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LOS ANGELES - Last summer, during a rare break from his career, U.S. international Yunus Musah made a return trip to Qatar. It was something he felt compelled to do. The best moments of his life had happened there during the 2022 World Cup, and he wanted to relive them - or at least savor them from a new perspective. At the time, it had all been a whirlwind. Coming back gave him a chance to reconnect with those memories and finally appreciate what they meant.
He stayed at the same hotel where he and his teammates had lived for weeks, hoping to recapture some of that magic. He walked the same hallways, sat in the same courtyards. Of course, he knew it wouldn’t be the same - no games to play, no rush of adrenaline to relive. But that wasn’t the point. Musah just wanted to feel as much of it as he could one more time.
"Everything was like a throwback," Musah says to GOAL, smiling ear to ear as he reflected on his second-best stay in Qatar. "The smell! I could smell it again. Everywhere smells so nice. The room, the view. I would just walk around and it felt like I was experiencing all of those moments from the World Cup all over again. It felt good.
"For me personally, the World Cup was the best experience ever. I loved it so much."
It was at that World Cup where, at just 19 years old, Musah went toe-to-toe with the world's best. Just days before his 20th birthday, Musah found himself wrestling England's best under the bright lights of Al-Bayt Stadium. There, he was facing the country he grew up in with the whole world watching.
He never looked out of place. In fact, Musah and the U.S. men's national team midfield outplayed their English counterparts, a star-studded group that included Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice. Something few could have predicted before it actually happened. Still, just a teenager, Musah had achieved his dreams and, in many ways, they were better than he could have imagined.
That's why he found himself feeling the need to go back to Qatar. It's also why that trip back likely helped him move past it a bit. That's the funny thing about achieving your dreams at 19: they don't go away. Dream chasing isn't always linear. Neither is progress.
The Musah that is approaching the 2025 CONCACAF Nations League semifinals is a very different one than the one that lived those moments in Qatar. He's at AC Milan now, still learning to cope with the pressures that come from playing at a club of that size. He's come out of his shell a little bit as a result, starting to shed the "shy and quiet" labels that followed him for his first few years with the USMNT.
He's a father now, too, having just welcomed a baby girl a few weeks back. That will certainly impact his perspective, to put it lightly. That type of life change makes anyone think about the future a little bit more.
For Musah, this is all just getting started, and that applies to both life and his career. Even if many outside of his circle don't always realize it, he's far from a finished product. Still just 22, American soccer fans have, in some ways, got a chance to watch Musah grow up, even if his time as part of it has gone so quickly.
Now, though, with a new World Cup, a new dream, just over a year away, Musah is coming out of his shell, on and off the field, and his ability to do so will help define this current generation of American soccer.
"At one point, I was the young player with the most minutes in Europe," he says. "Having that opportunity, you make so many mistakes in a game that are costly. You learn from all of these experiences at such a young age. They helped. They helped shape me. They helped me handle these pressures. I have so much experience already in my few years and I'm grateful because it's definitely going to help me in the future."
Ahead of the CONCACAF Nations League semifinals, GOAL sat down with Musah to talk about his journey, what he needs to do to get better, and why he's now starting to become just a little bit more comfortable with everything thrown his way.