Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #533: Caleb Wiley joins the pod

Episode Date: September 6, 2024

Vince and Sanjay interview USA left back/left wingback/winger Caleb Wiley in Kansas City ahead of the USA-Canada match. He talks about growing up in Atlanta, his dad's pizza, playing in the Olympics, the move to Chelsea and loan to play for young, hungry Strasbourg, and much more. Clearly a conversation enjoyed by everyone involved. Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the SCuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody, welcome to the SCUF podcast. It's Vincent Sanjay here on location in Kansas City. We're here with Kay. We got Caleb Wiley with us today. Caleb Wiley, 19-year-old, just made the big transfer to Chelsea on loan at Strasbourg in the senior camp. Caleb, how you doing? What's up, guys? I'm doing well. I'm happy to be here.

Looking forward to the game tomorrow. So, yeah. So how often did you play on the pitch outside your dad's pizza place growing up? To be honest, I didn't play too many times on that pitch. I remember one time specifically, though, me and my brother and my dad, there was a pickup game going on. So we went there had a good time. But maybe like three, four times.

But, I mean, that's always a spot that, like, everyone enjoys going to and having fun at. So it's awesome. What do I get? Margarita. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. What are, growing up in a pizza family.

What, uh, well, first of all, can you just eat anyone's pizza? Like, I felt like you probably got a higher understanding of the craft than most people. No, I get asked that question a lot. My dad does not care at all. He lets us eat whatever pizza we want. And he's even, you know, he's okay with eating, you know, pizza outside of his stuff. So there's not any type of rule on that.

Okay. Grew up in Atlanta. Do you grow up in Atlanta proper or surrounding area? Yeah. It's called Morningside. It's in the Midtown area. Probably five, ten minutes outside. from down at Atlanta.

So, yeah. Okay. So when you were a ballboy for Atlanta United, who was your favorite player? Was there one guy who looked up to you? Anything memorable about those days and one particular player? Favorite player?

I would say Miguel on our own. I think he was a lot of people's favorite player. It's just exceptional on the pitch. Super exciting to watch. but I think just being there, like, that was surreal. You know, I think, you know, I don't know how many fans were there, but, you know, Atlanta, like, the fans show up. And, you know, it's truly amazing to, you know,

have the city come and support the soccer team. So it was awesome. Yeah. So what ages did you, were you a ballboy from? Started U-12. So, yeah, every academy team. team, I think, has, like, the opportunity to Ballboy, at least from U-12 to, like, U-15. So I started U-12, did it up until, like, U-15, maybe, U-14.

Yeah, that was my last time. Okay, so you mentioned it before. I mean, you just mentioned in that answer, but as far as most soccer players in Atlanta, I mean, not in Atlanta, most soccer players in this country, MLS players in particular, don't necessarily have, like, their teams don't necessarily have a lot of pull, a lot of clout within their city. and Atlanta, it's totally different. So, right? How did that experience, did that experience, like, being able to see the,

see the stadium filled up, you know, 60, 70,000 people be involved in that? And did that, maybe push you in a certain way? Did that involve, was that involved in making you, like, want to be like, yeah, I want to be a footballer? Most definitely. I think it just gave me more motivation to reach, for that dream. I mean, I remember going to,

my parents had, like, season tickets, so we would always go to the home games. And I remember just sitting in the stands and watching from the outside. And just, you know, every time I went to a game, I just wished to be on that pitch and to be playing in front of these fans. And, you know, I remember, like, during the playoffs,

that's when, like, you know, it gets pretty crazy. You know, they have all the flags and everything. So, you know, it was, it definitely made me, you know, push for that goal a lot more. And then also, you know, you have, you know, when we're training at the training facility, you know, you can see the first team training pitch. You can see them training sometimes. So, you know, you look over and that's where you ultimately want to be.

So it kind of just pushes you more. Did you play any other sports growing up? Yeah. I played basketball, lacrosse, football. football at like recess for fun but no it wasn't just all about soccer growing up I enjoyed playing all kinds of sports you know it probably wasn't until 10 or 11 where I put all my focus into the soccer you know my parents allowed me to do every anything that I wanted to do and they supported me so your dad played as well right

Right, you played? He played briefly in high school. I don't know how good he was, but it wasn't, yeah, I think it was just high school, and then he kind of fell into some other, he became a cyclist and runner after that, but only in high school he played soccer. What are your siblings? Brother played soccer a little bit in middle school, high school, but was more into basketball. basketball, sister more into volleyball basketball.

Okay, so growing up in Atlanta, right, obviously we have the big sports, you know, football, basketball, they usually pull kids away from soccer. And around the time you're playing, you know, Atlanta, Atlanta United is a fairly new thing, right? So was there, did you like get side-d-house from kids at school when you, when you're like telling them you're a soccer player? Like, how did that go? Did I get excited?

Yeah, like, what was the acceptance like within the community? Were people like soccer's for? No, I think everyone thought it was super cool. You know, especially when, you know, my classmates, I wasn't, you know, a kid that would tell people I'm, you know, I'm in the L.A. United's Academy. But once they figured out, you know, they thought it was super cool and they were, you know, super excited for me.

and you know that goes for you know anybody else family friends outside of school just super excited so over the past few seasons you played a lot of wingback a little winger um what is one area of the attacking part of your game which you feel has improved a lot from that especially playing higher up and um and what's an area where you feel like you need to get better at and level up now that year in Europe? I've always, I mean, I think something I can keep on improving is my decision making in the final third. It's gone a lot better, but there's always, you know, room for improvement. So just to keep improving that side of my game. And then also, I think since, you know, being around quality players every single day from such a young age, I've, you know, developed

Lots of just creativity, you know, in any parts of the pitch, you know, just playing my game. So I would, you know, pick those two things. Do you see yourself moving forward as a standard left back or maybe wingback? I think my favorite position to play is wing back, but I don't make the final decision. It's up to the coach. but I enjoy playing wingback the most. It just allows me to attack and defend, which I love doing. So more of a tactical question.

Like how, as a wingback, you know, you kind of have to be able to judge certain things on the pitch. Like, are we still in the build out fight? Are we still in the build out phase? Am I able to get up and attack, et cetera? Do I need to stay back and defend? Are we at risk of losing the ball here, et cetera? So how do you process that in game? Yeah, there's a lot of things that go into it,

and I don't think people realize. I mean, I think they just see, like, oh, he's a wingback. He just stays out wide. He just runs up and down, which is true. But there's a lot of other things that go into it and that you have to be switched on the whole entire game, just like any other position on the field. But I think it's just come from experience

that I've gotten throughout the past few years. years and, you know, when I'm not playing, I'm looking at film, looking at all the things I can do better, watching, you know, other players that I, that play my position just to get inspired from, to learn from. So all these little things, you know, I've helped me kind of get to where I am today. Okay. So, and what about the physical requirements? Like you said, you have to get up and down a lot. I mean, senior national team, you know, we watch Jedi do it. Jeddaw That seems like he can just go all day and then put in another 90 after that. Is that something you still working on?

How do you improve it? How do you pace yourself during a match? I mean, yeah, I've been told similar things. Like, you can run all game. I mean, it's truly like a marathon out there. It's just a track race, just up and down. But I enjoy it. I enjoy it.

I enjoy running. It gets tough at times. But, you know, that's when you kind of just got to lean on your teammates. You have your teammates back. They have your back. You know, so I know that. And so, but yeah, I've been doing it for a while now, so I think I'm, you know, getting used to all the running.

You mentioned players you might look to as an example. Who are any particular role models with left backs or left-wing backs growing up? I mean, always growing up. One of my biggest idols was Marcello, someone that I looked up towards, someone who I enjoyed watching, just his creativity on the ball, unbelievable player. So he was definitely a person I watched. Congratulations. What was that experience like?

Just everything, everything involved with. No, it was awesome. I mean, it hits a bit different now that it's over. and now I have time to kind of reflect on the overall experience. But it was an amazing time. I was, you know, thankful to have my family there too with me for the group stage games. So they were able to enjoy it with me. But, yeah, I mean, you know, we went with a special group, special players, special people.

So it just made the time, you know, so much better. it would have been nice to stay in the village and to be around other athletes. But, you know, I don't know if you guys saw we got to wear our suits to the hotel dinner in the hotel. That was pretty funny, but, you know, it's just like that. That just shows you, you know, how many, you know, good people, what, you know, everyone's made of, you know, good personalities on the team. It was unfortunate to go out the way we did, but I think everyone should be proud. About those suits. Okay, so where Floreen came under a lot of fire for the design of the opening and closing ceremony outfits.

How do you feel about them? Yeah, I know. I heard some mixed feelings about it. But me personally, I think they're fire. Me too. Me too. I'm a big Ralph Lauren guy anyway, so I was, I'm going to be biased towards it, but I thought they were fire. And then I also saw some people break down, like, the meaning behind the opening one, especially, like, those coats where that was like what people on Wall Street wore in like the 1920s and stuff, and they became sport coats. And the blue jeans are because, you know, American fashions, a little bit more casual, et cetera, et cetera.

But the closing, I feel like nobody can have any, like that jacket. I know you probably have to cherish that jacket. That thing's nice. I'm trying to get my hands on one myself. It's nice. But you get to keep it, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

That's back home. That's not going anywhere. Yeah, yeah. I'm still trying to buy one. But, yeah, so you all didn't get to take part in opening or closing ceremonies, really, but you did get to make it to Paris. So what was that experience like when y'all finally got there and got to take in the full Olympic experience? Yeah.

It was a lot different. I mean, you just knew when you were in Paris. A lot more people. You know, there's events going on everywhere. The first night we got there, after dinner, me and Miles Robinson, we went to the beach volleyball event, which is super cool because it's right in front of the Eiffel Tower. So that was honestly one of the best events I've ever been to.

A few guys went to the swimming event. And then a few more guys went to, like, the village. So it was definitely nice to be in Paris. That was my first time in Paris, so it was pretty cool. Had some good croissants. Yeah, it was a good time. So you and John Tolkien are kind of the two up-and-coming left-backs. Could you talk about what your relationship is like when you're in camp together?

And, you know, just that mindset of trying to get on the field as a left-back, but also, you know, being his teammate. Yeah, me and John Tolkien, I've always had a good relationship. You know, I think, you know, some people might expect, you know, we play the same position. Like, do they like each other or not? And that's not the case. I mean, we're boys. And, you know, I think the best thing about him is, you know, he's, you know, he teaches me stuff.

You know, he gives me advice, you know, when we're on the pitch, you know, he's letting me know about things, you know, which I helps me as a player. So, you know, we've always had a good relationship in each camp. He's a great player, great guy that, you know, I think every team needs. So, yeah. Yeah, you can tell he's from, you can tell Jemai's from Jersey, right? Yeah, you can tell. Yeah.

At Morocco match, you all probably had to know that you ran for it. Just for the fact there being a large Moroccan diaspora in Paris, in France, just in general, I mean, I imagine that game to be the craziest one that y'all played as far as atmosphere and everything. Was it better than France? Let me ask you that. I don't know. Because, you know, when I was running out for the warm-ups, I just got this feeling like, like, never before, like, just running out for a game. I don't know if it was just being at, like, I think it was just, you're at the Olympics,

you know, and, you know, I don't know. It was just pretty surreal. The game against Morocco It was like I don't know They're fans or something else And the majority of the stadium Was Moroccans

And so they were definitely chirping at us You know when we're at the bench on the bench and everything So you kind of have to deal with that side But Yeah that was you know Credit to them they're a good team So but yeah So you played in like three to four systems since June, right?

Like you've been in the Atlanta environment and with the 23s for the Olympics, Strasbourg, and now you're with the senior national team with Mikey, reunited with Mikey. So how challenging has it been adapting to different philosophies and tactics so often just this summer? Yeah. I mean, I think one story. strength that I have is being able to adapt to formations, to tactics quickly. I think it also helps, you know, from the coaches that I've been coached with,

who are very clear about what they want for me and what role I play in the team. And then also the relationships that I have, you know, I feel that it's so easy. You know, I've known Mikey for so long now. I can go up to him. He'll come up to me and we'll chat about anything that we need to, and that goes with every other coach that I've had. So I think, yeah, just over time, I've improved just, you know, improved just, you know, obviously sometimes it takes some time to adapt to the formation and stuff,

but I think I've done well with, you know, any formation that I've been in so far. Well, what was it like signing with Chelsea? Did you go to Cobham in person and meet with anyone, or has the interactionally been through their front office folks? No, I went to Kaplan right before I left for Olympic pre-camp, just for medicals and pictures. So I got a tour of the facility, training facility, the stadium. I met a couple of the players, and then that was basically it.

But, I mean, that right there to sign with Chelsea. I mean, it's a dream, you know, with a club that big. You know, I grew up, you know, watching them. You know, so it's definitely an amazing achievement for me. Did you sign with Chelsea? Did you know you were going to Strasbourg when you signed with Chelsea? Yeah. I mean, it was always part of the plan.

Okay. Yeah. So when you were in France during the Olympics, where you kind of scouting out the place, getting a sense of the culture. Did you make a trip to Strasbourg during that time or anything like that? Didn't make a trip to Strasbourg, but, I mean, what you said about, you know, adjusting to, like, the culture and the language and just getting used to everything, you know, life in France was kind of what I was doing. You know, I was there for, I don't know, almost a month, you know,

for the Olympics. So, yeah, just getting ready for what my life would be. going forward how's the french coming along are you nailing the accent yet or gosh why do you have to ask no i think once i get back to france i might be taking some lessons but right now i i don't know much but the good thing is that my teammates um majority of the guys know english um so it's super helpful the coaches from england um so it just makes the job so much easier for me how are you actually Like, were you living-wise? Like, were you living at home in Atlanta? And obviously now you're on your own.

So what's that like off the field? I was living with my parents up until December. Me and my old teammates, one of my best friends, Tyler Wolf, we moved in together. We had an apartment. And then once I moved to France, my dad came over with me. and so my dad came and then he left and then my mom came so they kind of come and go like that but yeah living situation is been good so far big assist against the all can tell us about that yeah um i mean what a game that was um but yeah i mean i mean great to get the first assist um you know i thought

we were able to i thought that was going to be the the end of it, but no. What did you see to lead you to pounce on that bad touch? Did you just see that he was, like, unsure of himself as he was taking that ball down or what? Yeah, no, I think I just read the flight of the ball from the goalkeeper first, and once I saw one of my teammates and one of their players, once I read that they were not going to head the ball, I was like, all right, it's going to come to this guy.

and, you know, I got to apply pressure. And, you know, he made a poor touch, and I was able to take the ball away from him. And I looked up, I don't know if I even looked up. I just, like, kind of, once I was looking down at the ball, I kind of saw one of my teammates ahead, and I just put it in. And, yeah, it was with my right foot.

Not used to making that sad. It was a beautiful ball. Thank you. So how is the communication going to work with Chelsea? Are you in touch with them? often was a communication like between them and the club? Yeah. No, they're great about making sure that we're still part of the club.

You know, just because we're on loan doesn't mean like they shove us to the side and totally forget about us. They're super nice. I mean, they have guys that are always checking up on me, guys that have also came to Strasbourg to visit, to talk to me, just to see how things are going, to watch my game, watch trainings. So they're super supportive, and they've been great. Did you talk to Gaga or Christian or anyone knows about Chelsea before? Yeah, me and Gaga, we were definitely talking during the Olympics because that was like during the time when everything was coming out.

So he was kind of giving me lots of, you know, advice and stuff about just London in general and stuff about Chelsea. But, yeah. With Strasbourg, I mean, just a team full of young, hungry, talented guys. seems like. So I really enjoy watching y'all play because it's just you know you guys aren't you all still

everyone's still kind of raw and just out there balling a little bit it seems to me so tell me with that environment seems like there's probably a lot of teaching going on a lot of learning between everybody yeah just what's that like being with the I mean it's almost like an Olympic age age level team really.

Yeah no I've loved every second of it so far every player just has tons of quality and everyone has big ambitions to do bigger things to get to the highest level in their career from the very first day in training I found the difference how much faster and how much more physical everyone is

so now I'm excited for this season I think a lot of people say that we're not experienced and we're too young but you know we're just going to show everyone wrong Chelsea's former coach is rumored to be the next coach of this team we could find out any minute now we're on the edge of our seat your thoughts on the expected higher of someone that stature and anything specifically about about him yeah yeah it's pretty crazy how that that can be a possibility um but Yeah, I mean, you know, we know that he has a great past and great manager.

So, you know, if that's the case, then, you know, they'll do great things. And, you know, I think it'll be great for this team. All right. No, I mean, we're getting kind of up there on time. We'll just wrap it up. Well, I will ask just this quick question. watch your interview you said you're into fast and you're into thrifting things like that now when we see these camp arrival pictures a lot of these dudes coming in here in designer etc etc do they did they get on

you about that do you feel like you got to step your game or you just feel like i'm just going to be that's the most important thing yeah you got to be yourself right you can't let anybody else tell you what to do um i've rolled in with uh i just hopped off the plane so it was just a chill chill fit. And yeah, I'm sort of into designer. I don't mind it. But yeah, like you said, I like

vintage wear thrifting. So yeah. All right. Caleb, thank you for your time, man. Yeah, of course, guys. Thanks for coming on. Thank you. Thank you guys.