Both assist were extremely classy. He had way too much time on the first but the touch was fantastic.... The 2nd? Just wow.... the quick touch w/ his left to hit it deftly with his right...? Nice.
Cavan Sullivan scores against the Netherlands.#doop #usmnt #usymnt pic.twitter.com/7Vl4I3loUE— José Roberto Nuñez (@JoserNunez91) September 5, 2025
https://www.instagram.com/stories/cavan.sull/ "last first day"?? Thought he was a sophomore? Is a move to Europe coming sooner than later?
It wouldn't shock me. Turns 16 soon which allows him to go to europe. Would he have to wait until January for an official transfer? Even if he does I'd expect him to be training in Europe (after the MLS season) like he already has before until then. Man city owns a bunch of different clubs for a reason and they obviously have a system they believe in. I think they'd want Cavan's development under their full supervision as soon as possible instead of outsourcing it to Philly, and frankly I am not sure why Philly would focus resources on a kid who isn't going to be apart of their future. Not to say they'd treat him unfairly or anything but he's already signed with a different club and at some point will be gone (likely sooner than later)
Cavan Sullivan is not a Man City of CFG player (to our knowledge anyways). Plus his parents are going to have a big say in when/IF he moves abroad prior to turning 18.
Would definitely have to wait till January for it to be official and play in games. But I think he could go over earlier to get adjusted, train, etc. But I’m sure there’s some preexisting agreement between City, Philadelphia, and Sullivan in terms of under what conditions he’d move over at 16. It’s really just Girona though. He’s not going over to play in the second division in France, Belgium, or Italy.
My point is less about the specific club Cavan will play at and more about them having their own process
A European second division might be exactly what he needs for the next step in his development. I hope they are not ruling out the possibility before considering it. I don't know, but I haven't seen much to suggest that a jump to a poor La Liga team makes sense -- for either party. If he doesn't project to play a lot of minutes with Philly next year, he should definitely consider those other situations.
Agreed and I am not sure why he would project to play a lot of minutes with Philly. He isn't in Philly's long term plans and unless at 16 years he is just that much better than anyone else they can play, why would they? It's not like they need to play him to get a better transfer fee, he's reportedly already in agreement with City.
I could see it going either way. On the one hand, Philly has very little financial investment in Cavan, and they have been slow with guys like Paxten Aaronson and Cavan's own brother. But, I do think there is still some incentive to Philly if they could play a big part in his development. If they think that he can have a "break out" season next year, I think there would be a lot of value in that beyond just the short term. However, I'm not sure he's ready for that kind of jump, but we are seeing it with Gil Mora, so it's not like it's just a Lamine Yamal level thing, either.
Have they? They sold Paxten before he was 20 for $4 million. Quinn is 21 and has already played in 120 matches for the Union. He played 2,402 minutes last season in his age 20 season.
Yeah, this is debatable. According to some on this board, the Union have been negligent with how they've developed those guys. That's not my stance, but they would say that those guys should have played a lot more minutes. Others like McGlynn, McKenzie, B. Aaronson, Harriel, and others paint a different picture. But for Sullivan, things are a little different since he's already been sold and has other opportunities. If Philly don't plan to play him a lot next year, which I could see, a second tier in Europe might be a great spot.
He was back in training by the end of the week, from what I've heard. But the club chose prudence, understandably.Oh, and yesterday was Cavan's 16th birthday.— Jonathan Tannenwald (@thegoalkeeper) September 30, 2025 Had a minor groin injury and also turned 16 yesterday.
To win games, just like any other player. Obviously Cavan isn’t a long term player for Philly, but so what? Philly may recruit over him because of that, but if he’s good enough compared to the rest of the roster on matchday, he’ll play.
That's brutal for Quinn. He wasn't WC bound but he was in the midst of a career breakout the past two years.
I also think that people forget that Quinn is still 21 -- people act like he didn't have a real chance to improve over the next year. I don't think he was likely to make the World Cup roster, but there's guys on this U20 team that aren't much younger.
I am not ready to just hand wave away the possible consequences of him not being a long term player in Philly. He doesn't play now and they're winning games just fine. And like I said its not like they can increase his value for a future sale
I guess my perspective is simply: I wrote the guy off after watching him at the U20 WC in '23. I just didn't see anything beyond a JAG WF. He wasn't bad, but there was no meat there, it was all bun. I should have remembered how well he played at the Concacrap Championships in '22, when he had 8 goal contributions in a 4 game stretch 9, all 3 goals in a 3-0 win over Cuba, 2 goals and an assist in the following 5-0 win over Nicaraugua in the R16's, an assist in a 2-0 win over Costa Rica in the QF's, and a goal in the 3-0 win over Honduras. Instead I focused on the big fat nothing he did in the U20 WC, back to back starts for the tournament and zilch, after that he was a sub, or benched. I was probably way too quick to right him off after that, but when you combined that in '23, w/a weird, kinda meh, kind of intriguing year (about 1400 minutes, 6 goal contributions). I think more than anything it was a reminder on my part to just not write guys off so quickly based on small sample size stuff, especially tournaments (we ramp the value up with them to the stratosphere, because they are the big deal, and then when you get a fart in church fizzle performance like Donovan against the Czech's in '06, it's hard not to just turn that failure into a defining characteristic for the player). The much more important thing about Quinn in '23 was he was producing a consistent goal contribution every 200 or so minutes clip. Not spectacular, but intriguing back then. And you've got 28 goal contributions since the winter of '23-'24, 10 goals, 18 assists. There is definitely something there. Maybe it's another Arriola, a kind of AAAA caliber talent in terms of USMNT relevance (you can play him, but not in big games, and you don't want to rely on him as a part of your 23) but I think there's no question he's clearly a piece going forward that is WF depth, period. That production is what it is, and my overemphasis on that U20 WC was just completely wrongheaded.