“I'm not going to lie,” Adri Mehmeti says with a sheepish green spreading across his face. “I didn't watch him too much.”
The “him” in question? None other than U.S. men’s national team legend Michael Bradley. Mehmeti, who just turned 17, has become a breakout star in MLS, starting every game as Red Bull New York’s defensive midfielder and burning so brightly that Champions League favorites are keeping close watch. Bradley, now Mehmeti’s coach, had his peak before his starting No. 6 was old enough to really sink his teeth into the game. Still, the teenager does “remember him a little bit”. He was 14 when Bradley hung up his boots, old enough to watch and digest the game.
Really, though, instead of crunching tape of Bradley, Mehmeti was watching a much closer analog to his own game: Sergio Busquets.
“I was always watching Sergio Busquets and I would see how he plays when he takes two touch, three touch, one touch, and implement that into my game,” Mehmeti told Backheeled of his admiration for the FC Barcelona and Spanish legend.
For Mehmeti, watching film is a constant — “I watch a lot of football.” It’s not uncommon for the teenager to get back to his family’s home in Staten Island after training and see a game already playing on TV. Oftentimes, that’s the doing of his father Vani Mehmeti, who played semi-professional soccer in Europe. If it’s not a game, it’s tape of Busquets or Manchester City’s Rodri or of his own games and training sessions.
“I really like to watch training, honestly, as soon as they post it. I’m trying to watch it right away. Games as well. I'm trying to watch them as quick as possible.”
The hours spent watching the best defensive midfielders in the world and reviewing his own clips have clearly paid off. In his inaugural season in the U.S. top-flight, Mehmeti is operating with a level of comfort under pressure that invokes Busquets. He’s an elite prospect whose ability on the ball is previously unheard-of in the USMNT player pool. In addition to the U.S., he’s eligible to play for Albania, the country both of his parents immigrated from, at the senior international level.
