Cavan Sullivan\u2019s rise through Major League Soccer has become impossible to ignore. The teenager first made history in 2024, when he debuted at 14 years and 293 days old, taking the record as the league\u2019s youngest ever player from Freddy Adu. He has now added another landmark to that resume.<\/p>\n
Sullivan produced his fifth goal contribution in as many games on Saturday, pushing his season total to 11 in league play, with four goals and seven assists. That number overtook Adu\u2019s long-standing mark for the most goal contributions by a player aged 16 or younger in a single season. Adu had set the previous benchmark with 10 in 2005.<\/p>\n
After the match, Sullivan spoke about the finish and the celebration. \u201cI was in the box, that\u2019s where things happen,\u201d Sullivan told reporters post-game. \u201cI followed it up … it was at that awkward height where it just slid right in. No, I\u2019m really happy.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the celly, I was waiting to do that for a while. I had Kim, our photographer, holding the chalk for multiple games. I just kept missing out on it, or I was away. But tonight, great crowd, and it was the perfect time.\u201d<\/p>\n
His form has not been limited to league matches. Across all competitions this season, Sullivan has 14 goal contributions, made up of seven goals and seven assists in 27 appearances. Half of those contributions have come in the last month, across only six outings. He has credited interim manager Ryan Richter for giving him more consistent starts and greater trust on the pitch.<\/p>\n
Richter was equally direct after the game. \u201cHe is finishing plays off,\u201d Richter said post-match. \u201cGetting himself into positions to score goals that don\u2019t all need to be like his goal against Red Bull [New York on Aug. 29], when he makes an incredible individual play.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can contribute to the game and get your goals and assists, be decisive and productive in the game by being in the right place at the right time. And that\u2019s where he was tonight, and he finished the play well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sullivan\u2019s output has helped drive the Union\u2019s recovery. They are unbeaten in their last eight league matches, moving from last place to ninth in the Eastern Conference and into a playoff position for the first time this season.<\/p>\n
His contract includes a clause that will send him to Manchester City when he turns 18. For now, he remains focused on MLS, though he is still in contact with the club. \u201cWe keep in touch,\u201d Sullivan tells Sports Illustrated about the blue side of Manchester. \u201cBut mainly I\u2019m just focused on doing my thing here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cavan Sullivan keeps setting records in MLS, and Manchester City remain his next step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238],"tags":[1162,182],"class_list":["post-19210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","tag-analytics","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}