16-year-old Mathis Albert just broke a Bundesliga record. Beware the US soccer hype machine

<p>American soccer will have truly progressed when cases like the Dortmund teenager’s are common enough to be unremarkable</p><p>There’s something about a 16-year-old making his debut among fully grown senior professionals that makes him look like a fawn. A scrawny, wobbly baby deer, the function of his arms and legs not yet figured out, jogging on to the pitch in a kit and shin guards that always seem a few sizes too big, like a boy wearing his dad’s suit.</p><p>So, too, appeared Mathis Albert when coming on in the 89th minute of Borussia Dortmund’s 4-0 romp over Freiburg on Sunday, which secured the team a place in next year’s Champions League.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/apr/29/mathis-albert-borussia-dortmund-us-soccer-fandom">Continue reading...</a>