🎙️ Tim Ream on embracing age and change ahead of storied MLS return | OneFootball

Tim Ream is approaching his second stint in MLS and his Charlotte FC debut is in line for this weekend after joining from Fulham in the English Premier League.

The 36-year-old returns to the United States after 13 years and opened up on the league’s rise during his time away in a recent interview with MLSSoccer.com.

Such positive and drastic development influenced his decision to come back and the USA international is now ready to embrace yet another chapter in his storied career.

“It’s definitely improved. You know, the reason I left in the first place was because I felt I needed to move on for my development,” Ream said.

“There’s still a lot of room to develop further, but it’s so much further than what it was when I first came in, and I had guys to learn off of like Thierry Henry, so the situation was a little bit different.

“But looking at it now, it’s incredible, where it was to where it is now, and it’s part of why I felt comfortable and ready to make the move and come back, because it is such a higher level now.”

“There’s more of a focus on being technical, but also being tactically astute, being fully aware of in-game situations, to where before it was, ‘OK, let’s just run over people, let’s just run past people, let’s just be physical, and we’ll win that way,’” Ream continued.

“Now you have to find different ways to win games. I think that’s a sign of the league developing, but I think it’s also a sign of the players developing and managers developing, and bringing in better managers, better players.”

Transitioning at 36 isn’t something he’s too worried about, either. Instead, Ream hinted he has no intentions of slowing down and backs himself to compete with the young talent across the USA.

“I don’t really look at my age as a hindrance. I actually look at it as a positive. I’ve seen a lot of things, I’ve played a lot of games, experienced a lot of different situations, and it’s up to me to use that to my advantage,” he said. “So I’ll play as long as I feel physically and mentally good, which I do.”

“I still try to compare myself to the guys who are 21, 22 who are within the team, and what are they doing physically? OK, I need to be matching that physically, or better, because that’s the way you stay in the game.”

“The way I always treat any transition is you have to go in and you have to earn your place,” he added. “I don’t think that changes, no matter what your age is, how many clubs you played for, how many countries you played in.

“I think the basis of having a long career is putting your head down and just getting after the work, understanding what is being asked of you, understanding what is being asked of the team, and then going out and doing it.”

Charlotte host NY Red Bulls, Ream’s first MLS club, on Saturday.