted on a goal in the opener against Paraguay − along with his composure, speed and versatility, will no doubt draw the attention of clubs in England.
“It’s difficult to explain the evolution of him,” Pochettino said. “For me, he has the potential to be one of the best players in his position in the world.”
The son of a Super Bowl champion poised to become one of the best soccer players in the world. We no longer have to wonder when our best athletes will choose soccer over football and basketball.
Alex Freeman already has. Others will now follow.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
