FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Juan Agudelo’s first phone call after learning he’d been called into the U.S. National Team’s January camp – currently ongoing in Carson, California – was to the same person who receives every first phone call when he earns a USMNT spot: his mother.
“I always tell my mom,” Agudelo said during a 20-minute chat with fans on Facebook Live this past weekend. “She deserves the first call every single time I get called to the national team.”
Agudelo, now 24 years old, reflected on the sacrifices his mother made when he was a youngster growing up in Barnegat, New Jersey, driving hours each way multiple times a week so he could play with the best club team in the area.
“She’s been a big part of my development, ever since I was a little boy,” said Agudelo, who moved from Colombia to the U.S. at seven years old. “She would come back from work and she would drive me two hours to north Jersey – because we lived in south Jersey – just to have a good training session with a very good club team.
“Driving through traffic and sitting there for an hour-and-a-half watching me train, it made me better. I give a lot of credit to my mother.”
Agudelo’s mother will have a chance to watch him play for the USMNT in a pair of friendlies in the coming weeks, against Serbia on January 29 (4 p.m. ET, ESPN2) and Jamaica on February 3 (7 p.m. ET, FS1).
You can watch Agudelo’s full Facebook Live chat HERE.
