On 17 July 2024, aged fourteen years and 293 days, Cavan Sullivan came on for Philadelphia Union and became the youngest player ever to appear in a match in any major American professional sport. He broke Freddy Adu's record by thirteen days. Two years later he is in a United States squad that left Christian Pulisic out of it, he turns seventeen in the middle of this international window, and Manchester City have already bought him. This week he got his first player card. It says 67.
Four Numbers
14y 293d
Age on Debut
The youngest in any major American professional sport
17
Goal Contributions
This MLS season, third-most ever by a teenager
$5m
Already Agreed
Manchester City's fee, payable when he turns eighteen
67
First Card
EA FC 27, released 25 September — his first card in the game
The Record He Already Holds
Before the call-up, before the goals, there was a substitution.
Sullivan's debut at fourteen was not a publicity appearance that ended there. This season he has produced seventeen goal contributions, six goals and eleven assists, which Major League Soccer records as the third-most by a teenager in a single season — three short of Diego Fagúndez's twenty in 2013. He was voted MLS Player of the Matchday for Matchday 26. Earlier in the year he became the fourth-youngest player to register an assist in league history, and at one point scored in consecutive games to become the first sixteen-year-old with goal contributions in four straight matches.
Mauricio Pochettino named him in a twenty-eight-man squad for four friendlies between 26 September and 6 October. Christian Pulisic is not in it.
Until this week Cavan Sullivan had no player card at all — not because his league was missing from the game, but because he was. Major League Soccer is licensed in EA FC; EA's agreement with the league kept a player his age out. EA FC 27 launched on 25 September with his first card: 67 overall, as a right midfielder. It is the rating of a player the game has only just been allowed to see. The seventeen goal contributions came first.
The Contract Manchester City Signed With a Fourteen-Year-Old
The largest homegrown deal in MLS history, and a clause with a date on it.
Sullivan signed with Philadelphia on 9 May 2024 — the most lucrative homegrown contract the league has ever awarded — and the agreement runs to 2028. Inside it is a clause transferring him to Manchester City when he turns eighteen, for a fee reported at up to $5m, with Philadelphia retaining a sell-on percentage.
The date is not approximate. He becomes eligible to play in England on 28 September 2027, his eighteenth birthday, because a non-British player cannot move there before then. A club bought a fourteen-year-old and diarised the day he becomes legal.
“Manchester City did not scout a player and then sign him. They signed a fourteen-year-old and set an alarm for three years later.”
The Three Years In Between
What happens before the alarm goes off is the interesting part.
If he develops fast enough to leave MLS before eighteen, England is closed to him but continental Europe is not — and Manchester City's ownership group also controls Girona in Spain, Palermo in Italy, Lommel in Belgium and Troyes in France. Any of them is a legal destination for a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old.
That is the same structure we described when we took apart Strasbourg's ownership and squad: a multi-club group using a smaller league as a holding pen for players the flagship cannot yet register. Sullivan is the clearest case of it yet, because the paperwork was done before he could drive.
What This Window Actually Decides
Four matches, and one of them could rewrite a twenty-year-old record.
The United States play Peru on 26 September, Chile on 29 September, Mexico on 3 October and Canada on 6 October. Sullivan turns seventeen on 28 September, between the first two.
If Pochettino uses him at all, he becomes the second-youngest player ever to represent the United States, behind Freddy Adu — who came on against Canada at sixteen years and 243 days in January 2006, and whose career is now the cautionary tale attached to every American teenager since. Sullivan has already taken one record off him. The symmetry is uncomfortable and everybody involved knows it.
Philadelphia Union, 2024-
- MLS debut age: 14 years 293 days
- USMNT debut age: not yet
- Record held: youngest in any major American pro sport
- Next move: Manchester City, agreed, September 2027
D.C. United, 2004-2007
- MLS debut age: 14 years 306 days
- USMNT debut age: 16 years 243 days
- Record held: broken by 13 days, July 2024
- Next move: decided after his debut, not before it
Quick Reference
How old is Cavan Sullivan?
Sixteen. He turns seventeen on 28 September 2026, during this international window.
Does he have an EA FC card?
Yes, since this week: 67 overall in EA FC 27, released on 25 September. He was not in earlier editions because EA's licensing agreement with Major League Soccer left out players his age.
When does he join Manchester City?
On his eighteenth birthday, 28 September 2027, the first day he is eligible to play in England. The fee is reported at up to $5m.
Has he played for the United States yet?
Not as of 26 September, the day of the first match against Peru. He is in the squad for four matches between 26 September and 6 October.
Correction, 26 September 2026: an earlier version of this article said EA FC does not carry Major League Soccer. It does. Sullivan was absent from earlier editions because of his age, and the article has been updated with his first card, released with EA FC 27.
The game has now seen him, and it says 67. He holds a record that took twenty years to break, has a Premier League contract with a date on it, and produced seventeen goal contributions before he was allowed a card at all. The lesson is not that Cavan Sullivan is underrated. It is that the rating arrived last, and will spend the next year catching up.
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