Middlesbrough's American trio is ready to fight for the Premier League

Middlesbrough is a quiet town. Perched on the edge of the River Tees just south of Newcastle, it's a former industrial hub known for its ironworks heritage and Captain Cook. It's got great fish and chips; it's a stone's throw away from the Yorkshire Moors. It's as quintessentially Northern English as mid-sized cities get.

It's also, through a strange twist of international fate, fast becoming quintessentially American, too. Middlesbrough's eponymous soccer club—founded in 1876, two years before Manchester United and 27 years before Chelsea—has invested heavily in U. S. Men's National Team players in recent seasons, starting with midfielder Aidan Morris in 2024. Today, he shares the starting lineup with two of the USMNT's hottest prospects: midfielder Sebastian Berhalter and defender Max Arfsten, both of whom made the team's 2026 World Cup roster.

The presence of this trio makes Middlesbrough one of the most American teams in European soccer: it has more USMNT regulars than any other overseas club. It's entering the 2026/27 season with the dream of earning a Premier League promotion—and its newfound American core might just give it the boost it needs to make it come true.

Ohio beginnings, USMNT futures

Morris, Berhalter and Arfsten all came up through Major League Soccer's development program. While they hail from different places (Morris is from Florida, Berhalter was born in the United Kingdom, and Arfsten is from Central California), they all count Columbus, Ohio as the place where they truly became professionals. All three came up through the Columbus Crew's youth system after trying their hand at college soccer.

"We all have some affiliation with Columbus,” said Berhalter. “I met Aidan when I was 15, we were in the academy there. I then heard a lot about Max through Aidan, because they played together, then I got to meet Max at national camps, and the three would hang out after training; we all headed off together."

Morris made his senior USMNT debut in 2023; Berhalter and Arfsten followed suit in early 2025. The three have plenty of national team highs in their future, but their current zenith came in an international friendly against Uruguay in November of 2025. Paired up against a two-time World Cup-winning side and working with a lineup of USMNT players that didn't include any of its traditional European stars, Morris, Berhalter and Arfsten delivered a shock 5-1 victory that fundamentally changed the way American soccer fans viewed the USMNT pecking order.