There’s no shortage of storylines in Griffin Yow’s Belgian journey.
There was the “package deal,” as he calls it, that brought him to often-overlooked Westerlo — not one of Belgium’s traditional powers — to join close friend Bryan Reynolds. There was a year spent developing with the youth teams. Then came the breakout: a surge that earned him a spot at the Olympics, a recent flurry of goals putting him on radars on both sides of the Atlantic, and Westerlo suddenly dreaming of an unlikely European run.
That's not where this particular story is starting, though. This one is starting with a tale that Yow can't help but laugh about now. It starts with a garbage problem.
Chalk it up to growing pains or the complexities of moving to Europe on your own. The Yow who arrived in Belgium as a teenager might not have been fully ready for everything that came with it. That included, perhaps most of all, garbage day. He did things "the American way," as he says, failing to realize the nuance of trash takeaway in Belgium. It led to multiple fines and a bit of panic. He gave up after a while, stacking trash in his basement until the smell got so bad that he finally had to reckon with his decisions.
"I tried to do the whole European system!" he protests now with a laugh. "I put it outside where all the other bags were, and I got fined! Not the right color, not the right bag, not the right can."
It wasn't the only challenge in Westerlo. Yow struggled with life without Uber Eats and, admittedly, had to figure out how to do every household chore imaginable. The new version looks back on it all and laughs. He's grown up a bit since. He's an Olympian now and, in some ways, he's the Belgian league's breakout star, scoring goal after goal to prove that fact every week. Thanks to a run of five goals in his last seven games, transfer rumors are swirling, and call-ups to the U.S. men's national team have never felt closer. The 22-year-old has Westerlo pushing for a Europa Conference League spot, too, which is something that, for those who follow the club, usually feels so far away.
This version of Yow may be short-lived, though. The Clifton, VA native feels the world shifting around him. It's been shifting, in truth, for the past year. Upon his arrival at Westerlo, Yow felt he had disappeared a bit from the eyes of American soccer. Now, he feels he's resurfacing. A flurry of goals will do that for a player.
Goals, ultimately, lead to change. Yow's not fully sure what's next for him, but he's excited to, at some point, have an answer for everyone's favorite question: what's next?
"What will my next move be?" he wonders. "What can I do next? Where will I be playing? Will I be here with Westerlo? Will I be there or wherever else? What's the next national team event that I can start to work towards? There are a lot of things coming up in my life that I'm very excited to show myself, or are going to make changes for me in my life."
"I'm just excited to see," he says before pausing. "Yeah, I'm excited to see what's next."
As Yow and Westerlo push for their Conference League dream, the winger sat down with GOAL to discuss his goals, transfer rumors and his USMNT dream.