To better understand the US Men’s National Team before it begins world cup in qatar, athletic Traveled to the hometowns of some of the most important figures. We found a team shaped by traditions not only in American society, but around the world.
Taken together, their story is a glimpse into the growing and increasingly vibrant American football culture in full play between now and the World Cup final on December 18th.
For many people around the world, thinking of Tim Ware means thinking of his father.
It doesn’t matter that Weah is a talented 22-year-old. Despite his age, he has already won three League One titles and for the US men’s national team he has played 25 times. It doesn’t matter if he’s ready to break out at the World Cup. you can’t.
Although he failed to lead his home country to the World Cup, elder Weah is one of the greatest players of all time. He is the only African to win either the Ballon d’Or or his FIFA Player of the Year award, having won both honors in 1995, with AS he in Monaco, Paris he in Saint Germain and AC Milan. Currently, he is the President of his native Liberia, where he has been in office since 2018. He watches games in Qatar officially from his FIFA suite, not with friends and family of other US players. state.
For years, his father’s notoriety has cast a bright spotlight on young Weah.There are certainly benefits and privileges associated with it, but there are also burdens. From the moment he started to make his mark in the youth national team, he has lived up to high expectations. He doesn’t run away from any of it, and when asked about the dynamics he consistently seems understanding and doesn’t care. Rather than giving him his own identity, he defines it by including it under George’s legend.
There will undoubtedly be many figures to be created during the World Cup, but much of his story is missing. Yes, Tim is the son of one of the greatest football legends of all time, but his early path in the game was shaped more by his mother, Klar, than by his father.
“I give credit to his mother,” said Michael Duncan, Clark’s older brother and Ware’s uncle. “She really devoted her time to Timothy. His 75% of where he got to was due to Timothy’s skill and dedication, but the remaining 25% of him was helping him get over it and that is his mother.
“His father was all over the place, but he was busy, playing, working. My mother did most of the work.”
Clarke was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1979, the youngest of a large family that moved to Brooklyn. She and her siblings all started playing in Jamaica and grew up continuing to play the game after her family arrived in America.
She and George met in New York City in the early 1990s when George stopped by the Manhattan bank branch where Clare worked. They married in 1993, not long after George moved to Paris from Monaco, and had his first two children, George Jr. and Martha. Their youngest son, Tim, was born in 2000 in Brooklyn.
Apart from a short stint in South Florida, Tim spent his childhood in New York. For the most part, he was in the southeast corner of New York City in the part of Queens known as Rosedale. Nestled in the wetlands between John F. Kennedy International Airport and Nassau County on Long He Island, Rosedale is predominantly a Caribbean region. According to recent data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau,Nearly 30% of Rosedale’s total population of just over 26,500 were born in non-Hispanic Caribbean countries such as Jamaica, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago. Another 10% were born in Guyana. Guyana is located in South America, but is considered part of the English-speaking Caribbean.
Around the time Clare and George got married, Rosedale became the home of the Duncan family. Clark, Michael, and some of their siblings raised their children in the area. George’s political activism meant he spent a lot of time abroad during Tim’s childhood, but he also had a presence. I own a house in Springfield Gardens, just west of This is where Tim stays when he visits New York.
Michael remains a local resident. He and his Clar co-own a buffet restaurant in his neighborhood called Jamaica Breeze. Located on Merrick Blvd. It’s packed with Caribbean spots like Jerk Hut, Creole Plate, Irie Island, and Home His Chef Roti. He is also President of Rosedale SC. Rosedale SC is Tim and his cousin Kyle He is a former New York Red Bulls defender Duncan (Michael’s nephew) and now top Belgian in the flight he plays for KV Oostende. .
One breezy Saturday morning in late October, I drove up to Rosedale to see Michael. When I stopped, he was busy overseeing the club’s recreational program at PS 181 Elementary School, a small pond that follows a row of single-family homes, and a home ground between wooded areas that lead to the rest of the housing estate. .Idle Wild Park.
A group of about 20 8- to 10-year-olds warmed up at the edge of a grass field, wearing a variety of hats, gloves, and layers to keep out the autumn chill. Michael was not on the main field, but on a small, uneven grassy pitch just outside the sidelines.
Rosedale SC side field. (Sam Steskal)
He shepherded a group of what appeared to be four and five year olds while they played a small game. His parents and grandparents were parked in lawn chairs on the sidelines. A mixture of New York and Caribbean accents encouraged and taught children. Almost everyone on the field was from Jamaica, Michael says.
That same little patch of grass is where the very young Wear got his first taste of football.
“Timothy was here before he could walk, here in a little field,” said Michael. Clara was mentoring Timothy’s sister and Timothy was right there and she was holding him even before he could walk. By a year and a half, he really started kicking the ball. Even then, I remember him saying, “For a little boy, he kicks the ball really hard.” It was great to have Timothy here. “
As he got older, Ware began playing for a traveling team in Rosedale. He and Kyle, two and a half years older, played in several age groups and often dominated the competition. They spent the whole day together on Rosedale’s home ground.
“This was a home environment for them,” said Michael. “It’s still a family environment. Timothy and Kyle were here from eleven in the morning until seven at night after we finished the game. There were 11 or 12 people playing and each I was playing for myself, and if you take the ball away, 11 people will try to take it away from you.”
Eventually the boys got to the point where they needed a higher level of competition. Ware joined when he was about ten years old with Kyle and several other Rosedale players, including now Trinidad. Tobago International Noah Powder.
However, after starting playing for Gotchy, Ware and Kyle continued to fit in with their family’s club in Rosedale.
“One day Timothy was playing a game with Gottchy, Kyle was playing a game with Gottchy, and a few other boys were playing a game with Gottchy, and we were playing a game here at the same time,” Michael said. I was. “Five guys were late. The (opposite) team beat us 7-0, then Timothy and Kyle and the rest came in. Who are these guys? It was 7-1, 7-2, 7-3 and finally 7-7 and time was up.”
Weah’s career from that point on took him to the New York Red Bulls academy and then to PSG’s academy. He moved to Lille in search of first-team minutes, and in his second season almost came off the bench, winning a surprising Ligue 1 title. Before long, he emerged as a key player for the United States, putting in a man-of-the-match performance in America’s 2-0 victory over Mexico last November, assisting Cristian Pulisic’s opening goal. , wreaked havoc all night with a dangerous chute. knock down the right wing.
The day after that game, the United States flew to Kingston to face Jamaica. Ware met with a travel reporter the day before the game to talk about his mother, advice on where to find the best patties in New York City, and discuss the Jamaican Curriculum private school he attended as a child, Rosedale SC (where he recently enrolled). According to Michael, a significant financial contribution). The prospect of playing a World Cup qualifier just a few miles away from where his mother grew up obviously meant a lot to him.
“For me, the national anthem is important. It’s going to be huge for me too.
Before the game, Ware said his parents joked in Kingston not to push too hard against Jamaica. He didn’t listen exactly and he scored an incredible goal in the 11th minute of a game that ended in a 1-1 draw that put the United States ahead 1-0.
Tim Ware strikes first @USMNT 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/3EO1ZaRz5s
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) November 16, 2021
He’s been a regular starter for the United States for over a year, but it’s unclear if he’ll finish 11th at the World Cup. He has struggled with injuries this season, missing eight games for Lille and two US friendlies in September with foot problems. He returned to action in early October, but the outstanding play of a now-healthy Gio Reina at Borussia Dortmund and Brenden Aaronsson at Leeds United saw Weah on the bench against Wales on 21 November. It means that there is a possibility of exiting from
We’re sure you’ll see plenty of shots of George during the broadcast of the match, seeing his son on a stage he’d never been able to reach in his own playing career. Michael is also flying to Liberia this week and will travel to the Middle East with his sister and brother-in-law ahead of the US season opener.
While the world now knows him as the son of some of the greatest greats in sports history, Tim Ware has lived a beautiful, unique American football story on the field in Qatar. He is the child of a Jamaican immigrant and a Liberian legend, the product of a close-knit family formed by New York City’s predominantly Caribbean community that has found fame abroad.
Not only does he have the chance to add another chapter to his already remarkable journey at the World Cup, but he also has the chance to make his story more his own.
(Top photo: Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
