Weston McKennie is a blur with a purpose. He darts between boxes—not just an attacker, not just a defender, but one of the most versatile midfielders in the world. He strikes with precision, and when he scores, he whips out AN invisible magic wand and casts a spell.

There is a near-magical quality in the freedom with which he plays; a positionless wizard who would stump any sorting hat. 

Nothing about McKennie’s rise to global footballing stardom, with Juventus and the US men’s national team, has been as simple as wishcasting, however. What started as a gut feeling became his life’s mission. 

“When I was growing up, I would feel these butterflies before games, and people always used to tell me, ‘Wes, it’s not that you’re afraid of what’s going to happen; it’s just that you care a lot,’” McKennie, 27-year-old Texas-born soccer phenom says. “I wouldn’t say I have any fear. I made the distinction between butterflies and fear a long, long time ago.”

Well before McKennie joined Juventus in 2020, long  before Juventus was ingrained in the fabric of Italy, whether metaphorically as a way of life or literally through its iconic black-and-white striped kit, the now-famed Italian football club was just a figment of the imagination. The origin story goes that a group of teenage friends gathered on a bench in Turin on Nov. 1, 1897, and, out of nothing but passion, spoke Juventus into existence. Juventus earned its name, meaning “youth” in Latin, as an homage to those kids with a dream. 

One hundred and one years later, McKennie was born, and five or six years after that, he fell in love with the sport in a similar way: with a group of friends gathered on a military base. His father, John, was stationed in Kaiserslautern, Germany, so that would be home for three years. At six, he followed his older brother, John, to a pickup game, left with an invite to try out for his first club, FC Phönix Otterbach, and never looked back. 

“It was the way I made friends and how I connected with people in my village,” McKennie says. “I have so many great memories of just playing pickup soccer with them. I think the beauty of the game is that it brings everyone together. It’s the world’s sport. It’s literally called the World Cup for a reason.”

McKennie first felt the gravity of the World Cup when Germany hosted it in 2006. Meeting Landon Donovan and Carlos Bocanegra made his future in the sport feel tangible. Two decades later, 16 North American cities will host the World Cup this summer. McKennie isn’t ready to talk about the World Cup—but he says the weight of playing for the US in a World Cup on home soil is “slowly setting in.” He adds, “I don’t do all the extra theatrics; I just play and see what happens.”

Dating back to his formative years in Germany, McKennie has always found home wherever the ball took him. After settling back in Dallas, he developed in Major League Soccer’s FC Dallas academy from 2009 to 2016. Then, two days after his 18th birthday, he signed with Schalke 04 and played in the German Bundesliga, where he “really distinguished myself as a workhorse,” from 2016 to 2020. Along the way, he established himself in what would be christened “the golden generation” of the USMNT. He scored a goal in his November 2017 USMNT debut against Portugal. By 2020, he was named US Soccer’s Male Player of the Year. 

In America, sport is fueled by spectacle. In Europe, especially in Italy, McKennie observed, football is oxygen—“paying attention to the game, feeling the game, and living the game.” That sort of all-consuming passion can burn anyone out, but McKennie keeps his fire alive by breathing into his life away from the game. He’s a self-taught pianist and “dibble-dabbles” in his at-home music studio. He golfs. He loves his dogs. He toys with his personal style: “Lazy, but with sense,” including “oversized fits that let my legs breathe” and “what’s comfortable for me,” mixed with the “very classy style” he’s picked up from Juventus teammates and Italian culture.

McKennie clawed for every inch of this comfort zone, though he never confuses comfort for complacency. In his first season with Juventus, he was teammates with the mythical Cristiano Ronaldo. He learned from the legend and finished as a top-five goal-scorer en route to winning the 2021 Coppa Italia. The most valuable lessons would come over the next five years, as he lined up all over the pitch in an effort to find his footing. 

“I think it goes back to the workhorse mentality,” McKennie says. “As a player in any sport, you want to play. You don’t want to be on the sideline. You want to be in the action and in the big moments. However I can get on the field, it doesn’t matter where. I want to be on the field.”

McKennie’s rock bottom came in January 2023, shortly after suffering the heartbreak of the USMNT losing to the Netherlands in the Round of 16 at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. He joined Leeds United of the English Premier League on loan from Juventus. After 20 demoralizing appearances, the season ended, Leeds was relegated, and McKennie faced rejection upon returning to Italy. 

Plainly, he refused to let Juventus sell him. He believed he belonged, and his relentless belief converted everyone else in Turin, too. Now, he’s in the best form of his life and a core Juventus star, having just signed with the club through 2030. “Proving people wrong is something that I feel like I’ve had to do throughout my career, so it’s nice to finally prove myself right,” he says.

McKennie aims to prove himself right again, as he and the USMNT fight to win over an entire nation. “I just want to have a better showing than the last World Cup,” he says. “As long as you’re giving your hundred of what you can give, that’s what counts. I want to be remembered like that—someone that could always be counted on to give everything.” Who dares doubt the boy who outlived every doubter?

Photographed by Andrea Reina

Styled by Marco de Lucia

Written by Megan Armstrong

Grooming: Giacomo Selvaggio at W-M Management

Stylist Assistant: Federica Fragnoli

Location: AC Hotel Torino