“I’m where I need to be, and Marko [Mitrovic] is the exact coach that I need to help me continue to develop. Eventually I do want to go [to Europe], but… I’ll know when that time’s right,” Peyton Miller told Backheeled.
We’re in the lobby of the U.S. men’s national team’s hotel in Minneapolis, an inherently transient setting of the inherently transient FIFA international window. The fall one, though, was the first edition of a new, longer international break during the club season, and it was Miller’s first senior team call-up.
“An honor and a blessing. Just for the opportunity to be here is special, and I’ve learned a lot since I’ve been here, especially from the older guys taking me under their wing. Just continue to learn every day, really,” Miller said.
The rise of the youngest homegrown signing in New England Revolution history is reaching its next, inevitable chapter. Miller, who turns 19 on Sunday, grew up watching Manchester City and Madrid, prefers PSG now, and dreams of climbing to a big club. But he’s not in a rush.
“He’s very present,” Mitrovic, the Revolution’s head coach, told Backheeled. “I personally don’t see in his daily work that he’s somewhere else with his head… He is a big Revolution fan. He’s very proud to play for the club, but also I think that he sees a great opportunity for himself to keep developing.
“I personally think that next step in his career will come. I also think that he doesn’t need to rush. He’s playing in a very good league. I think he has all needed requirements right now to keep developing, and in one moment he will leave. But he doesn’t need to rush to do that.”
He’d dribble around their Connecticut condo and kick the ball against the wall, which would force his parents to take him to a field. When Miller was about seven, he started practicing with his dad after school and jumping into the sessions of his older brother’s team. Logan and his friends were four years older, yet Peyton played with them all the time. A few years later, the Millers moved into a house with a yard offering the space for a goal and an arrangement of cones.
Peyton began practicing with his dad at 5:30 in the morning. His talent and dedication was clearly different, a No. 10 then winger playing two years up with his club teams and destined for the highest level. He joined the Revolution academy when he was 13 and left home for their residency program turning 14. When the youth national team needed a left-back, Rob Becerra, Miller’s U-15 academy coach at the time – and the Revs’ current director of youth development – recommended Miller, even though he had never played the position before.
