Burgeoning star Weah carrying his famous name, USMNT expectations well so far

EAST HARTFORD, Conn. — Jordi Cruyff played his first game of organized soccer on some suburban field in Washington, D.C. The only son of his legendary and paradigm-altering father, Johan, was about 6 years old. In that maiden soccer game, he apparently showed no natural aptitude for the sport at all, according to an anecdote from a Dutch book on Cruyff’s tumultuous spell in the old North American Soccer League.

“Oh dear, that’s going to be a problem with a last name like his,” Johan allegedly said.

As it turned out, the father’s concern for his son was premature. Jordi evidently improved, making 54 appearances for FC Barcelona’s first team while his father managed it, and moving on to play for Manchester United and representing the Netherlands at Euro 1996.

But the point nevertheless stands. It’s hard enough making your way into professional soccer. It’s harder still when you’re weighed down by a famous last name.

Which, of course, brings us to Tim Weah. He’s the second son and youngest child of Liberian soccer legend George Weah, who leveraged a glittering 1990s career as Africa’s first FIFA World Player of the Year and Ballon d’Or winner into a political second act that made him the Liberian president last year.

The younger Weah, just 18, was born in New York and left the New York Red Bulls academy at just 14 to join French powerhouse Paris Saint-Germain, one of his father’s former clubs. Yet if there is an added weight on Tim’s shoulders, he carries it well.

“Obviously, having a [famous] last name, people are going to expect so much from you,” Weah said following the United States men’s national team’s 1-1 tie with Peru on Tuesday, in which he earned his seventh cap. “But I just try to play my game and keep a clear head. It’s all on the field. So long as I do what I need to do on the field, people are going to respect me, no matter what my last name is. They’ll see me for who I am.”

His father is sympathetic to his plight when they discuss it. “He tells me the same thing everyone tells me,” Tim said. “‘It’s a huge burden to carry but it’s your last name. You’re going to have to deal with it.’”

“My family, they tell me not to think so much of it,” Weah added. “‘Just play your game. Your dad was great. And now it’s your time to shine.’”

Since turning 18 in February, Weah has made his debut and six total appearances in Paris Saint-Germain’s first team. Which puts him in the unusual position of seeing more playing time with his national team than his club. That makes a certain amount of sense, considering that the U.S. is rebuilding after the failure to reach the 2018 World Cup. And that PSG has a logjam of superstar forwards competing with Weah for minutes – including the two most expensive players in history in Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.

“I’m just going with it,” said Weah, who has suggested that he’d accept a loan away from PSG in the January transfer window. “Right now, I’m not getting a lot of appearances with my first team, but when I come to the national team I try to give it my all. I still have so much to work on. I still have so much potential. I’m just trying to get much more comfortable than I was before. I’m getting there; I’m getting there.”

And in his brief time with the national team, Weah has consistently been impressive. Against Colombia on Oct. 11, he slid a splendidly weighted through ball to Bobby Wood for a go-ahead goal in an eventual 4-2 loss.

Against Peru, Weah had one of the few chances for the U.S. when he just missed with his finish on a cutback from Josh Sargent. But he was nevertheless the most threatening man on the American side, with every spell of danger seemingly emanating from his feet.

“He’s a confident kid,” said Wil Trapp, the U.S. captain on Tuesday. “But his abilities obviously you can see it. It’s there for everyone to see.”

“He’s got a lot of tools,” added acting head coach Dave Sarachan. “For young players, it’s a matter of now putting those tools to the right test.”

And that’s just where Weah has impressed Sarachan, who gave him his debut.

“I do like his willingness to learn,” Sarachan continued.“The hope is that the minutes he’s accumulating will add up so that he’ll minimize the moments where mistakes might have happened prior to the caps. I think he’s growing. He’s got a lot to learn still but he’s getting used to the speed of play at this level and that’s been a real plus.”

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One such lesson was manifest in Weah’s bloody lip after the Peru game. A defender took a “cheap shot.” “It happens when you play teams like this, South American teams,” Weah said. “You know it’s a part of the game. I didn’t get mad but it does hurt. For the whole second half, my head was going through it. My head was all over the place. I was hurting. I tried to finish out the game strong. It’s an experience and something to build on.”

On the field and off it, he’s had to grow up fast. Especially now that he’s part of Liberia’s first family. His parents aren’t as available to guide him as they used to be. “It’s hard to reach them now because they’re always traveling. They’re always doing their thing,” Tim said. “I just kind of leave them to it. I try to do my soccer and let them do the politics.”

But when he does speak to his famous father, he absorbs his words carefully. “I look up to him, and anything he tells me, I listen to him. And I love him for that,” said Weah.

And here, whether intentionally or not, he couldn’t help but slip in a little dig. “It’s like getting advice from Neymar and [Kylian] Mbappe,” Tim Weah said. “Except he has a Ballon d’Or.”

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a Yahoo Sports soccer columnist and a sports communication lecturer at Marist College. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.