“So what if they called us monkeys?” said one attendee at a Monday night meeting with players from the New York Red Bulls’ male youth academy teams last month. “Fuck it. We keep balling.” A team meeting with teenage soccer players isn’t normally something to make news but this particular event, held in 200-plus capacity event space at Red Bull Arena with every player from the club’s top under-12 to under-17 teams, was a little different.
Also in the room were former Major League Soccer stars Bradley Wright-Phillips, Earl Edwards Jr, Jalil Anibaba, Ray Gaddis, and Calen Carr as well as former USMNT legends Eddie Pope and Jozy Altidore. Notably, all the former players were Black. Former footballers love to talk, especially about the old days, but the main topic that night in late May was not about winning MLS titles nor being the first American to score in La Liga.
