Clint Dempsey interview: USMNT icon on Christian Pulisic's podcast drama and pay-to-play

New York Times

3 days ago

For the United States men's national team, it has been a summer of podcast outbursts forming a tetchy soundtrack one year out from a heavily anticipated home World Cup.
Following Christian Pulisic's decision not to join up with Mauricio Pochettino's team for the Gold Cup — along with a slew of other absentees — criticism came from USMNT icons Landon Donovan and Tim Howard (on their own podcast), Pulisic issued a riposte (on a CBS podcast) and Clint Dempsey said he struggled to understand Pulisic's decision (on the Men In Blazers podcast).
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In between all that, Pulisic's father appeared to launch a broadside at Donovan via Instagram (on a post liked by his son). Pochettino also used his news conferences to assert his authority, saying players 'cannot dictate the plan' after Pulisic claimed he offered to play in the two warmup friendly games but with the condition of dropping out for the Gold Cup.
Dempsey also pointed out how the situation might have been averted if U.S. Soccer, the nation's governing body, and Pulisic had aligned more closely on their messaging. During an interview with The Athletic, Dempsey said: 'Why wasn't there a way that we could have been more unified in the messaging that's going out to the public? You have one of the best players for the national team, and if it had been England, if Harry Kane was missing a tournament or the Nations League or World Cup qualifying, there would be people asking questions.
'It's important to be unified and to have that conversation. Then there's no back and forth looking like two people are at odds with each other, especially a year out from the World Cup. It could have been handled better. Still, the best way to solve problems — whether you get a red card in the game or you do something stupid — is to get back on the pitch and let your play do the talking for you.'
Dempsey, who earned more than 140 senior caps, has previously revealed he once had a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection in his adductor to play for the USMNT. He was asked whether his locker room would have required the federation to step in or if the players would have held themselves to account.
'You would like to think you have a good enough relationship with your teammates that you could put a call in and ask, 'Hey, what's going on? Is there something I can do for you? We need you in this tournament'. At the same time, for me, it was never a question if I was going to go into the national team and play,' Dempsey said. 'Whether it was Gold Cup, World Cup qualifying, the Confederations Cup, Copa America, the World Cup, I wanted to be there because as a kid, I dreamed about representing my country.
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'I knew that there were a lot of kids where I am from that didn't make it. You're representing for them, your town, your city, your state, your country. So everybody's going through different things. Everybody's dealing with different injuries and different things mentally. I'm not privy to those conversations to know what's going on.
'What's made this situation difficult is what happened with Copa America when we did not get out of the group stage, then losing to Panama and Canada in Nations League and then the four losses in a row, the worst streak we'd had in a long time. It put more pressure on this Gold Cup. There are not many opportunities left after this for meaningful games, and you want to try to get things right.'
Pulisic, who racked up more than 3,500 minutes for Milan in the 2024-25 season, told CBS his body and mind 'started talking' to him towards the end of the campaign and he felt a rest was best for his fitness.
Does Dempsey, who spent 15 seasons playing in the English Premier League and in MLS, believe that USMNT players in Europe have a uniquely difficult task to balance club and country responsibilities?
'No matter what league you're in, it's going to be difficult,' he said. 'The things that are difficult about MLS are the travel and the time changes. When I played MLS, you weren't flying privately. People were asking you, 'Are you a college team? Do you play lacrosse?'. We were sitting in middle seats, sitting back next to the toilet. But then in Europe at the top teams, you're playing in more competitions and it is a grind to go back and forth to the States.'
He does, however, point out that the USMNT has recently avoided the most grueling travel because it does not need to qualify for the home World Cup.
'That is the hardest traveling,' he said, 'because normally you come in, you play two games, you're going to Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Mexico, Jamaica, then you fly back to Europe on Thursday, you get there Friday morning, you have a game either Saturday or Sunday.'
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And what of the soap opera that has surrounded the team this summer, with former players offering strong opinions and current players hitting back?
'It shows there's a climate where people care,' Dempsey said. 'I'm not trying to be a part of the drama. You're asking me my opinion and I'm giving you how I look at things. In terms of the Christian situation, all I think is U.S. Soccer could have been more unified about how that gets out to the public.
'Playing for your country in a tournament, I tell you what my mentality was. I am not saying whether someone's doing right or wrong. Everybody has a right to their opinion — it shows that people do care, but you never want to get in a situation where it's tit for tat. Everybody wants the same thing: to have the U.S. playing well. We want to be excited. I'd like to focus more on the positives of the new faces. They're gonna be in this Gold Cup, they're gonna push to get into the lineup and get this fanbase and team back on track to being inspired because we are one year out from the greatest tournament.'
Dempsey, who was speaking at the mid-point of the Gold Cup group stage, said that following the breakthrough of young USMNT players who carried the team to the knockout stage of the World Cup in 2022, the team's development has appeared to be at 'a little bit of a standstill.'
He said: 'You've had this new talent, you've developed it so far, but then where's this next young talent that's coming up and pushing these guys and having competition for spots? That would create an environment where you have to look over your shoulder and be on your game to make sure that someone's not taking your spot.'
Dempsey was talking to The Athletic as part of an initiative led by Abbott, a healthcare firm that has partnered with Real Madrid as part of the Abbott Dream Team program, which will see youngsters try out in cities across the U.S. for the opportunity to then travel to Spain to train under Real Madrid coaches and learn about sports nutrition from the club's medical team. Dempsey says the tryouts are available to 18- and 19-year-old boys and girls.
'If you have the right eyes watching you, the sky is the limit,' Dempsey said. 'A buddy of mine, José Torres, he's from Longview, Texas. He played Hispanic leagues on Sunday, but through his play in Hispanic leagues, this allowed him to get a trial in Mexico with a Liga MX team and he was able to make it.'
More broadly, the program is part of Abbott's and Real Madrid's ongoing 'Beat Malnutrition' campaign to provide nutrition education and malnutrition screening to children in 12 countries around the world.
Last weekend, during a conversation at Fanatics Fest in New York, FIFA president Gianni Infantino criticized the 'pay-to-play' model for many young soccer players in the U.S., saying, 'For children, it must be free to play football.' When speaking to The Athletic before Infantino's intervention, Dempsey said there is room for improvement.
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'My son is in an MLS academy and you don't have to pay to play,' Dempsey said. 'If you're good enough, it doesn't matter where you come from, what your background is, that is covered. For the players in rural areas or inner cities that are not around MLS teams, it is a lot more difficult. It is a financial strain, and my family went into debt doing that. I didn't have a college fund growing up. It was, 'How bad do you want something in life? What are you willing to risk? How hard are you willing to work?'. Nothing's perfect, things need to get better. We need to make it easier for people who are less fortunate to have the chance to go chase their dreams. Hopefully, that changes, but it's just so difficult to fix everything.
'It's not fair. And I'm not saying that I want families to do the path I did. Everybody has a different story and a different path. There needs to be ways to figure out for the people that can't afford it to get the better coaching and the platform to try to take their game to the next level. I'm on board with that 100 percent.'