Surprised by Alex Freeman’s ascent? Perhaps you shouldn’t be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old fullback and one of last year’s breakout players for the U.S. men’s national team will now join Spanish top-flight club Villarreal, a source close to him confirmed to me after The Athletic broke the news Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The son of Super Bowl-winning wide receiver Antonio Freeman, the younger Freeman has rapidly risen through the ranks. An academy product for MLS club Orlando City, he won Young Player of the Year honors last year. Now he’s heading to one of the best leagues in the world \u2013 and squarely put in the mix to be part of the USA’s squad at the 2026 World Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here are my takeaways following the agreement:\u00a0<\/p>\n
(Photo by John Dorton\/ISI Photos\/USSF\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to believe that a year ago today, Freeman had logged just 10 first-team minutes for Orlando City over his first two seasons as a pro. He hadn’t even been called up by USA coach Mauricio Pochettino for the annual January camp. But Freeman became one of Pochettino\u2019s favorites by summer\u2019s end by helping the USA reach the Gold Cup final, and then capped on his breakout 2025 by scoring his first two international goals in a 5-1 rout of Uruguay in November.<\/p>\n A source told me that Freeman drew Premier League interest from Wolverhampton last August. But Villarreal \u2014 currently sitting in fourth place in LaLiga behind the powerhouse trio of Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Atl\u00e9tico Madrid \u2014 was persistent and eventually landed their man. The Spanish league could be a better fit for Freeman\u2019s all-world athleticism anyway, which could lead to a smoother transition to Europe.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s still a huge step-up: The team known as Yellow Submarine qualified for the UEFA Champions League this season and is on pace to do so again in 2026-27.<\/p>\n On the surface, Freeman is taking a risk: had he stayed in Orlando (even on loan) until the World Cup, he\u2019d be assured of starting every week in MLS. But that status could change quickly if Freeman doesn\u2019t hit the ground running in Spain.<\/p>\n For the USMNT, Freeman had emerged as a first-choice player for Pochettino even before his sensational performance versus Uruguay in November. In that game, 2022 World Cup veteran Sergi\u00f1o <\/strong><\/i>Dest was used on the wing to keep the youngster in the lineup in the right-back role. We\u2019ll find out what Pochettino thinks of Freeman\u2019s transfer on Thursday, when the former Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain manager speaks to U.S.-based reporters via video conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even though Villarreal spent just $4 million before incentives on the transfer, he should see the pitch fairly quickly. The club has a clear need at right-back, with natural center backs Santiago Mourino and 20-year-old Pau Navarro platooning on the outside for most of the current campaign. Freeman seems like the ideal fit, but he\u2019ll need to perform; although the club leads fifth-place Espanyol by seven points with a game in hand, they\u2019re pushing for a Champions League spot and will tolerate the newcomer\u2019s learning curve only if it doesn\u2019t jeopardize their place in the La Liga standings.<\/p>\n On the flip side, Freeman will only cement his role as a World Cup starter if he excels in Spain over the second half of the 2025-26 campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read more: <\/strong><\/i>Alex Freeman on the World Cup and His Super Bowl-Winning Dad<\/u><\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n (Photo by Mark Thorstenson – Orlando City\/MLS via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Surprised by Alex Freeman’s ascent? Perhaps you shouldn’t be.\u00a0 The 21-year-old fullback and one of last year’s breakout players for the U.S. men’s national team will now join Spanish top-flight club Villarreal, a source close to him confirmed to me after The Athletic broke the news Monday.\u00a0 The son of Super […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}