Alex Freeman: A Breakout Star | OneFootball

In his first full season as a first-team player, Alex Freeman has emerged as one of the brightest young stars in MLS and a USMNT regular.

It isn’t easy being an Orlando sports fan.

Despite being the third-most visited city in the United States, Orlando isn’t exactly teeming with professional sports. There are a handful of minor league teams as well as the University of Central Florida, whose sports teams compete in the Big 12 Conference, but at the top level, Orlando has just four major league teams.

There’s the the Orlando Valkyries, a women’s professional indoor volleyball team which recently won the 2025 Major League Volleyball title, and the Orlando Pride, who won both the NWSL Shield and NWSL Championship in 2024.

The two biggest draws in town (apart from Walt Disney World), however, are the NBA’s Orlando Magic and MLS’s Orlando City SC. The Magic joined the NBA as an expansion team in 1989, and have made a pair of NBA Finals appearances, and currently have a young exciting core that fans are optimistic about. As for Orlando City, they’ve gradually shaken off their underachievers tag and emerged as one of the consistently best teams in Major League Soccer.

Orlando City made the move to MLS in 2015 after being a top side in what was then the USL Pro. It took the club five seasons to make its first MLS Cup Playoffs appearance, but OCSC have been postseason mainstays since, making it as far as the Eastern Conference finals in 2024.

Today, City find themselves in prime position to make yet another deep postseason run, and one player who has become an indispensable figure is Alex Freeman.

Anyone who’s familiar with the 21-year-old right back has probably heard that his family has an athletic pedigree — his father Antonio played nine seasons in the NFL as a wide receiver, winning Super Bowl XXXI with the Green Bay Packers and making it to the 1998 All-Pro team. But unlike his father, Alex’s sights were set on soccer, not American football.

Growing up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Freeman joined Orlando City’s youth ranks in 2020 after failing to impress during a trial with Inter Miami. To move over 230 miles from home as a teenager was a risk, but it paid off, and Freeman quickly made an impact on senior teammates and demonstrated his world-class potential.

One particular teammate, Tesho Akindele, recalled when a 15-year-old Freeman made him reconsider his status as a professional, as Freeman’s preternatural skill made Akindele realize that the game might be slipping away from him.

In addition to making a good impression with OCSC’s first team, Freeman emerged as a leader in the academy, scoring eight goals to go along with 15 assists in 30 appearances en route to leading Orlando to the first ever MLS Next Cup U17 championship in 2021.

The performance was enough to earn him a homegrown contract, and he joined Orlando’s MLS Next Pro side in 2022. After a handful of first team appearances across the next few seasons, Freeman entered the 2025 campaign as a full-time senior player, and to say he’s had a breakout season would be an understatement.

Such is Freeman’s meteoric rise this year, it’s hard to believe that going into the 2025 season, he was the backup right back to Dagur Dan Thórhallsson, and even harder to believe that he turned 21 only two months ago. He has established himself as one of the very best in MLS, being selected for the annual All-Star Game and replacing Orlando teammate Marco Pašalić for the final half-hour of the match between the MLS and Liga MX All-Stars.

“[This recognition] is something that makes me want to work harder, makes me want go in and do the extra work to be better than I was before,” Freeman told Urban Pitch. “Even though I’m getting all this recognition and playing time for the national team and Orlando, it just gives me motivation to do more and be able to work harder and fight for more.”

After coming off the bench in the season opener against the Philadelphia Union, Freeman made his first start for Orlando one week later, and bagged a goal in a 4-2 win vs. Toronto FC, enough to see him named to the Team of the Matchday for the first time in his career.

Freeman hasn’t looked back since, locking down a place in the starting lineup under Oscar Pareja. He played a full 90 minutes in 18 straight matches, but would have to leave Orlando in June after being named to the United States men’s national team Gold Cup roster.

With Sergiño Dest unavailable due to injury, Freeman started in all six of the USMNT’s Gold Cup matches — playing in 538 out of 540 possible minutes — as the Stars and Stripes reached the final before losing to Mexico.

Freeman has seemingly impressed USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino, and he was included in both rosters following the Gold Cup. For the most recent October camp, Pochettino has indicated that this could closely resemble the final 2026 World Cup squad.

Freeman enters the pair of USMNT friendlies in good form, scoring in two of his last four appearances for Orlando City, including a gutty equalizer in a 1-1 draw at DC United on September 13.

“We want to do better and get the three points…that’s something we want to move towards and be able to fight for the top position,” said Freeman to Urban Pitch after the DC United match. “Obviously, we’re happy to get a point, but we want to fight for those three points all the time.”

Two weeks later, Freeman would net yet another equalizer against MLS Supporters’ Shield contenders FC Cincinnati, this one being even more dramatic as it was in the 95th minute.

While he’s a defender, Freeman’s versatility makes him a capable offensive threat that suits the modern game. His six goals in 2025 are fifth-best on the team, and the most amongst right backs in MLS.

“My strong suit is attacking,” Freeman said after the DC United draw. “Just being able to join the attack, that extra man can mean a lot in games like this.

“Attacking and being more lethal in the final third [is something I’m trying to improve on]. Today, I had a lot of chances that I could’ve been more lethal with, and it’s just me trying to fix that in the final third but also defend 1v1 and contain these wingers that are very good. If I can perfect those two things, my level will elevate a lot.”

All nine teams in the MLS Eastern Conference have confirmed their spots in the playoffs, with Orlando making it to the postseason for the sixth straight year (all under the tenure of Pareja). And after a season that saw them come within 90 minutes of a first-ever MLS Cup Final, Orlando City are more desperate than ever to make another deep run and make it to the biggest match in American soccer.

“This team is one of the best teams I’ve played on,” Freeman said. “We have so many good players and so many attributes and good people added to the team. Last year, we got to the Conference Final and didn’t win, so this year, our goal is to get to the MLS Cup and win. Get that Cup, get a trophy for the club. With this team, the sky is the limit.”

Orlando currently sits seventh in the Eastern Conference and 11th overall, one point behind Nashville SC, and one point above the Chicago Fire. However, Orlando has a game in hand, and will seek to cement a top-seven finish to avoid a wild card round match.

To close out the season, Orlando will host Vancouver before traveling to a Toronto FC side that has long been eliminated from playoff contention, has drawn their last seven matches, and hasn’t won at home since June 28.

“[The message to the Orlando fans] is just trust in us,” Freeman said. “We’re going to give it our all, and if you guys back us up, we’ll definitely give you everything back that you cheered for and hopefully get that silverware.”

No matter where Orlando finishes in the East, expect Freeman to build on his breakout 2025 and establish himself as one of the first names on Pareja’s team sheet.

All signs point to him making it to the 2025 MLS Best XI, challenging for the Newcomer of the Year and Young Player of the Year awards, and maybe, just maybe, he’ll be competing in next summer’s FIFA World Cup on home soil. But right now, there’s only thing on Freeman’s mind: leading Orlando City to their first-ever MLS Cup and their second trophy in club history after the 2022 U.S. Open Cup.

“We always want trophies, and I think that’s what I’m here to do for Orlando,” Freeman said. “I’m just here to fight for them and fight for trophies. I want to do it for the fans, my team, my teammates, my coaches, and be as helpful as I can and contribute as well as I can to get that silverware.”

Nearly 29 years after his father became a champion of American football, can Alex Freeman become a champion of American soccer?