Alex Freeman has never quite forgiven his father for the decision he made in the summer of 2004. ‘[It] really sticks with me still,’ the USA defender tells the Daily Mail.

Antonio Freeman was a wide receiver who spent a decade in the NFL. He played in 116 regular-season games for Green Bay and briefly rejoined the team in June 2007. Just so he could retire a Packer.

In truth, however, the receiver had called time on his career three years earlier – after he was cut by the Miami Dolphins. ‘Two months before I was born,’ his son points out with a smile. ‘I can’t believe he did that!’ Alex Freeman turns 22 in August. ‘It sucks I didn’t get to watch him play.’ He missed his dad’s crowning moment, too.

At Super Bowl XXXI, in January 1997, Freeman Sr scored a pivotal, 81-yard touchdown as the Packers beat the New England Patriots.

Nearly three decades on, Alex Freeman has earned his own shot at sporting immortality. Late last month, he was named in the USA’s 26-man roster for the World Cup. On home soil. At just 21.

‘It’s so crazy to think about,’ he says. ‘One of those things you dream of as a kid… it can change US soccer forever.’ So, he asks: ‘What are we going to do with it? How are we going to make an impact?’

Villarreal defender Alex Freeman was named in the USA’s 26-man roster for the World Cup

At Super Bowl XXXI, his dad Antonio Freeman scored an 81-yard touchdown for the Packers

‘Growing up,’ Freeman says, ‘I fell in love with not only football but the person I call my dad’

‘That’s one of the things that we need to think about: this is not only a game for us and the team. It’s a game for the whole country. A moment for all of us.’ And his dad won’t miss a moment.

No matter that Freeman went down an unfamiliar path. ‘He realizes how big [soccer] is now,’ Freeman says of his father. Now his son is the youngest member of Mauricio Pochettino’s roster. Now his son is playing for Villarreal, a storied club in Spain’s top division. Now Antonio Freeman is a soccer nerd himself.

‘He’s watching every Champions League game… he’s checking the La Liga table every day. He’s watching the Prem [Premier League],’ the USMNT star says. Antonio recently said his son making the World Cup is ‘even better’ than his own Super Bowl heroics.

The 21-year-old grew up surrounded by memories and trinkets from his dad’s career. None was more precious than the ring he earned at Super Bowl XXXI. ‘He let me touch it once,’ Freeman says. ‘I never touched it again.’

This summer, Freeman and his USMNT teammates harbor dreams of securing their own silverware. America’s World Cup campaign begins against Paraguay on June 12 – almost a year to the day since the defender made his international debut. That night, against Turkey, his father’s eyes filled with tears. It has been a remarkable rise for a player who, until last year, had played just 16 minutes of senior soccer.

One of Freeman’s USA teammates, Luca de la Torre, admitted he ‘had no idea’ who the defender was before his call up.

As for the first time he met Pochettino? ‘I was scared to talk to him,’ Freeman says. ‘How do I say hi?’ he wondered. Thankfully, Pochettino knew what to do.

‘He just came up to me and we had a 40-minute talk,’ the defender recalls. That was enough to calm Freeman down and make him realize something. ‘Wow, he not only cares about me as a player but he wants to understand me as a person… it just brings so much joy that I can be myself around him.’

Freeman paints an image of Pochettino that some might struggle to recognize. In recent days, the USMNT coach has come under fire for holding talks with AC Milan and informing World Cup hopefuls that they hadn’t made his roster… by email.

The defender helped the United States beat Senegal in a World Cup warm-up game on Sunday

The defender is full of praise for Mauricio Pochettino, the coach who gave him his USA debut

Freeman revealed that his father is now a soccer nerd who watches every big game

‘He just creates that environment for us to be ourselves and be the best… his passion, man. You can’t explain that.’ Pochettino puts his players through difficult sessions and dishes out tough love, too.

‘Some coaches are soft on you but you need that kind of criticism that’s going to push you to be better… it just makes you want to play for him.’

Freeman has appeared in 16 of the USMNT’s last 17 games, including Sunday’s 3-2 win over Senegal, when he helped create Christian Pulisic’s first goal in five months. Freeman broke his international duck with a double against Uruguay last November.

A couple of months after that 5-1 win, the defender gave Pochettino a call. He had played barely 30 times for Orlando City in MLS when, towards the end of the January transfer window, Villarreal swooped.

‘The move came out of nowhere,’ Freeman admits. ‘I really didn’t even have time to think about it.’ He was in Cancun when his phone buzzed. Freeman jetted back to Orlando where he had a few hours to prepare for life in Spain. He packed his PlayStation, his toothbrush and a few other essentials and then headed off to seal a deal worth up to $6.5 million.

It was a curious move for a rising star of US soccer – with the World Cup on the horizon, why take that risk? Fortunately, Freeman knew his international manager was behind him.

‘We had a really long talk… and he just told me: whatever I was doing, he would always support me,’ Freeman explains. Pochettino promised he was only a text or a phone call away. And at first, the move did prove tricky.

Freeman noticed immediately how, in La Liga, the speed and intensity of practice was unlike anything he had known. He did not start a league game for Villarreal until late April and his family were now an 11-hour flight away.

His mother once said: ‘Alex didn’t want to play football [but] he didn’t want to tell his dad that’ 

Earlier this year, the defender joined Spanish club Villarreal in a deal worth up to $6.5 million

But early on, his biggest concern about living in Spain? ‘The times they eat are really weird to me,’ Freeman says. Why wait until 8 or 9pm before having dinner? ‘That really hit me… I’d be like on my phone, like: “Google, is it time to eat yet?”‘ Freeman says with a laugh.

The result? ‘When I first got there, I was snacking a lot.’ He would head out to find stores that could satisfy his sweet tooth. ‘Sometimes you miss that junk food,’ he says.

Freeman had gone without home comforts before – at 16, in the middle of a pandemic, he moved away from his family to join Orlando City’s academy.

And within a few months in Spain, the defender had found his feet. He keeps up with friends through video games and toward the end of the season he made a handful of starts. It doesn’t faze him that many Villarreal staffers speak to him only in Spanish; the advice of his father and Weston McKennie remains imprinted on his mind.

USA star McKennie has spent the last decade playing abroad. ‘You’re going to have to take risks in life,’ the midfielder told Freeman. ‘You have to bet on yourself.’

Freeman’s father has a knack for finding the right words. Among his consistent messages? ‘Be patient, wait for your moment but when the moment comes, make sure no one can take it away from you again,’ Freeman explains.

He always knew his dad played football but it wasn’t until Freeman reached fourth or fifth grade that he had seen enough footage to ‘start bragging about him.’

Freeman still remembers the day his father was enshrined in the Packers Hall of Fame. ‘Growing up I watched a lot of YouTube clips about him,’ he says. ‘I just fell in love with not only football but the person I call my dad.’

In a friendly against Paraguay last year, Freeman instigated a scrap that left him bloodied

Antonio Freeman was proud of his son for standing his ground during the mass brawl

Freeman was routinely taken to NFL games, where he rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous. But football was never going to be his future. As his mom Rochelle previously revealed: ‘Alex didn’t want to play football [but] he didn’t want to tell his dad that.’

Instead? He fell in love with soccer thanks to footage of Lionel Messi and Neymar and Jermaine Jones’ thunderbolt against Portugal at the 2014 World Cup. Freeman will hope to etch his own name into US soccer folklore this summer.

He has already made his mark against Paraguay. In the final minutes of a friendly back in November 2025, Freeman instigated a scrap that left him bloodied and involved dozens of players and staff. ‘One of my first brawls,’ he says.

It had no impact on the result but the reaction of his teammates – who rushed to Freeman’s aid – taught the defender something. ‘This team – not only can they play, they have each other’s back,’ he says. ‘People had opinions on the US, that we’re too soft… and I feel like that just gave us a kind of different identity. We can be scrappy as well.’

His father was proud of him for standing his ground. But what did Pochettino make of it all? ‘Obviously he doesn’t condone fighting,’ Freeman says with a smile. ‘But did he mind everyone having the passion? No, he loved that.’

He continues: ‘It’s just so good that we’re able to all stick together and go through those moments… we have that connection, that bond off the field that makes us so strong as a team. And that is what you’re going to need, especially at the biggest stage in the World Cup.’