LOS ANGELES — As Alyssa Thompson grinned and grimaced her way through a series of interviews following Thursday's NWSL draft, a squat man with a salt-and-pepper beard and black hair graying around the temples stood in the shadows and smiled.
As the first high school player selected with the top pick in the draft and the youngest player to join the national team in more than six years, Thompson, 18, is U.S. Soccer's newest celebrity phenom, the latest in a list that starts with Mia Hamm and includes 70 women who made their international debuts as teenagers.
The man watching from the shadows played a big role in getting her there.
