American Soccer’s Golden Generation: The Wizardry of Weston McKennie
Weston McKennie has been a stalwart in the midfield for the United States Men’s National Team for the last six seasons. Despite growing up at the beginning of his childhood in Little Elms Texas, McKennie moved to Kaiserslautern, Germany when he was six years due to his father being enlisted in the United States Air Force and being stationed at Ramstein Air Base.
When McKennie moved back to the Texas after a few years in Germany he continued to hone his soccer skills at FC Dallas’ academy for seven years from 2009–2016. After an extremely successful stint at FC Dallas which included winning the USSF Development Academy playoffs, McKennie declined the offer to sign a first team contract with FC Dallas, and instead opted to play for FC Schalke in Germany.
McKennie would spend a year in Schalke’s youth side before transitioning to play with the senior side in 2017. McKennie would make 22 appearances for Schalke during the 2017/18 Bundesliga campaign where he was a swiss army knife for the team playing every position in the defense and midfield throughout the season. It was during this time at Schalke that McKennie developed a rawness to his game physically as a defender which would help him fulfill his role later on as a center defensive midfielder for the USMNT.
McKennie would eventually be loaned out to Juventus for the 2020/21 campaign and would eventually be bought by the Italian giants at the end of his loan, but McKennie will always be remembered at Schalke for the blood, sweat, and tears he poured into making Schalke a top four Bundesliga team while he was there. Many Schalke fans also won’t forget his goal against FC Lokomotiv Moscow in the Champions League.
For the 2022/23 campaign Mckennie was loaned out to Leeds United in the British Premier League where he joined fellow American’s Tyler Adams and Brendan Aaronson. McKennie’s loan included a buyout clause should Leeds stay in the Premier League. Unfortunately, after a rough year where Leeds struggled to find their form in the league, the club was relegated to the Championship and McKennie returned to Juventus over the summer.
In terms of success with the USMNT McKennie has been a cog in the midfield for the U.S. since he was first called up in 2017, and scored against Portugal in his debut. Since then McKennie has scored 10 more times for the USMNT and is a two time CONCACAF Nations League winner with the U.S. Throughout the years McKennie has been known to celebrate with his signature Harry Potter celebration where he waves his hand in the motion of a wand.
McKennie is a tenacious player that is physically built to play any position on the field and possesses a strong engine that allows him to get up and down the pitch. In addition to this the quality that McKennie has gained from playing in the FC Dallas Academy and in Europe enables him to help the U.S. control possession in the middle of the pitch. He will play a key role in the USMNT’s quest for glory at the 2026 World Cup.
Thank you for tuning in this week. If you enjoyed reading about the wizardy of Weston McKennie then tune in next week to read about the USMNT’s leader between the sticks, Matt Turner.
Works Cited
https://www.transfermarkt.us/weston-mckennie/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/332697
