The striker position within the United States Men’s National Team has been a bit volatile dating back to the 2022 World Cup.
Josh Sargent continues to be an injury-prone player despite demonstrating some strong form for Norwich City in the Championship. Folarin Balogun is still highly touted, yet hasn’t translated his talent fully to the national team since filing a one-time switch from England.
Others such as Brandon Vasquez, Haji Wright, and Jesus Ferreira have all featured sporadically over the past 18 months.
With Mauricio Pochettino looking for a solid No. 9 to build his attack around, he may have found it in the form of Ricardo Pepi.
Turning 22 years of age in January, Pepi has been lighting up the Eredivisie in the Netherlands since essentially wrestling away the starting spot from longtime veteran Luuk de Jong. As the No. 9 for PSV Eindhoven — one of the most iconic clubs in all of Holland — Pepi (as of Nov. 26) currently leads the league in goals. He’s bagged nine goals and one assist in only 12 league matches. This most recently included a hat trick versus his former club Gronigen.
Pepi’s profile is a bit different than the rest of the strikers within the national team pool. At 6’1″, he’s good in the air — and has gotten better with his hold-up play. You may think he’d be more of a lumbering, static type with such a stature. On the contrary, he’s a very technical player with above-average athletic ability.
He’s proven quite often to be a real threat in all aspects — whether taking players on from wide areas, being a threat on set-pieces, or even functioning as your classic poacher where he’ll connect with teammates yet also put himself in strong positions to score.
It was a major coup for the United States to wrestle Pepi away from rival Mexico. At this point, it wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that Pepi currently would be among the best players on Mexico’s roster.
As it currently stands, Pepi is making a real case to be the starting striker for Pochettino. He scored in both fixtures this month versus Jamaica. He’s garnering starting experience in the Eredivisie, and also playing vital minutes in Champions League play. From a big-picture standpoint, having a Mexican-American player emerge as a real star within the program can only help the USSF moving forward.
With respect to some of the other Mexican-American players over the last few decades (Carlos Bocanegra, Jose Torres, Joe Corona, etc.), none have had Pepi’s ceiling. The Hispanic population has long been overlooked within the U.S. Soccer youth setup, and it’s a major problem to see such a talented ecosystem of players within the country be relatively untapped. There’s also the dual-national situation, where some players have opted to represent Mexico over the U.S. primarily stemming from comfortability.
Pepi is on the cusp of lining up a move to a bigger league. It’s only a matter of time until he’s plying his trade in Italy or Spain. As he continues to improve and emerge for both club and country, the United States could be truly looking at a special, transformative player.
