Sometimes, in the quieter moments, DeAndre Yedlin takes the time to look back at himself. Social media can lead to that type of introspection. Highlights are always a click away and old Instagram posts have a way of teleporting you back, don’t they?
In some ways, he finds the old DeAndre unrecognizable. In others, he feels like his life has all happened in a flash. It seems as if only yesterday he was that kid on the Seattle Sounders with big hair and big dreams. Now, he’s staring down the inevitability of it all. Where has the time gone?
“Sometimes I feel like I’m still in Seattle,” he says. “I still feel I’m the same age. I feel like I’m 21 years old. I can definitely feel it physically now, though. Just recovering, I’m like ‘Man, I don’t know how I used to do that.’ “
There are two halves of Yedlin’s career, each wildly different. Most people remember the first. They remember the high-flying young defender pocketing Eden Hazard in Brazil. They remember the big move to the Premier League. They remember him as a breakout star with the U.S. men’s national team with world-class pace. They remember him running like lightning.
What some don’t remember, though, is how he lost his way in the midst of it all.
That’s part of his story, one Yedlin is now eager to tell. And the story begins thousands of feet in the air. When you’re on planes for long stretches of time, at some point, all there’s left to do is think.
It was during one of those seemingly endless moments in the sky that Yedlin thought about Walt Disney. He remembers a story he read about the world-famous entrepreneur and pioneer of the American animation and entertainment industries.
The concept of Disneyland, so the story goes, began when the man himself was experiencing a moment similar to the one Yedlin had on that plane. Sitting on a bench watching his daughter, Disney began to dream, to think about possibilities, and from those thoughts came a world-changing idea.
Yedlin, admittedly, is no Walt Disney. He’s a soccer player, and for long periods of his life, that’s all he ever wanted to be.
But labeling Yedlin as just a soccer player is like calling Disney just an inventor. There’s a creative side there, too, one that extends far beyond the soccer field. That’s the side Yedlin feels more in tune with these days. That’s the one that’s itching to come out.
“I don’t think people understand this, and it probably plays hand-in-hand, but people think soccer’s at the top of my priority list,” Yedlin tells GOAL. “Soccer is not at the top of my priority list, by any means. Soccer is – I don’t want to say it’s far down – but it’s not top.
“I have a lot of different passions that I’m that I’m honestly very interested in. Especially at my age, I have to start thinking about what I’m doing after, you know? I don’t think anybody that I’ve played with will tell you that I don’t give it my all on the field. I do. I give it everything I have for the team and they know that. But there are so many other things off the field that I’m going after.”
That is at Yedlin’s essence. Soccer is what he does, not what defines him.
“I think if people want to better understand me, then it’s important to sit down and talk with me,” Yedlin says. “There’s a life outside of soccer. I like to talk about what else is going on and my viewpoints on certain things. I honestly appreciate that.”
The FC Cincinnati star sat down with GOAL to discuss the highs and lows, how he managed to rise from the toughest times, and passions that fuel him in sport, and in life.