Cavan Sullivan And The USMNT’s Future Are Here

On Thursday morning, USMNT manager Mauricio Pochettino announced his roster for a forthcoming quartet of games. The first thing that leaps out is that Christian Pulisic's name is nowhere to be found. The story is that the U.S.'s best player will stay in Italy as he heals up from a pair of injuries sustained in his team's embarrassing loss to Belgium in the World Cup, though Pulisic isn't so injured that he couldn't help his team come back and salvage a draw against Lazio last weekend. Per the sourced-up Doug McIntyre, Pulisic "has had a strained relationship with Pochettino" since skipping the 2025 Gold Cup. It's way too early to forecast Pulisic's medium-term future with the program, or the degree to which it will matter. In the opening days of the 2030 World Cup cycle, it's time to think about the future. It's time to welcome the reign of Cavan Sullivan. Sullivan is only 16 years old, but has been marked for future USMNT stardom since early 2024, when he signed the largest Homegrown Player deal in MLS history with the Philadelphia Union. That deal included a pre-transfer agreement to ship him off to Manchester City when he turned 18. Four years is a long time to have to wait, but City clearly felt someone of his talent was worth it, and he's only proven that decision wise in the two years since.

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