Another sign of Cavan Sullivan’s popularity: His Union jersey sales are big
The teen phenom is No. 6 among MLS players this year, the first spot behind the league’s big international stars: Lionel Messi, Son Heung-Min, Thomas Müller, Robert Lewandowski, and Antoine Griezmann.
You can measure Cavan Sullivan’s popularity in a lot of ways.
On Tuesday, MLS offered another one.
The Union’s teen phenom is No. 6 for player jersey sales this year, the league announced. That is the first spot behind the league’s big five international stars: Miami’s Lionel Messi, Los Angeles FC’s Son Heung-Min, Vancouver’s Thomas Müller, Chicago’s Robert Lewandowski, and Orlando’s Antoine Griezmann.
Rounding out the top 10 are LAFC’s Denis Bouanga, Miami’s Luis Suárez, Nashville’s Hany Mukhtar, and Miami’s Rodrigo De Paul.
You’ll notice that Sullivan is the only U.S. player in the top 10. If that feels like a sign that MLS doesn’t have big-name Americans, it’s a fair point. But there might be two caveats.
The first is that the league doesn’t lack for rising young U.S. stars. Red Bull New York’s Julian Hall and Adri Mehmeti, Orlando’s Justin Ellis, and New England’s Peyton Miller all reach that bar, as they showed by making the national team earlier this fall.
Hall and Ellis were just as big-time as Sullivan in those games, while Mehmeti and Miller have earned their national hype.
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But it isn’t Ellis’ fault that Griezmann came to the World Cup as a 2018 World Cup winner and 2022 finalist, along with club stardom at Spain’s Atlético Madrid and Barcelona. That draws international wallets, not just domestic ones.
Nor is it any of the prospects’ fault that the Fire finally landed Lewandowski after years of dreaming of bringing the Polish superstar to the city with the world’s largest Polish expat population. Now, with eight goals in 22 games, he has the hottest-selling jersey of anyone since the summer.
What it does mean is Hall and Mehmeti haven’t yet broken through in the New York market. The Red Bulls’ failure to make the playoffs this year despite their talents will hurt that effort.
The second caveat is about the MLS players on the U.S. World Cup squad. Sebastian Berhalter was a breakout player, but he left the Vancouver Whitecaps days after the league resumed. Columbus’ Max Arfsten soon joined him at England’s Middlesbrough.
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Cincinnati’s Miles Robinson was a reserve, and Charlotte’s Tim Ream bowed out of the national team after the tournament at 39. Anyone who was going to buy Ream’s jersey probably already had it.
Seattle’s Cristian Roldan suffered the same fate. He’s been in top jersey sales rankings before, as a longtime star in that soccer-crazed city. But there was no pop this year, as the World Cup stung him unfairly. Though the U.S. played two World Cup games in Seattle, Roldan missed the first by manager Mauricio Pochettino’s choice and the second due to an injury.
What got Sullivan to break through? It obviously helps that he’s living up to the hype: 10 goals and 11 assists for the Union this year, and a highlight-reel strike against Mexico for his first U.S. national team goal.
It might also help that the Bridesburg native is playing for his hometown team, in a place that’s one of the most sports-obsessed in the nation. The Union haven’t had many stars in their history, and now they have the homegrown one they’ve dreamed of for years.
That they’ll only have Sullivan for one more year before he heads to Europe is a subject for another day. Right now, there’s a playoff stage to prepare for after Saturday’s regular-season finale against Toronto FC at Subaru Park (4 p.m., Apple TV). If he can take the team on an upset run, his star will grow even more.
