The fact that 21-year-old Alex Freeman, who is currently scoring headers at the World Cup in front of tens of thousands of spectators, used to walk the halls of American Heritage School in Plantation, Florida, as a child who wasn’t sure whether his future belonged to the sport his father made famous or the one tugging at something deeper inside of him, has a subtly poetic quality.
One of the prep schools in Florida that values athletics is American Heritage. It has produced its fair share of college recruits, NFL prospects, and regional champions in a variety of sports. Freeman blended in perfectly with that setting. He was a talented athlete with long limbs who had multiple options. Antonio Freeman, his father, set records and shared a Super Bowl ring with Brett Favre during his nine years in the NFL, primarily with the Green Bay Packers. It was reasonable to assume that Alex would eventually find himself on a football field.
However, he had already been affected by soccer.
Freeman played for Weston FC Academy, a club program based in the same South Florida region, prior to attending American Heritage. He played for three seasons there, growing under coaches who saw potential in him at an early age. Freeman’s coach at Weston FC, Javier Carrillo, is said to have encouraged him to attend Orlando City’s academy, a choice that required the family to consider factors other than athletic ability. It was a real distance from home. With everything around them being disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Rochelle, Freeman’s mother, was extremely hesitant to send her teenage son hours away.
Looking back, what sticks out about that time is how much was expected of a teenager. For the first time, Freeman turned sixteen while living with another Orlando academy family. Later on, he claimed that it “took a toll” on him. For athletes, who typically see every challenge as motivation, that candor seems uncommon. The way Freeman discusses those years is more measured; it’s not dramatic, just genuine.
Freeman made 30 appearances for Orlando City’s under-17 team in 2021, his final year in the youth system. He scored eight goals and contributed fifteen assists as the team won the first-ever MLS Next Cup U17 championship. It’s difficult to ignore those figures. They recommended a player who understood the game at a positional and spatial level that takes most players years to develop, in addition to being physically superior to his peers.
Thus, his time in high school at American Heritage was akin to a condensed double life. There is very little time for the typical teenage experience when one is a student by day and a serious academy prospect on the training field. His upbringing, the rigors of youth academy football, and the discipline of an elite prep school may have shaped the work ethic that would eventually propel him through three seasons in the reserve team before making his Orlando City debut.
Now that Freeman has scored in a World Cup, it would be simple to romanticize everything. In the 43rd minute, the header against Australia appeared to be almost instinctive as he leaped over opponents and headed a deflected ball past the goalkeeper. As you watch it, you get the impression that the movement was the result of years of practice that no one recorded or acknowledged. from working out in the sweltering Florida heat. from being the new student at a distant academy. from making the very conscious decision to not play the sport that everyone expected him to play as his father’s son.
There isn’t a direct route from Plantation, Florida to the World Cup. Seldom is it. However, it began in a high school and a club program that provided a young person from Baltimore with the groundwork to eventually draw attention from around the globe.
