Alex Freeman: Orlando City All-Star on meteoric rise | OneFootball

By Charles Boehm

AUSTIN, Texas – You’d have to have been a psychic, or perhaps a hard-core Orlando City fan or the keenest-eyed of US youth talent-spotters, to have seen Alex Freeman coming.

At the start of 2025, the 20-year-old had logged a mere 10 career minutes of MLS action three seasons after signing an MLS homegrown contract with the Lions. While his potential was evident in those brief cameos, as well as his promising displays in MLS NEXT Pro, few would’ve guessed he’d be an MLS All-Star by July – and a rapidly advancing member of the US men’s national team to boot.

Not even Freeman himself.

“Never doubt yourself, because I feel like a lot of people doubt their selves in this,” Freeman told a flock of journalists in a downtown Austin hotel on Monday when asked to provide some advice for young prospects looking to follow in his footsteps.

“Like myself – I doubted myself, even, to be called an All-Star, you know? And now I'm here.”

2025 breakthrough

In barely six months, he’s seized Orlando’s starting right back role, notched four goals, one assist and 28 chances created to keep hold of it, vaulted into USMNT boss Mauricio Pochettino’s view and then earned the national team’s right back spot for the Concacaf Gold Cup, playing all but two minutes of the tournament despite having made his international debut just days before, in a friendly vs. Türkiye.

There’s not much time to savor all that, though. He’s got a FIFA 2026 World Cup roster spot to secure.

“Yeah, it's kind of hard to reflect on that when so much stuff is happening,” said Freeman, who USMNT audiences will know well by now as the son of retired NFL star Antonio Freeman. “Right after I finish Gold Cup, I go right into [MLS] games again. So the time to reflect was limited, but I always do think about it, of how grateful I am and what a great journey it was, to be able to come out the scene so quick.

“I can't be comfortable. I'm going to need to work more and want more,” he added. “The goal for me now is World Cup, and I feel like in order to make that, I need to be able to be my best self and be able to perform even better than I have before.”

Freeman has confessed that he “was just grateful to be on the preliminary roster,” let alone picked for a starting Gold Cup role, and what nearly turned out to be a match-winning contribution in the final in Houston, where he got onto the end of one of the Yanks’ best chances in their tense 2-1 loss to Mexico.

“Alex is a player with little experience, but in soccer, the desire, the capacity and the talent usually rise above experience," Pochettino said in June. “The reports we got on him were really good.”

Humbling beginnings

Poch provides “so much passion and so much experience,” in Freeman’s words, that the youngster found himself coming to grips with his rapidly blossoming opportunities faster than anyone had any right to expect from someone so green.

“To be honest, it kind of happened out of the blue,” said Freeman, the youngest member of this year's All-Star side. “Obviously my first camp, I just came in to work and be very prepared … Then going into the Gold Cup, I started the first few games. I'm like, ‘OK, I'm really going to have to put in the work and be able to keep the spot.’ And then after that, it was just being able to keep impressing him.”

As meteoric as this ascent has been, it may be hard to believe that his journey began in earnest with a cold slap of painful rejection.

Growing up in Fort Lauderdale, Freeman rose through the ranks at south Florida youth powerhouse Weston FC, but didn’t make the cut when he tried out for a place in nearby Inter Miami’s academy in 2020. The Herons’ in-state rivals to the north were interested, however, presenting him and his family with a difficult choice: Whether to join Orlando’s residential program and leave home in pursuit of the professional dream at the tender age of 15, or stay in SoFla and explore other options.

Fuel to the fire

Freeman took the chance, and today looks back with gratitude for that potent dose of motivation.

“I mean, how much more fuel can you get?” he said. “A team in your local area, MLS team coming up, and not accepting you, I feel like it's just the most fuel I ever had. I just wanted to work even more. And I feel like now I'm getting opportunities from Orlando that I never had.

“Having to move at such a young age was something that I wanted to do, because I had all that fuel built up. Just be able to go in a new environment, be able to work my hardest, and try to get recognition from the coaches.”

Now he’s hungry not just to make next summer’s squad, but to keep in contention for a place in the USMNT's starting XI. He acknowledges that “Europe is a goal for me,” though he says he’s not in a hurry to cross the Atlantic.

He’s thankful for OCSC’s faith in him and wants to fulfill the Lions’ trophy ambitions in a crowded Eastern Conference race. Along the way, he’ll continue to be guided by savvy head coach Oscar Pareja, one of North American soccer’s most accomplished developers of young talent.

“Personal goals for me is to win a cup with Orlando. Not only that, just try to be as helpful as I can to the team,” Freeman said. “Now I'm an MLS All-Star; it doesn't mean that the work stops. I still want to be able to contribute goals, assists, however I can to the team, and just be able to keep my position.

“At the end of the day, I'm still working for a starting position in Orlando, even if it seems like I'm not. It's something that Oscar keeps telling me, that you're not comfortable yet, you got to keep working.”