As a toddler in Manizales, Colombia, Juan Agudelo’s first word was “Gol.” Olga Rostron remembers her son was referring to a soccer ball, not the act of scoring it. But in Juan’s young mind, there was no difference between the two — just as there hasn’t been in the 18 years since.
Agudelo’s sublime ability to put a soccer ball in the back of the goal, and his opportunistic knack for doing so in pivotal moments, have catapulted the Colombian-born, New Jersey-raised 18-year-old to exalted status in American soccer.If Agudelo fulfills his lofty potential, he could help transform the U.S. soccer team, considered very good on the international stage, to an echelon never previously reached, and in the process partially reshape the athletic landscape in this country.
His future impact, though, is merely conjecture at this point, a postscript when the preamble’s ink is still fresh. Agudelo is just seven months removed from relative anonymity, still a debutant who has nonetheless become the most heralded American player since Freddy Adu was coronated as the sport’s messiah eight years ago, at age 13.
Adu’s is a cautionary tale that has cycled through reincarnations over the past generation, as a sport and fan base hungry for star power continue their search for their own American idol.
As it pertains to soccer, that quixotic sentiment had elevated Adu, and to a lesser extent, Jozy Altidore, Eddie Johnson and Charlie Davies. And when the second cleat dropped, reality revealed a collection of players at one time considered the answer to the sport’s dire and perplexing question: Who will score goals for the United States? Those players instead went missing.
So, naturally, there are significant expectations already heaped on Agudelo. Just 17 last November, he became the youngest player in modern era to score a goal for the senior national team and the first player to rise through U.S. soccer’s youth academy system to play for the national team. Questions followed as to whether his broad shoulders can handle the weight.
“Every time I step on the field, I know it’s my chance to prove myself,” said Agudelo, who will lead the U.S. into the Gold Cup this week. “It’s something I’ve been doing my whole life and I feel comfortable. … I feel like I’m going to be alive after the game, so I just go out there and relax.”
Those closest to him feel he can succeed, and it has less to do with what he does on the field than the kind of person he already has become.
“He’s very young, but he’s very mature and humble and just wants to have fun with what he loves most, which is soccer,” his mother said. “Sometimes, I think he’s teaching me to be a better human being, rather than me teaching him.”
You Can Call Me John
Those who know Juan Agudelo best call him John, an Americanized nickname that stuck soon after he arrived in the United States, with his mother, at age 7.
Olga, who separated from Agudelo’s father shortly before Juan started school, had met James Rostrun at a dental conference in 1999. They were married in February 2000, and Olga and Juan moved in May to live with Rostron and his four children in Toms River and, later, Barnegat.
Agudelo’s half-siblings, all older, agreed to call him John after attempts to call him Juan ended up sounding instead like “One.” Olga Rostron remembers walking into her son’s room one day and seeing words scrawled on the door of his closet. “John,” it read, “A professional soccer player if God helps me. It’s all up to God and me.”
At 12, in search of better competition, he joined the Passco travel team based in Wayne, a two-hour drive from Barnegat. With practices three nights a week and games on the weekend, Juan moved to Kinnelon and lived with the Gallego family, friends of Rostron who treated Juan like a son. Agudelo fell into the Gallego family seamlessly.
“At the age of 8, he behaved like 12. When he was 11 he was like a 14-, 15-year-old,” said Fernando Gallego, who became like a surrogate father to Juan and coached him at Passco. “And the way he behaves now, he behaves like a 22- or 23-year-old. He has always been humble, quiet, mature.”
Discipline seemed to permeate his life, not just his soccer. Agudelo enrolled at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark with Bryan Gallego, the friend he refers to as his brother, and was an “A” student. It was a condition he had to maintain in order to keep playing soccer, his mother said.
In 2007, Agudelo and a bunch of his Passco teammates joined the Red Bulls Academy, and the road to becoming a professional seemed straight.
“He was a very unselfish player,” said Bob Montgomery, the Red Bulls director of youth development. “He could dominate if he wanted to but was a team player. He stood out technically and athletically. He was a quiet guy but a guy who would accept the challenge to step up and get things done.”
Bryan Gallego remembers in an Academy game at age 16 when Agudelo scored on a bicycle kick on a cross-field lob. His mother recalled a game in which Agudelo’s teammate told him if he scored, his father had promised to quit smoking cigarettes. Late in the game, Agudelo was bearing down on goal alone, he drew the goalkeeper then passed to his overjoyed teammate to put the ball in the net.
By August 2008, Agudelo had been accepted into the U.S. national team’s elite under-17 residency program in Bradenton, Fla., which allowed Agudelo to practice against the best players in the country twice daily, a serious shift in exposure to the sport. It accelerated his development and solidified his commitment to the U.S. national team.
Agudelo could have played for the Colombian national team, but they showed no interest in him until he had already capped for the United States. Still, it seems the choice would not have been difficult.
Agudelo has embraced his Colombian heritage — he used to wear a bracelet marked with the Colombian flag — but has spent little time there since leaving with his mother. At 9, he went back for about a month to spend time with his father, but he has no relatives his age or friends there, his mother said.
Agudelo’s heritage is evident in his tan complexion and ease in handling interviews in Spanish as well as English. But it also demonstrates itself on the field, where Agudelo plays with a mix of the idiosyncratic flair from Latin America with the technical prowess drilled in America.
“Colombians play with a more creative style, a relaxed style,” said Fernando Gallego, who lived in Santa Rosa, about a half hour from Agudelo’s hometown, until he was 19. “They play with more freedom. Americans have more influence from Europe, which is less about freedom, a little bit more mechanical. I’m not knocking it, but it’s a different type of soccer.”
“The refreshing thing about Juan is he looks like he wants to take risks,” said John Harkes, a Kearny native who was a former captain of the U.S. and is now a commentator for ESPN. “He wants to penetrate the heart of the defense. And, of course, he needs to earn that right from his coaches, but we should embrace that.”
Agudelo’s unique style and tireless work ethic became the foundation of his reputation.
“He’s playing soccer from when he wakes up, dribbling the ball around the house, to when he goes to bed,” Bryan Gallego said . “He would be passing the ball in his room between these squares working on his accuracy. I always knew, from when we were little, he was gonna be big. … We never imagined he’d already be doing so well.”
“He’s playing soccer from when he wakes up, dribbling the ball around the house, to when he goes to bed,” Bryan Gallego said . “He would be passing the ball in his room between these squares working on his accuracy. I always knew, from when we were little, he was gonna be big. … We never imagined he’d already be doing so well.”
Career Moves
Juan Agudelo had barely cracked the Red Bulls lineup last November when he received a phone call he thought was a prank. Sitting in the locker room at the Red Bulls training complex, a woman on his cell phone told him she needed to gather his passport information because he was headed to South Africa with the U.S. senior national team. His first thought was to call his mother.
“She screamed so loud, I thought she broke my phone,” Agudelo said.
Agudelo’s family — his mother, the Rostrons, the Gallegos — have cushioned him through his ascent, providing advice, relief, an outlet for frustration or just a home-cooked meal. In early 2010, Agudelo trained with Millonarios, a club team in Colombia, but chose to sign a professional contract with the Red Bulls to stay close to home.
“That’s the biggest thing that has made me successful in my life so far — my family,” Agudelo said. “That’s mostly why I feel like I’m modest. They keep my feet on the ground. … The way I think about playing soccer, I don’t think about things off the field. They don’t affect me or give me a big head. I haven’t accomplished what I want to accomplish so far.”
Agudelo’s personal goals are a reminder that in some ways he’s still a boy. He said he hopes to become one of the top 100 players in the world according to FourFourTwo magazine, which puts out an annual list that Agudelo has followed for years. That aim would be considered another bit of modesty from those who have seen him play.
“I’m adamant that in a few years he’ll be having a very good career after having one here,” said Erik Soler, the Red Bulls’ sporting director who signed Agudelo last March.
Having first seen Agudelo play 18 months ago, Soler has witnessed the player’s steady progression from a Red Bulls reserve last year (Agudelo would go practice at night with Gallego and others in the Academy after practicing with the first team during the day) to MLS goal scorer (Agudelo won the Red Bulls’ season opener in March with his first MLS goal, shouldering aside a Seattle defender before slicing the ball into the net with his right foot) to national team sensation. Agudelo scored the game-winning goal against South Africa in his senior team debut.
“The first emotion that comes to mind is excitement,” said Harkes. “For a long period of time we’re hoping we can develop some kind of players in our system that have the skill, ability to open up a game by going one-on-one with players — and he seems to have that.”
After his goal tied Argentina, 1-1, in March at New Meadowlands Stadium, Agudelo’s youthful hubris postgame took him to midfield, where he greeted the world’s best player, Lionel Messi. “I just wanted to introduce myself: Juan Agudelo,” he said.
Soler, like others, sees Agudelo’s future in Europe, where the world’s best club soccer is played.
“He is a very hard worker, very disciplined,” Fernando Gallego said. “And he’s willing to work with any coach, no matter what. When you have the skills and soccer knowledge, all you need then is the will. And he has that.”
Soler and Red Bulls coach Hans Backe have acted as an extension of the familial cocoon that supports Agudelo. The club has been stern in refusing offers for Agudelo from clubs outside the U.S. which call “all the time,” Soler said, proffering sums in the millions.
“We could make very good money on Agudelo now, but we won’t because it’s not interesting for us,” Soler said. “Because we have the belief he will become better, even more mature and it will be better for him. We feel he needs to play and he needs to play for us.”
“It’s hard to develop and play through things and find out what you’re made up if you’re not playing,” Harkes said. “He needs a platform to learn those things.”
Soler has been working in MLS and the United States since the end of 2009, but he seems to have an intimate understanding of the now mythical mistakes that have turned Americans formerly anointed the next international star into the next Icarus.
“One of the biggest mistakes for many young U.S. players is they travel too early,” Soler said, contrasting Bolton’s Stuart Holden with former Red Bulls striker Altidore. “You have a guy like Stuart Holden, who goes directly in and plays Premier League, which is great. And then you have another example from this club, a guy who goes out very early and is struggling. Because he goes to a level he should not be at, at that moment.
“It’s too high, it’s too early, the pressure is too much. The smart kids stay here.”
And by every account, Agudelo will be one of the smart ones. His focus on the field is not undercut by distractions off of it. And as the U.S. looks to reclaim the Gold Cup, Agudelo will once again be in the spotlight, where he has demonstrated an uncanny knack for rising to the occasion has become a hallmark of his game.
“It doesn’t bother me when people say I’m young,” Agudelo said. “It bothers me when people say I don’t have experience, when they say, ‘He doesn’t have experience to play in big-time games.’ … I feel like I’ve done something in my life so far.
“I feel like I’ve been fortunate, at the right spot at the right time. I think against Argentina I was fortunate to be in the right spot. Those little goals can change a lot of things for your life.”