FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — Sebastian Berhalter was invited to exactly one national team youth camp. He thinks it was a U16 camp, and remembers feeling like it was the biggest deal. 

“You get the Nike boots and everything,” he said Friday, wearing a dark blue pullover with a USA badge on the chest. You know how the story ends, with Berhalter getting a WhatsApp message from Mauricio Pochettino last Friday, calling his family and breaking into tears with them. As for how the story starts, go back to that camp. 

“The coach at the end told me I wasn’t good enough,” Berhalter said. “I used his name for probably four years every time in the basement, just kicking the ball against the wall. I’m gonna prove this guy wrong. I’m gonna prove everyone wrong. I just kinda harnessed it and used it as motivation.” 

Picture that scene. A 16-year-old Berhalter — “probably 5-10, 110 pounds,” he says — going back and forth with the basement wall and doing his best Arya Stark impression. 

Four years ago, at age 20, he was in Qatar, but as a fan, albeit one with some pretty good access, given his father, Gregg, was coaching the national team. He hung out with Antonee Robinson’s best friends from home, so much that Robinson got to know him a bit. 

“I can’t speak for Seabass,” Robinson said Friday, “but my friends [did] a lot of drinking [in Qatar]. They found a way.” 

It wasn’t until years later that Robinson saw Berhalter as a piece of the national team’s puzzle. He wasn’t a regular starter in MLS until last season, didn’t get his first USMNT cap until last summer. Once he was called up, though, Robinson quickly saw him as someone with a chance at the World Cup roster. 

“He’s the kind of profile of a player Poch really likes,” Robinson said. “He’s very aggressive, very fierce. He’s got quality as well. He’s been banging them in, top bins left and right recently.” 

It’s easy to point at Berhalter and scream nepotism, and sure, of course his father’s experience was a big help along the way. But it wasn’t until his dad was fired, and Pochettino hired, that he was ever even seriously considered for a spot on this team. 

“I believed and people kinda laughed at me,” Berhalter said. “It is what it is. Even last year, or even four years ago, saying I’m gonna be at the next World Cup, people didn’t believe that. I’ve always liked to think that way and have self-talk. Keeping a little bit not real, keeping a little bit on the crazier side. It gives me that confidence.” 

Even so, and even as Berhalter carved out a career in MLS, he spent so much of that time watching others get ahead of him in the pecking order. At the club level and, certainly, at the national team level. 

“There’s a chance to make an Olympic team [in 2024]. I wasn’t even close to making an Olympic team,” Berhalter said. “I was like, ‘Damn.’ I was so focused on that. Going through that journey, I realized I’m a lot better when I just take it day to day. When I’m not looking at this big goal and saying, ‘I need to be here.’ It’s moment by moment. It’s something that’s tough and kinda always led me to stay patient, stay patient. Keep putting in the work. It’s gonna come.” 

Eventually, it did. 

Since arriving at Vancouver in 2022, Berhalter’s minutes have steadily increased year over year. Fast forward to last year and he was an integral part of a team that went to the MLS Cup final, and the USMNT’s Gold Cup. He scored his first goal for the national team in November against Uruguay, and featured in both games during the March window. 

He says he’s still a little bit in awe of Tyler Adams, but there’s a good chance that at some point during this World Cup, Berhalter will be on the field next to him. Given the USMNT’s depth chart in central midfield, it at least looks like Berhalter will have a real, and important, role to play for this team. 

As for that coach who told him he wasn’t good enough? Berhalter doesn’t remember his name anymore. 

You’d imagine, though, that he knows Berhalter’s.