PHILADELPHIA — Outside the home clubhouse, a teen with close-cropped, bleached-white hair waited for Bryce Harper. The kid was in a Philadelphia Phillies jersey, flap open, a gold chain against his bare chest. Most kids Cavan Sullivan’s age would grow bug-eyed or feel some jitters meeting the Phillies slugger. Most kids Cavan Sullivan’s age would plead for a selfie.
Cavan Sullivan is not most kids. Never has been, not since he was ordained as soccer’s next big thing before he could buy a ticket for a PG-13 movie.
At 14 years, 293 days old, Sullivan became the youngest player to appear in a game for any major professional sports league when he made his July debut for the Philadelphia Union.
The teen soccer phenom caught the attention of a former teen prodigy who knows more about baseball but also a thing or two about soccer. Harper is a bit of a soccer nut. His wife played in college. He sent fans into a frenzy when he celebrated a home run in MLB’s London Series with a soccer-style slide, then roared in the dugout, “I love soccer!”
Harper has handled the unwieldy expectations that came with being a Sports Illustrated cover boy at 16. It’s the kind of career blueprint Sullivan would love to follow, the prospect who spins potential into greatness rather than slips into a whatever-happened-to trivia answer.
“Your skills are incredible, bro. Incredible,” Harper told him that day.
“You’ve seen a few clips?” Sullivan said.
Yeah, Harper’s seen a few. After Sullivan gifted Harper a Union jersey with the Phillies first baseman’s name on the back, the midfielder sounded more like a sage World Cup veteran than a high schooler who needs to hitch rides to practice.
“As you know, lot of work to do still,” Sullivan said. “The hype doesn’t really mean anything.”
The hype is real in Philly, mushrooming by the day in MLS and could go global by the time he is expected to transfer to English Premier League powerhouse Manchester City when he is 18.
AN EARLY START
It’s the kind of start Sullivan has dreamed of his entire life. All 14 years.
“I’d say I realized I could be a pro at 10 or 11,” Sullivan says. “I think that’s when I posted my first highlight reel. … People said stuff that I didn’t imagine, thinking that I could be where I am today. It came out true.”
Sullivan was younger than any player who has appeared in the NBA, NHL, NFL, WNBA or Major League Baseball since at least 1970, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, though 14-year-old McKenna Whitham made her NWSL debut this past week with Gotham at 10 months younger than Sullivan.
The Sullivans are a soccer family. He is the second child of collegiate soccer players at Penn, Brendan and Heike Sullivan. Oldest brother Quinn already plays for the Union, and younger brothers Ronan and Declan are in the team’s pipeline. Union Coach Jim Curtin played soccer at Villanova under Sullivan’s grandfather, Larry. Brendan Sullivan coached under his father at Villanova, all the familiar ties needed to ease the family’s comfort level with turning Cavan pro so young.
His earliest soccer memory, “shirtless in diapers kicking stuff at (stuffed) animals” was enough to send Sullivan on the road from his Norristown, Pa., home to a future in Europe.
His mother recalled the overwhelming feeling when fans recognized Sullivan at the Union stadium and started asking for autographs. That was before he made history; he has since popped up around the area, pushing fast-food chicken for a promotional campaign. He’s been filmed for a documentary and was mobbed on a day off with his family by autograph seekers at the shore. He threw out the first pitch at that Phillies game.
“Better throw a strike or they’ll boo you,” Manager Rob Thomson warned Sullivan in his office.
Sure enough, Sullivan uncorked a wild one, way high. The Philly crowd went easy.
“I aimed high,” Sullivan said. “It just kept going.”
A TEENAGE LIFE, CHANGED
More than a pro soccer career has been accelerated for Sullivan. He should be starting his freshman year of high school but is, instead, headed into his junior year at the YSC Academy, a soccer-specific high school where his dad is a humanities instructor.
“I feel like, if I work now, I can have fun later,” he said. “But I’m having fun. I’m working every day. That’s the beauty of it.”
So this is the part of Sullivan’s story where mom and dad and kid and coach say, sure, he could be a future Messi but he’s just like any other kid his age. He sleeps late and goofs around and Snapchats girls and plays videogames and .. no. None of that.
Sullivan’s fun: soccer. His home life: soccer. His hobbies: soccer, soccer and soccer. He laughed and said no when asked if he played FIFA, at least not regularly. Sullivan still lives at home where soccer reigns over a social life, where mom says: “Prodigy was not a word used in our house.”
“Do all of my kids sort of miss out on some of those normal childhood things? Yes,” Heike says. “Is Cavan’s probably exacerbated by his situation? Absolutely. … Yes, he is missing out on fun childhood things, and we’ve had conversations about that. He does not seem to be bothered by that.”
One reason, among many that include instant fame, endorsements, nearly 72,000 TikTok followers and 245,000 Instagram followers, is a reported $500,000 salary. The Union negotiated a $5 million transfer deal with Man City, winner of Premier League titles from 2021 to 2024.
The collaborative transfer agreement makes Sullivan’s deal unusual. It signals that the Premier League club trusts that the Union can develop an elite player.
Sullivan can’t play for Manchester City until he is 18. But he holds a German passport that could allow him to move to Europe and play for City-affiliated teams — like Girona in Spain or Palermo in Italy — when he turns 16.
“Man City doesn’t mean anything,” Sullivan says, “if I don’t do anything here.”
LEARNING AS THEY GO
Heike Sullivan says 99% of Cavan’s money is invested, with the rest in a checking account. He gets financial guidance from his mother, a top Philadelphia attorney, and they read together every detail in a contract.
His family, the Union and Man City have lined up the tools Sullivan needs to thrive and reach the heights projected for him. But for every Harper, every LeBron James, every Sidney Crosby, there are far more can’t-miss teen sensations who missed. Freddy Adu, a pro at just 14, was christened the next Pele but bounced around without leaving much of a legacy.
“That is a data point that’s important to learn from,” Heike said. “But I think his situation is different. He still has to go to school, that’s something we’re on top of him about. Recognizing that this is an entirely new situation for us, I think we are smart enough, educated enough, well-guided enough, by his agent, things like that, to keep him on the right path.”
Even with elite athletes such as Harper wanting to meet him, Sullivan has remained humble in his new life as a sports attraction.
“Fame doesn’t really mean much to me,” he said. “It’s really about the soccer side of things and what you can do with the ball at your feet.”
So far, pretty good. Sullivan was named the best player at the CONCACAF Under-15 championships. He had a pair of assists in the 4-2 victory over Mexico in the final. The next chance to potentially catch him is Sunday in a Leagues Cup game, a tournament in the MLS regular season.
“Right now, we think this is the best environment for him to play in a place where he has a full support system,” said Curtin, the Union’s coach since 2014. Though he allows: “He’s going to play at the very highest level that this sport has.”
Or take it from Harper, who had to get his introduction in while he can: Philly is just the genesis of what could be a fruitful career well beyond MLS.
Cracked Harper: “Don’t forget about all of us when you go to Manchester City.”
Philadelphia Union’s Cavan Sullivan holds a bat signed by Philadelphia Phillies’ Bryce Harper before throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
Philadelphia Union’s Cavan Sullivan throws out the ceremonial first pitch before the first inning of a baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
