The American soccer world is racing to embrace Cavan Sullivan, but potential USMNT star takes it all in stride

The 16-year-old, who has 12 goal contributions in 10 MLS games, is reportedly set to be named to the USMNT squad on Thursday

Sep 16, 2026 at 2:59 pm ET • 4 min read

NEW YORK – If you've ever wondered what hype looked like, a few minutes in and around Cavan Sullivan's orbit will do the trick. The 16-year-old may have walked into the EA Sports FC 27 launch party quietly on Tuesday, but in no time, he was swarmed with attention he seemed to be prepared for and was ultimately unfazed by, perhaps because he had enough people in the room whisking him away from those obligations in short order.

The buzz was a reminder rather than the point itself. Two days removed from scoring off a backheel and nutmegging a goalkeeper in San Diego, the latest in his tally of five goals and seven assists following MLS' World Cup break, the Philadelphia Union attacker has earned the spotlight. He claimed Tuesday that he has no idea if his first senior call-up to the U.S. men's national team is on its way, though he'll reportedly be on Thursday's squad, per ESPN, instead characterizing his current priorities differently.

"I'm just working to develop my game and get better day by day and hopefully keep proving myself, proving [to] the world what I can do in the games and just having fun," he said.

After a North America-set World Cup that gripped U.S. audiences, Sullivan's impressive run of form has allowed him to fill the attention vacuum seamlessly. He is tied for first on goal contributions post-World Cup with Inter Miami's Lionel Messi, who had already collected three LaLiga titles and two UEFA Champions League trophies before Sullivan was born. The 16-year-old said he was unaware of that commonality with Messi, though he did not hesitate to link it to the Union's unbeaten run that has been intertwined with his own uptick in form.

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"I didn't know that," he admitted. "That's pretty cool. Like I said, I'm just trying to show what I can do. I told people that the goal contributions will come with the games but as always, the wins are most important, and 10 unbeaten is pretty special."

The connection to the Union is obvious – Sullivan essentially blew up as soon as he was given an important role with his boyhood club, his promotion only coming this summer. The youngest player to make his MLS debut at 14, his integration into the Union's first team was understandably slow but Sullivan has been handed a bigger role by interim head coach Ryan Richter, who succeeded Bradley Carnell after he was fired just before the World Cup. Sullivan has made his moments count since, attributing it to the vibe shift in the Union locker room.

"I think it was sort of just a spirit thing, a belief thing," he said about the tonal change for the Union, who were below the playoff line before the World Cup and now have a three-point cushion on the flip side of the line. "A healthy competitiveness. Locker room filled with excitement to show up to training and excitement in the games. When we score, we celebrate. Sometimes we plan our celebrations and we just have fun."

A few weeks shy of his 17th birthday, there's a certain humor in the idea that Sullivan had to wait until the back half of the MLS season for his opportunities. Carnell restricted him to an average of 42.2 minutes per game, a 13-game stretch in which he notched just one goal and two assists. His post-World Cup outings are an example of a player meeting his moment, albeit after leaning into the serious side of a skillset that is built around exuberance and flair.

"I think just like the rest of the group," he said about surviving the Union's early season rough patch and the situation around his playing time, "just head down, driven, and continue to work hard … I have this winning mentality. I just really love to win, ever since I was a kid so that's where the competitiveness comes from. I think it's just [that] my drive is natural."

There's a professionalism to the way he characterized himself on Tuesday, perhaps a tacit acknowledgment that USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino and his staff are "watching everything" as they prepare to integrate younger players into the player pool. Sullivan, though, did not have a reason to hide his ambitions of representing the national team sooner rather than later, especially as a natural generational shift takes place on the long road to the 2030 World Cup.

"Obviously, everyone dreams of playing for the USA," he said. "As a kid living in America, it's the biggest goal, it's the biggest honor so it would be a blessing to be able to represent. All four of the Sullivan brothers had dreams of playing for the USA. [Older brother] Quinn's already done it so that was a pretty awesome moment for the family."