USMNT’s Antonee Robinson: ‘I would love to send a message. We’re a team that should be respected’

Antonee Robinson has come a long way in the 4½ years since his failed move to AC Milan.

For a time, that was the only talking point people would discuss about him. It was a line regularly trotted out in broadcast commentary, lamenting how he nearly joined the Italian giants, seven-time champions of Europe, from “lowly” Wigan Athletic, which was then in England’s second tier and are now in its third.

The transfer fell through after the detection of an irregular heart rhythm during his medical and he was only spared an investigative procedure due to the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom. As Robinson explained to The Athletic in 2021, while football was postponed for those three months he stopped the caffeine shots he had been drinking before matches. The problem went away.

“I’m not paying too much attention now that the issue has actually been identified,” Robinson tells The Athletic. “I know that, going forward, if I was to ever move to another club, that I can at least say, ‘Look, this is the issue I’ve had, this is the truth from the doctors and specialists, it’s fine.’

“It’s not been too much of a scare anymore. I still don’t drink coffee or have caffeine shots or anything like that. I don’t have caffeinated drinks. But other than that, I pretty much eat the same things. I have a fairly healthy diet, but I still snack a lot. Naturally, I have a really high metabolism – and I chase a 2-year-old around all day, so I burn off everything I eat pretty well.”

He’s talking about his daughter, Atlas. Robinson’s second child, Ocean, was born this month. On the field, he has also come of age.

The whole Milan affair could have left a sense of regret but at Fulham, the opposite has been true. This past season for the USMNT international was described by his Fulham head coach Marco Silva as his “best” yet.

The Athletic chose him as our Fulham player of the season and in the first part of this interview with him, Robinson discussed his development on the field in detail, pointing to the strengths he has honed and weaknesses he has been ironing out, with the help of coach Silva. His determination to keep progressing was clear.

Aside from the support of his manager, he ultimately put a lot of his improvements down to maturity. “A lot has improved, but mainly it is just a bit more experience, maturity and feeling comfortable in the league,” he says.

On international duty with the United States, this is probably a more pronounced sentiment. He now has 41 caps and holds a more senior position in the group. “It’s quite strange because, at Fulham, we don’t have the youngest squad,” he said. “So I’m one of the youngest players in the team. Then I go to the U.S., and I’m one of the oldest players. I get to experience both sides of the coin.

“I really love playing for my country – and I have been in this group for six years now – especially as I’ve seen a lot of the lads who started with me develop and go on to do amazing things, like Weston (McKennie) and Tim Weah, who won the Coppa Italia (with Juventus). They were with me in my first-ever camp.

“Watching all of us develop and become these established players in top leagues and with the national team has been an amazing journey. I’m relishing every minute I get to play for them. I know it’s going to come to an end eventually, but I’m hoping that’s a long, long time away.”

The journey Robinson has been on with USMNT covers a complete reset after the failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and then a rebuild with an eye on the future. That future is now, as the U.S. enters what may be an important moment in the country’s soccer history.

If successful, the game in the U.S. could take a step to the next level. This goes beyond just Lionel Messi joining MLS last season. It is at international level where soccer will take center stage. There is the men’s World Cup in the States in 2026, being co-hosted with Canada and Mexico, and first there is this summer’s Copa America, also on U.S. turf.

Robinson has been part of the development cycle that has been geared to peaking at those two tournaments. Does that bring pressure? “There is a little bit, yeah,” he said. “A lot of the lads who came into the team at a similar time as I did, it was a real rebuild period. They were calling in a lot of young guys who they thought would have a chance in the future. So there was a lot of pressure on us, especially going into the World Cup.

“Nearly everyone in the squad is playing in a European league now, rather than MLS. And it’s a very, very talented squad. You look at the likes of Christian Pulisic and Gio Reyna, who are incredible talents. Then Weston, who is an unbelievable player. There’s a lot of hype around that from the American side. With that just comes the added pressure that we want to be competing against the best teams in the world and people see that there’s no reason we can’t.”

Robinson believes in the potential of this group of players. “What better opportunity than the World Cup in the States, on home soil?” he asked. “And this Copa America is going to be a World Cup warm-up. It’s the biggest competition that we can play in, besides the World Cup. It’s like the Euros for the European countries, it’s that big. It’s a very major competition.

(Copa America is the South American equivalent of the Euros, but with that federation’s 10 countries often joined by several guest sides to make the tournament bigger – in this case, six teams from North and Central America and the Caribbean).

“So I would love for us to be able to leave our mark on that and, really send a message to the world that we’re a team that should be respected, and that we can go on and do even more amazing things.”

It will not be easy. USMNT face Panama, Uruguay and Bolivia in the group phase; then if it can navigate that hurdle, the knockouts pose more daunting opponents. Brazil and Argentina are, of course, the heavyweights. As much as there is excitement about the quality within the group, expectations can run away from themselves and move beyond what is realistic. Robinson is keenly aware of that, but also sees a pathway for the USMNT to follow.

“There’s definitely a little bit of needing to manage expectations,” he says. “If you look at us, it would be foolish to say that we are the best team in the world, because we know we’re not, we’re not there yet. You look at how some teams have performed and it’s being able to find the ability to beat a team that’s better than you.

“A great example would be Morocco in the World Cup, and how amazing they were, beating some of the best teams. No one would say, on paper, that they were one of the best teams at the World Cup, but they found a way to win all those games. That’s something we need to be able to do.

“When we go to the Copa America, we’re only going to be able to win it if we can get past Uruguay, if we can get past Colombia, if we can get past Brazil, if we can get past Argentina. So it might not be that we feel the team is better than them, but we have to find a way collectively to be able to dig in. Even if we’re not the best performer in that game, we have to still find a way to win.

“I’ll take (facing) Argentina going into the final, them having 90% possession and 30 shots on goal, if it means we win 1-0. I don’t care. We want to win the trophy.”

It is that drive that has carried Robinson forward so far with Fulham.

It may help his country, too.