Cavan Sullivan, at 14 years and 293 days old, stepped onto a Major League Soccer pitch on Wednesday night and, in the 85th minute of the Philadelphia Union’s game against New England, made history.
He became the youngest player to ever appear in an MLS match, breaking a record held by Freddy Adu (14 years, 306 days) for more than two decades.
Sullivan is also the youngest player to ever play in a major sports league in the United States.
And he is younger than anyone who has played in the five major European football leagues: the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A and French Ligue 1.
He is a precocious talent, a daring attacking midfielder, a coveted international prospect who has already agreed to join Manchester City when he legally can, at 18. He has attracted attention even as a pre-teen.
The hype naturally raised uncomfortable questions: about our cultural obsession with prodigies; about the utility of pushing a kid to turn pro at 14; and so on—especially in the context of the man whose record Sullivan broke. Adu, of course, failed to live up to the monstrous expectations that weighed on his innocent shoulders.
Perhaps the more pertinent question concerns which league Sullivan plays in.
MLS wasn’t prepared for Freddy; is it ready to welcome Cavan and lead him to stardom?
Many people within and around the league believe the answer is yes, as its infrastructure and resources have grown tremendously.
“It’s exponentially different than it was 20 years ago,” Alecko Eskandarian, MLS’s vice president of player relations and development, told Yahoo Sports.
“The league has evolved a lot”
Eskandarian knows. He was 21 on April 3, 2004, when a fourth official waved his No. 11 and Adu’s No. 9. Eskandarian was the D.C. United star Adu replaced in his professional debut. He fondly remembers the talent and confidence of the 14-year-old Freddy.
He also recalls that “Freddy was thrown into a room with adults” as the highest-paid player in MLS, before he had even played a ball professionally.
“It was embarrassing, for sure,” Eskandarian said.
The league’s promotion of Adu as a “messiah” who would elevate American football to untold prosperity and prominence, as “the greatest signing in league history,” as commissioner Don Garber put it, only added to the embarrassment – and the burden on the shoulders of a 14-year-old.
According to Eskandarian, it’s one of the many areas where “the league has evolved a lot. Cavan hasn’t. And he won’t have to deal with those pressures.”
He will be paid well – his contract would be the richest “homegrown player” deal in MLS history – but not as well as those of several teammates.
He was overrated, for sure. Even the Union website described him as a “wunderkind.” MLS promoted his potential Cameras followed him from, presumably, the passenger seat of his brother’s car to the Subaru Park entrance on Wednesday, then found him on the bench and followed him down the sideline in the second half to warm up.
But Sullivan isn’t the exception that Adu was. Rather, he’s the extreme continuation of a trend. He came through a Union academy that is widely regarded as one of the best in the country, an academy that has produced dozens of other pros, many of whom also signed contracts as teenagers.
One of Cavan’s many brothers, Quinn, turned professional at 16 and scored a bicycle kick in his first MLS start at 17, and… scored a goal Wednesday less than 90 seconds before Cavan came on.
Also alongside Cavan on the Union bench were 17-year-old midfielder Christopher Olney and 18-year-old goalkeeper Andrew Rick.
New England defender Peyton Miller, 16, also made his debut in the same game.
More generally, among the 10 youngest players in MLS history, eight have made their debuts since 2020; the ninth was Alphonso Davies (2016), who now plays for Bayern Munich. The tenth was Adu (2004).
Cavan Sullivan’s journey compared to Freddy Adu’s
Over the past decade, many MLS clubs have established robust academies that have a multifaceted impact on young players. They are better trained, have a more direct line to (and contact with) first-team teams, have psychologists, nutritionists and other specialists, and there is now a gradation of development, a ladder with many small steps rather than a few gigantic ones.
Adu had shined on the U.S. youth teams and in the Olympic Development Program, but there was no intermediate step between those two teams and MLS. He had to make the jump.
The Union, meanwhile, has a youth team in each age group, from under-9 to under-17. From there, players can move up to Union II, the club’s second team, which competes in MLS Next Pro, a reserve league. That’s where Cavan first went in May after signing his professional contract. And he almost immediately started scoring goals.
“There was a lot more testing on Cavan, and a lot more pressure testing, to make sure he was ready for that jump,” said Eskandarian, who followed Sullivan for four years before helping the league, the Union and Sullivan’s camp with the contract.
“And you try to do it in small steps, you try not to rush a kid that age. But with Cavan, it seemed that whatever test was put to him, he excelled and wanted to go further.”
In announcing Cavan’s call-up on Tuesday, Curtin stressed that the Philadelphia native would be with the first team “because he’s earned it.” He earned it through “his performances in the Union II games and the goals he’s scored,” Curtin said.
Sure, Adu didn’t earn his shot. But Cavan has proven himself at more levels, in front of more scouts, each with more expertise and tools at their disposal.
The vast majority of people have confirmed the widely held opinion that his potential is very high. Some believe he is one of the best 14-year-old players in all of football.
Of course, there’s one caveat: He’s 14. “There’s a lot of things that can happen that can make or break a player’s career,” Eskandarian said. “But I think we have more resources than ever to make sure we take the steps necessary to try to put the player in the best position possible to succeed.”