5 best young players from USA and Mexico
Football is the world’s one truly global sport. A few large nations have been lagging behind, namely the north American neighbours United States of America and Canada, as well as China and India.
While China’s exploding economy has now found their next sector to target in the shape of their national league, USA’s talent pool has massively improved recently and it seems like it will continue to improve.
South of the border, Mexico has been one of the standout performers of CONCACAF producing legitimately great players like Hugo Sanchez, Rafael Marquez, and Javier Hernandez. This list will aim to highlight the five best youngsters under the age of 23 representing either of the two countries.
Also read: 5 best young talents from Belgium
A notable omission who could easily be on this list is Jack Harrison, the young Englishman making waves plying his trade alongside Andreas Pirlo, Frank Lampard and David Villa at New York City FC. He misses out only due to a lack of citizenship at the moment. If granted a citizenship in the near future, he seems keen to represent the USA.
On that note, here are the five best young players from USA and Mexico:
#1 Christian Pulisic
Borussia Dortmund, every year have a mountain to climb to match the level and stature of Bayern Munich. While the latter are massively successful commercially and are known to acquire the best talent available from the Bundesliga competitors, Dortmund has a track record of developing fantastic youngsters or buying very young talents and growing them into world class players.
In the recent batch of youngsters to be brought into the squad, there lies an American who is considered to be the best prospect from the continent since Landon Donovan. The well-respected sporting director of Dortmund, Michael Zorc spotted Pulisic at the age of 15 and signed him in February 2015.
Part of the youth teams initially, Pulisic lasted just 15 games before being called up to the senior squad. The attacking midfielder cum winger’s future seems so bright that Nike, in order to complement their sponsorship with US men’s national team(USMNT), has signed Pulisic till 2022, while he has also been courted by Liverpool, and Red Bull Leipzig amongst other clubs for a fee in the region of €20 million.
Since breaking into the first team squad and the national team, he became the youngest foreigner to score in the Bundesliga, youngest player to score two times in the Bundesliga, youngest player to represent USMNT and score in a World Cup qualifying campaign.
The goal for USMNT came one day after he was specially allowed to attend high school prom. Three weeks later, he set up the equalising goal against Real Madrid. He is destined to become one of the best players from the North American region, and being at Dortmund, he is in good hands to realize his potential.
(Video courtesy: WorldOfFootball HD)