Growing up in the picturesque heart of Bavaria, Malik Tillman never imagined he would one day play for the United States men’s national team.
The son of a German mother and an American father he never knew, Tillman was born in Nürnberg, not far from the U.S. Army base at Ansbach. His story is a familiar one shared by many children of German-American background in the postwar era marked by the U.S. military presence in Europe.
But as he began his football journey at local club Greuther Fürth and eventually made the jump to powerhouse Bayern Munich, Tillman was always German.
“Growing up in Fürth with my brother, playing football every day, the dreams of being a footballer started there,” Tillman told Backheeled. “I knew about my American background, but it was like, I’m in Germany, I live with my German mom. So it wasn’t really a topic in my life to be honest.”
Eventually, though, a winding path placed Tillman at the forefront of the USMNT’s final summer ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
Road to the USMNT
At 14, Tillman’s thought process began to change when he was invited to represent the United States at the youth level for a camp in Croatia. He was part of a talented roster that featured Gio Reyna and played against a teenage Joško Gvardiol in an invitational tournament. But while Tillman impressed in his first foray in U.S. colors, it didn’t stick right away. The German youth national teams came calling and, at first, seemed much more appealing as they avoided long trips across the ocean to attend camps.
