We know what we're supposed to do here. We're supposed to stay calm, keep our powder dry, and remember what happened last time. And the time before that. And the one before that.
The problem is Cavan Sullivan keeps making it very difficult.
The 16-year-old Philadelphia Union forward spent last weekend stopping dead on a breakaway, losing his marker with a ripcord halt, then back-heeling a cutback behind his standing leg and watching it kiss the far post in. He celebrated by bowing and doffing an imaginary top hat to the crowd. He then doubled the score himself with a left-footed finish through the goalkeeper's legs from an acute angle, before setting up a third with a perfectly weighted hold-up and release down the right. Two weeks before his 17th birthday, he is almost matching Lionel Messi for goal involvements in MLS and the Leagues Cup since the World Cup. He has six goals and five assists in his last eight matches. He has powered his side through a ten-game unbeaten run. And the advanced metrics say he has already compiled the best MLS season ever by a teenage player, surpassing Alphonso Davies.
We want to believe. That is the trouble.
A List That Should Scare Us
The American football community has been here enough times to know the script. Bobby Convey. Jamar Beasley. John O'Brien. Jozy Altidore. Juan Agudelo. Brek Shea. Julian Green. Gedion Zelalem. Remember Green and Zelalem? Both came out of Bayern Munich and Arsenal's academies respectively, both were held up as potentially the first American male superstar. Green is 31 and currently without a club. Zelalem, 29, is playing for New Mexico United.
And then there is Freddy Adu, the name that casts the longest shadow over all of it. More than two decades on from Freddymania, he still gets invoked as a cautionary tale. He coaches personal skills now, having last played professionally five years ago. Sullivan, for what it is worth, has already scored more MLS goals in two-thirds of a campaign than Adu managed in his highest-scoring season.
Of the entire list of chosen ones, Christian Pulisic is arguably the closest thing to a genuine success story, and even his career comes with heavy caveats. He has never been the focal point of any of his three European clubs' attacks and has now been benched under Ruben Amorim at Milan after a productive three-year run in Serie A.
Gio Reyna is 23 and still something of an open question. We can all remember when he was 17, slotting into a Borussia Dortmund attacking unit alongside Erling Haaland, Jude Bellingham, and Jadon Sancho. That feels like a different era now. [Young talent emerging in unexpected places](/uprise/football/from-segura-to-maltby-six-breakout-stars-from-the-womens) is something football does routinely, and routinely breaks your heart over.
Why This Time Feels Different
Here is what separates Sullivan from most of those names: the evidence is already real. The numbers are not projections. The highlights are not from youth tournaments. Manchester City arranged his transfer, contingent on him turning 18, long before this current run of form. He made his MLS debut at 14 years and 293 days old, breaking Adu's record by 13 days.
The concerns are legitimate too. He is not a big player, and size has derailed careers before. But then, as the saying goes, he would hardly be the first undersized man to make it work at the top level.
Our verdict: proceed with cautious excitement, eyes wide open. The hypetrain is already leaving the station. We are just trying not to end up stranded on the platform again.