Cavan Sullivan, 14, invited to the Union’s preseason camp: ‘The sky’s the limit’

The youngster is already a coveted prospect globally despite his age.

Cavan Sullivan (second from right), one of the most-hyped American soccer prospects right now, is the youngest brother of Union midfielder Quinn Sullivan (second from left).Read moreMonica Herndon / Staff Photographer

Published Feb. 5, 2024, 7:49 p.m. ET

It usually isn’t a good idea to anoint a 14-year-old as being a slam-dunk, can’t-miss, savior-in-waiting of American soccer.

It’s happened too many times before, and the longer you’ve been around, the more scars you have. For as much success as Christian Pulisic has had, there have been many more flops.

That’s why the Union have a history of holding back hype on their prospects. They all need time, coaching, and opportunities, from Brenden and Paxten Aaronson to Mark McKenzie and Jack McGlynn.

But the club knows it has something special in Cavan Sullivan. The youngest brother of Union midfielder Quinn Sullivan is a 14-year-old with perhaps the most potential of any prospect in team history.

So it turned quite a few heads when the Union revealed Monday morning that Cavan joined the team’s reserve squad for its preseason camp in Florida. There are four closed-door scrimmages against other clubs scheduled from Tuesday through Feb. 17.

“Cavan Sullivan has the ability to become, I’ll just say, a household name,” Union manager Jim Curtin said last April, after the then-13-year-old starred for the Union’s under-15 team at the prestigious Generation Adidas Cup tournament. Sullivan scored against a squad from England’s Arsenal in the quarterfinals, then helped topple Spanish superpower Real Madrid in the semis.

Europe’s giants want him

At that point, Sullivan had already made two visits to Borussia Dortmund, the German powerhouse that helped launch Pulisic and Gio Reyna to stardom. And a week after Curtin said those words, Cavan and Quinn were major presences at the Union’s groundbreaking for their new complex of soccer fields and training facilities next to Subaru Park.

The message was impossible to miss: The club hoped Cavan would use those facilities one day, starting his pro career here before a big-money sale to Europe.

Behind the scenes, though, things were going in a different direction — and in the last few weeks, the curtain went up on the drama. Last month, England’s Daily Mail newspaper reported that Sullivan was most likely to begin his pro career at Manchester City, the reigning Premier League and European champion.

The report said France’s Paris Saint-Germain also had serious interest, and that Sullivan previously visited Real Madrid and Germany’s Bayern Munich. All are among the world’s biggest teams.

Just as importantly, the report gave no indication that Sullivan would ever play professionally for the Union. Since then, multiple sources have said the same thing to The Inquirer: He’s likely to go to straight to Europe instead of starting here.

That would be quite a blow to the Union, whose youth academy is rightly known as one of America’s best.

A soccer family dynasty

It would cut especially deep for Curtin, who was coached at Villanova by Cavan’s father Brendan and grandfather Larry, a titan of the Philadelphia soccer scene. The Curtins and Sullivans were tight for decades — so tight that Quinn hired Jim’s brother Jeff, a longtime soccer agent, as his first representative as a pro.

The broader Sullivan clan, which has deep roots in Northeast Philadelphia’s Bridesburg section, also includes former Union player and front office No. 2 Chris Albright, who is a cousin. Albright, now the general manager of FC Cincinnati, and the Oreland-born Curtin have been close for decades, and played many of the same seasons in MLS.

Will Sullivan bail on the Union? Neither his family nor his agent has said anything to quell the talk about it.

The one certainty is he can’t move to Europe until he turns 16, due to FIFA’s rules on minors. (Sept. 25, 2025 is the big day, for those counting.) It would be 18 if he didn’t have a European passport, which he does thanks to his mother’s German ancestry.

Also, he can’t play in England until he turns 18, because of that country’s rules on players from beyond its shores. He can play within the European Union at 16 — and City can make that happen, because its parent City Football Group (CFG) owns four clubs based in countries in the EU.

The Daily Mail reported City’s plan would be to park Sullivan at Belgian second-division club Lommel SK until he’s ready for a bigger stage. But that stage might not be Manchester, because City Football Group includes Italy’s Palermo, France’s Troyes, and Spain’s Girona — the team that sits second behind mighty Real Madrid in Spain’s La Liga.

The Union’s chance

CFG also owns Major League Soccer’s New York City FC, and could theoretically send Sullivan to the Bronx instead of Europe. A source with knowledge of the matter told The Inquirer that isn’t likely to happen, but since nothing has actually happened yet, a cynic wouldn’t say never.

If you think the Union and NYCFC have a rivalry now, imagine what that would do to it.

Right now, the Union have a chance to make their sales pitch. Sullivan has played with the club’s under-17 team, and the brass is ready to let him run with the reserve squad’s older players.

There’s also a pro offer of some kind on the table, though the terms of it aren’t widely known yet.

“Cavan’s qualities and potential, he deserves the attention,” said longtime Union academy director Tommy Wilson. “And he’s got a good family around him that will help him manage that and handle that. He also has the support of the club, and there’s a lot of good people in here that are trying to make sure that the decisions that he makes are the right ones.”

Wilson, who’s leaving the Union this month to become Charlotte FC’s technical director, said he doesn’t know what Sullivan’s final decision will be. But he wants to be optimistic.

“He’s got a year and a half left until he can move anywhere, and that’s a long, long time in this game,” Wilson said. “I’m hopeful that given the work that everyone, including him and his family, have put in, that he can make his debut with the Union. And however long he’s here, we can enjoy having him, and see where he goes — because the sky’s the limit.”