Could Cavan Sullivan be our Lamine Yamal in WC 2026?

Disagree. If Cavan were to disappear we still have 3 or 4 very good to elite prospects at his position. Reynaga. Gordon. Dills. Garcia. That is what is changing.

 

1G4A in 540 minutes this season. At age 16. Those are Yamal numbers. He is also 12th in successful dribbles per-90(min 500 min played).

 

I do not think any of those players are Cavan type prospects. Cavan is the next in line in terms of a Pulisic/Reyna type prospect and neither of those guys are that. And Pulisic is a success despite not being a world class player and Reyna is not with injuries being a big reason why.

It’s the Gozo, Mehmeti, Hall, Albert, Kochen tier of prospects who maybe are not quite Cavan level but not far off that we’re really counting on. But even then we don’t have enough of those guys compared to countries like France, Spain, England, etc.

It all comes down to volume.

 

I’m expecting a big jump the second half of the season and that he’ll be invited to what is now December camp.

 

Cavan is doing fine.

He's the 2nd youngest player to appear in an MLS game this year. Only Arana of Houston was younger (and he just made one garbage time appearance for 2 minutes)

Other than Arana....................the four youngest players to appear in MLS this year have been Cavan Sullivan, Malik Jakupovic, Adri Mehmeti, and Jude Terry, Doing pretty well there.

Yamine Yamal finished 2nd in the Ballon d'Or voting last year. For Heaven's sake, we all know THAT expectation for Cavan is going overboard.

But we're fans. Fans being short for fanatics. There's nothing saying we can't be irrational and have fun projecting when it comes to prospects.

If people want to know how our domestic development programs are trending, Cavan Sullivan ISN'T amongst the 50 youngest players in MLS Next Pro this season. USYNTer Da'vian Kimbrough, who just appeared for North Texas for the first time, is 43rd at 16 years old 4 monhts.

 

Yamals age 16 year was 37 appearances and 5 goals right? Youre resident stat producer

 

He's on 0.83g/a per 90. He doesn't need a big jump. He just needs to keep it up while the minutes increase.

 

It really does come down to volume and statistics. When a country statistically produces a high enough volume of elite players, they are able to absorb the inevitable reality of injuries, motivational drift, and players simply not taking that next step in their development journey. Unfortunately, when we look back in 8 years on these names - Gozo, Mehmeti, Hall, Albert, Kochen - some of them will be quaint reminders of “what could have been.”

The big soccer countries have such large talent pools coming through their pipeline they can account for the statistical attrition.

 

3 goals 10 assists in 1200 minutes would be a great season for Cavan.

 

Konrad de la Fuente.

 

This is indeed the issue. We all have so many guys we can think of who were the next exciting prospect who didn’t hit for a variety of reasons. And that’s completely normal but we don’t have the volume to survive such attrition and have an elite team.

 

Also important to note, he's been putting up these numbers for the worst team in the league. They seemed to start to turn a corner right before break and Sullivan was arguably the best attacker the last couple weeks. Their best player is also about to come back from a lengthy injury too which will help.

He'll start games (likely tonight) but I do think his minutes will be managed over the rest of the year.

 

10 assists is a good season for anyone.

As of this moment, the leading USMNT-eligible assisters in MLS. Not many will get to 10, but let's see.

Berhalter 7
Tsakiris 7
Gozo 5
Frederick 5
Ferreira 5
Leroux 5
Cowell 5
Becher 5

[Wayne Frederick is still US-eligible, but perhaps not for long.]

Cavan's brother Quinn is back, so we'll see how he's deployed. I have to remind myself how excited I was for Quinn before his injury last year. He had legitimately earned that Gold Cup callup. Maybe play will start going thru him and HE will be the guy picking up the assists.

Last year's version of Tsakiris.

We're talking a lot about the teens like Cavan Sullivan, but there's that slightly older crew that's worthy of USMNT consideration too. Olympics eligible guys. Wolff, Tsakiris, and company. Ferreira, as a playmaker, is only 25 years old. Anyway............I veered off course.

 

I didn't read it like that, I read it like

 

Law of large numbers and all of that jazz.

 

A few years back folks on this board were going bananas over Konrad and a vision of his impact on the team.

Does he actually still play soccer professionally?

 

In Switzerland.

 

I mean, he played in the Champions League with Barca before he reached 20. I think it's okay people got a bit excited.

-edit-
I'll add Owen Otasowie to whatever list this is. Guy went from seeing the field in the premier league as a teen to completely out of soccer before he reached 21. I don't think it was about talent in either of these two cases...

 

Totally. I get it.

I was excited too.

But he’s a great example of youthful talent that doesnt come to senior team fruition.

 

So far, so good from Cavan.

1 key pass
6/6 dribbles
2/3 crosses
2/4 long balls
9/12 grnd duels
1/1 fouls/fouled

FM(7.9)5th

 

Young man played very well today. Looked much more comfortable and free in his role.

I’ll be on the lookout for a comp. He was really impressive.

 

These two are head cases for sure.

De la Fuente just doesn't want to work on his God-given talent. He used to prefer partying during the week. I wonder if he matures. He is one year younger than Weah.

 

16-year old Cavan Sullivan v RBNY 😮‍💨#USMNT #DOOP pic.twitter.com/7vuXUYdFPV

— why (@comp0us) July 23, 2026

Looks like a full comp. Good and bad. Defensive effort is there. He looks like he may have a little bit of bite and anticipation defensively.

On the ball it’s fun to think about what he might become. He can pass, shoot and dribble. He can put his foot on the ball and control tempo. He runs off the ball a bit. He can hang in there physically at his age. Really nice performance.

 

At this age you pay attention to the ideas as much as the execution, and I really like Cavan's ideas.

 

Pretty much what I expected from Cavan. Clearly the best player on the field. If you can't see his passing vision and ability from that game, I don't know what to tell you.

Needs to get a bit more precise, though -- yes, some of these will convert on their own, and some of them will look better with better teammates, but if he can get his accuracy just a little more accurate, the goal production will skyrocket. I think on the skills end, it's small things.

We didn't see a ton of his acceleration, but he has it -- there was a moment late where he went for a ball at the endline like a rocket. He's like Christian in that he has a very good burst to the ball or when he picks up a loose one.

Also loved his two shots -- almost two bangers, but if he had placed that first one in the corner...

Selfishly, I'd like him to stay in MLS at least until next summer, just to see what he can do. I think if they had anyone at striker other than Bruno Damiani, Philly would have a heck of an offense.