DeAndre Yedlin
Right back · USMNT · Real Salt LakeAn O’Dea High kid from Seattle who didn’t skip the college step. Yedlin played two seasons at Akron, signed home with the Sounders, and turned a breakout 2014 World Cup into a move to the Premier League. Going to college cost him nothing.
- Position
- Right back
- Hometown
- Seattle, Washington
- Born
- 1993
- Plays now
- Real Salt Lake
Every club, in order, with the years
Look at the years beside each rung. Several of them cover three or four seasons in one place, and the second-division USL turns up on four of these thirteen routes.
- 1Seattle youthTown & rec soccer
Sounders FC Academy and O’Dea High School
Seattle, Washington Childhood to 2011
The Sounders’ own bio has him at O’Dea High School and playing youth soccer through the club’s academy system. He was a local product, not a kid shipped off to a faraway academy.
Sounders academyO’Dea High SchoolSeattle, WA - 2College soccerCollege · NCAA D1
University of Akron
Akron, Ohio 2011-2012
Two seasons for Akron, one of the strongest college programs in the country: all 23 games as a freshman, all 22 as a sophomore, and All-MAC first team in both. This is the rung a lot of American families are told to skip. Yedlin used it to develop and to get seen.
45 appearances in 2 seasonsAll-MAC first team twiceNCAA Division IParent translationThe idea that the real players all turn pro at 16 doesn’t hold here. Two years of college soccer were a launchpad, not a detour.
- 3Homegrown signingPro · MLS / USL
Seattle Sounders FC
Seattle, Washington 2013-2014
In January 2013 he signed with his hometown Sounders as the club’s first ever Homegrown player, going straight into MLS instead of the SuperDraft. He became a starter at right back almost right away.
First Sounders HomegrownSigned Jan 2013Right back - 4The Premier League and EuropePro · MLS / USL
Tottenham, Newcastle, Galatasaray
England and Turkey 2014-2021
Tottenham bought him in 2014. After a loan at Sunderland he found a real home at Newcastle United, more than four seasons and over 100 appearances, then a season at Galatasaray in Turkey. He came back to MLS with Inter Miami and FC Cincinnati, and joined Real Salt Lake in 2025, signed through 2027.
Tottenham Hotspur100+ games for NewcastleGalatasaray - 5The national teamNational team
United States men’s national team
USMNT 2014-2023
He debuted in February 2014 and was the youngest member of that summer’s World Cup squad, coming off the bench in Brazil at 20 and becoming one of the tournament’s surprises. He won 81 caps, the last of them in 2023, and played in two World Cups.
81 caps2014 and 2022 World CupsYoungest of the 2014 squad
Two seasons of college soccer, then a World Cup and the Premier League.
The part worth reading is the order it happened in and how long each step took. Look at the years beside each rung above. Several of them cover three or four seasons in one place.
What a parent can take from this one
A few things worth pulling out of the route above, none of them a formula you can copy.
College can still be the road
Yedlin reached a World Cup and the Premier League after two seasons of college soccer. Going the college route closed no doors for him.
Late bloomers are normal
He wasn’t a famous teenage prospect. He signed his first pro deal at 19 and broke out at 20, which is on schedule rather than behind.
Hometown clubs matter
Signing with the Sounders as their first Homegrown player gave him minutes and a platform. Staying local was an advantage, not a compromise.
One tournament can move a career
A few strong games at the 2014 World Cup turned a young MLS fullback into a Premier League signing. Timing and form change things fast.
One path, not the path. MLS NEXT alone holds more than 53,000 players across 318 clubs. MLS has 30 clubs and caps an active roster at 30 players, and a World Cup squad is 26. DeAndre Yedlin’s route is worth understanding rather than copying step for step, because the arithmetic between those numbers is not something a plan can beat. Here is where the odds actually land.
Which rung is your kid on right now?
Town, club, academy, college: the rungs DeAndre Yedlin climbed are the same ones the clubs near you sit on. Read the ladder, or tell us about your kid and we’ll place them on it.
How we built this page
Every club, date and figure on this page was checked against US Soccer, the clubs themselves, college athletics departments and dated reporting. The professional record is well documented. The youth years are thinner, so where a claim could not be traced to one of those sources we cut it rather than fill the gap.
- US Soccer: DeAndre Yedlin
- Seattle Sounders: Yedlin, the club bio
- Seattle Sounders: the first Homegrown signing
- Real Salt Lake: DeAndre Yedlin
Not affiliated with DeAndre Yedlin, US Soccer, Real Salt Lake, or any club or league. No endorsement implied. Spotted something wrong? Tell us and we’ll fix it.
Photo: IIJ Events · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.