There have been a growing number of dual-national players on the radar of the U.S. men’s national team throughout recent time and Benjamin Cremaschi is the latest young talent set for his first senior involvement.
Cremaschi, an 18-year-old midfielder with Inter Miami, has enjoyed a positive 2023 season at club level, where he recently lifted the Leagues Cup with the Herons earlier this month. Born in Argentina, Cremaschi featured heavily in MLS NEXT Pro in 2022 for Inter Miami II before enjoying a growing first team role with the Herons this year.
With two goals and six assists under his belt across all competitions, Cremaschi has been given an early USMNT opportunity by returning head coach Gregg Berhalter.
“So we had Benja in camp in October prior to the World Cup, he was with the U-20 group and he immediately caught my eye for his just tenacity, and his relentlessness,” said Berhalter. “He’s a kid that, he was playing out of position that camp, played wing or sometimes forward, but he never quit. He never gave up, he kept running – I mean, he was running himself silly. And it really showed me what his mindset was like and I was really impressed with that.
“Now, watching his progress with Inter Miami, he’s done a great job. And this, it’s not only post-Messi. I think even pre-Messi, you see that he had some ability,” added Berhalter. “Just a really dynamic player and a guy who gives everything on the pitch. So I’m really excited, the staff is really excited to be working with him, bring him in the camp and see what he can do with our team. And we have high expectations for him at such a young age.”
Cremaschi is eligible for both Argentina and the United States and will be tasked with making an important decision that many others in the current USMNT squad have done in the past. Sergino Dest, Folarin Balogun, and Yunus Musah are just a handful of dual-national players that have chosen the USMNT over other programs, while Gio Reyna, who isn’t in camp, picked the United States over Argentina among others.
Cremaschi has made three appearances for the USMNT U-19’s under Marko Mitrovic while also being called into an Argentina U-20 camp ahead of the 2023 South American U-20 Championship earlier this year. However, the United States has offered Cremaschi his first senior national team opportunity, which is an important first step in trying to sway the promising talent away from La Albiceleste.
“All we try to do is put our best foot forward,” Berhalter said. “We try to let the environment speak for itself, we try to let the staffing and the player pool speak for itself and what we can offer the player. We talk to Ben about being able to come into the group and fit into what we’re doing, to represent the United States of America, which is a wonderful honor.
“He grew up here, he’s played for our youth team programs in the past and that’s where it starts,” Berhalter added. “Our youth national teams are really integral in helping us make early contact with these players and then bring them throughout system, and he’s another example of that…It’s such a strong culture on the team that I’m sure he’s going to feel welcomed and comfortable in our environment.”
Not saying the kid isn’t talented, but having Messi & Busquets on the field with him opens a ton of space for the rest of the players on the team. That extra space and time can make a player appear to be better than he actually is. Again not saying that’s the case with this kid, but it’s something to keep in mind before we start hyping him too much.
Another thing to keep in mind is the number of good, young CMs in the US player pool & pipeline already; it makes it hard to get too excited. Now if he was a CDM, a LB, or a CB I’d be much more interested as those are positions we need to improve our depth.
Is the US national team being used like college recruiting campus visits? If so, this is backwards! Holy Kreis!! Given out appearances like a game show.
Lund and Berhalther look like they can be cousins/relatives. Hope he does well and get promoted to a Serie A team like Tesserman and Busio.
Gregg talks about his relentlessness, his mindset, his endless running, his commitment. He could be talking about Aaronson or even Ariolla.
I’ve never seen him play.
Anyone know if the kid can play soccer?
Yeah, a bunch of times lately, He’s good. Definitely an 8 but he has not looked out of place playing alongside Messi/Busquets/Alba/Josef Martinez…along with Finland’s Robert Taylor he’s probably the player who has elevated his stock the most with Miami since Messi arrived. Fairly big kid, physical, confident, good on the ball, technical, and he’s definitely one of those two-way guys who covers every blade of grass on the field. He has very good ideas and understanding and the seamless way he’s meshed with that crew has been impressive. They all seem to trust him. And the fact that Tata Martinez – who notoriously does not like playing young guys – is willing to start him says a ton about his game.
What is it Arsene Wenger once said when asked how he developed so many great young players? “Well,” he said, “I take a very good young player…and I put him with older great players.” And instead of expounding, he just stood there smiling placidly. And that really was his whole philosophy at Arsenal for only God knows how many years. We’re seeing that yet again with Miami and several of their kids, and Cremaschi’s the one who most jumps out from those guys.
I very much doubt he’ll be terribly intimidated by the Nats, anyhow.
Oops…correction. Meant “Tata MARTINO”, not “Tata Martinez.” Sorry. Undercaffeinated.
I remember there was a young kid at Miami a couple of years ago whom Phil Neville spoke highly of. I think he was a wing or midfielder and he came from the college draft. He might have had a loan to a European side and came back, can’t remember for sure and can’t remember his name. Can you figure out who that was and what happened to him?
Gary:
Robbie Robinson maybe. Played at Clemson won Herman Trophy never done much for Inter Miami. He never played in Europe but maybe he had a trial or something.
jr–thanks, that’s the name. When I saw him I thought he looked pretty decent.
Gary: a lot of injuries can just never get a long stretch of games and minutes.
He certainly has potential. Struggled like most of the squad before Messi as Ben had to try to play the Messi role of creator and goal scorer. Now that the eyes of the defense are elsewhere he’s found himself in good spots. Does have great motor and is pretty physical for a teenager. Looks bigger than his 6’0 listing.
IM seemed to be pretty anonymous PL (Pre-Leo).
A guy like Leo can raise everyone else in the team but, at this point, you have to be skeptical as to the true quality of the IM roster without Leo around to distract the opposition and make their efforts (endless running and commitment ) for the cause come to fruition.
If you put a guy like Cremaschi on the USMNT, will he perform as well when we don’t have anyone near the equivalent of a Leo to take advantage of Cremaschi’s efforts?
The USMNT has “effort ” guys who will run all day and all night and get every inch of their laundry dirty. Brenden for one. And they have guys who will hit everything that moves, like Weston.
The USMNT needs more of what Leo offers rather than what Cremaschi offers.
Tessman is interesting but a Paxton breakthrough might be more important long term given that the uncertain future of Brenden and Gio makes replacing them more of a need.
IM seemed to be pretty anonymous PL (Pre-Leo).
A guy like Leo can raise everyone else in the team but, at this point, you have to be skeptical as to the true quality of the IM roster without Leo around to distract the opposition and make their efforts (endless running and commitment ) for the cause come to fruition.
If you put a guy like Cremaschi on the USMNT, will he perform as well when we don’t have anyone near the equivalent of a Leo to take advantage of Cremaschi’s efforts?
The USMNT has “effort ” guys who will run all day and all night and get every inch of their laundry dirty. Brenden for one. And they have guys who will hit everything that moves, like Weston.
The USMNT needs more of what Leo offers rather than what Cremaschi offers.
Cremaschi, like Tessman, is interesting but a Paxton breakthrough might be more important long term given that the uncertain future of Brenden and Gio makes replacing them more of a need.
Has a lot of upside. Still a ways to go with his development, but you can see he has quality. And he is a part of a team that will help him develop quicker.
From what I heard Miami declined Mikey Varas calling him up to the u20 WC team. It wasn’t Cremanschi saying no.