Ricardo Pepi #9

Profile

Among the last and more agonizing cuts from the 2022 World Cup roster, Pepi has done plenty to prove he deserves his spot in the USA team in the four years since Qatar. He has scored 10 of his 13 international goals in that span at the time of writing, and went from riding the bench at Augsburg to being a key part of a PSV side that have won three consecutive Dutch league titles. Born on the US-Mexico border, Pepi’s breakthrough came with FC Dallas after turning heads due to his impressive scoring rate at youth level. The rate was so impressive that fans began talking about the Ricardo Pepi hype train – lending him a nickname, El Tren, that sticks among some USA fans to this day.

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