Cavan Sullivan added another line to his growing résumé on Saturday, becoming the fourth youngest player to ever appear for the United States when he started the 4-1 friendly win over Peru at 16 years and 363 days old. For a player already being watched closely on both sides of the Atlantic, it was another marker on what has been a rapid rise.
The Philadelphia Union midfielder has been on Manchester City's radar since 2024, when the club moved to secure his future signing at just 14 years old. He still has a little over a year to go before that move can officially happen, but in the meantime, both City and Philadelphia Union have been patient in gradually introducing him to senior football - patience that appears to be paying off.
His full run of regular starts for Union began once the 2026 MLS season resumed following the World Cup, and the national team call-up followed soon after. Notably, his international debut came the day after Manchester City were found guilty of breaking the majority of the 115 financial charges they faced, with the club expected to appeal that ruling.
Form to Match the Hype
Since the World Cup restart, Sullivan's goal contributions have put him in rare company in MLS, with only a handful of players - including Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann and Luis Suarez - matching his output in that period.
The numbers back it up. Sullivan has seven goals and five assists in MLS this season, with six of those goals and four of those assists coming in August and September alone. He has scored six goals in his last six games and been named to the league's Team of the Matchday seven times, including the last three matchdays in a row.
He turns 17 this month.
Measured Optimism
Jonathan Tannenwald, chief soccer correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer, urged some caution while speaking to the BBC. "It's well known that Americans are drawn to stars in sports, and as the World Cup showed, that applies to soccer too," he said. "So it's no surprise that the country hopes for a star in men's soccer to match the many it has had in women's soccer. I'm not going to say today that Cavan Sullivan is going to be that player. It's too early to know for certain, and I've seen plenty of names not make the grade."
Tannenwald pointed to previous American prospects who didn't fulfil their early promise, including Freddy Adu and Gedion Zelalem, while noting that Christian Pulisic came closest but "isn't really there" and had a difficult World Cup, and that Gio Reyna "has never measured up to his talent."
On Sullivan specifically, he added: "What I will say about Sullivan is he has the work ethic to go with the talent. As his current manager at the Philadelphia Union, Ryan Richter, said recently: 'His outstanding quality is the mentality that he has, and the way that he approaches every game and every day, and that's what pushes him to get better and better.'"
A Union Revival
Sullivan's emergence as a regular has coincided with a dramatic turnaround for Philadelphia Union under interim coach Richter, who took charge before this post-World Cup stretch. The club are unbeaten in 11 games, winning nine of them - a sharp contrast to the start of the season, when they won just once in 15 outings.
Tactically, Sullivan has operated in a right-sided attacking midfield role but with license to drift centrally like a number 10 and cut inside onto his stronger left foot. He's also shown good physical strength for his age, though not quite at the level of a young Wayne Rooney during his Everton days - still enough, though, to hold his own in a physical league like MLS.
Tannenwald believes the teenager is coping well with the growing attention. "I find him to be handling the pressure of everything pretty well," he said. "Talk with him for long enough, and you'll know he's still a teenager, still finding his way with some things as any teen would. Yes, he can come across as cocky, but he's well grounded, not just by Richter, but by having his oldest brother there in the locker room with him."
That family presence runs deep. Sullivan's brother Quinn, 22, also plays for the Union, while both parents, Brendan and Heike, played soccer themselves, and his grandfather Larry went from playing in the 1960s to becoming one of the most recognised coaches in the Philadelphia region. "They all keep Cavan grounded too," Tannenwald said, "even as they know he is the best of all of them."
