WHEN THE CALENDAR year shifted to 2025 last week, it became a World Cup year for the United States U-20 national team. When most of the attention in American soccer last summer was on the Copa America and the Olympics, the U.S. U-20 team booked a spot in the 2025 U-20 World Cup in Chile. For many, the tournament offers a significant opportunity to represent their country at a high level at a point in their careers when they are transitioning from youth soccer to first team levels.

Since helping the United States qualify for the U-20 World Cup last summer, midfielder Pedro Soma has taken a growing role within the team as he has participated in successful camps in the October and November international windows. In recent months, Soma featured wins over Chile, South Korea, and France.

The World Cup is now a little more than nine months away, but Soma likes where the team stands.

“It's a very good group of guys,” Soma told American Soccer Now from the last U-20 camp. “Obviously, we had the first camp in Chile. You can see that we have a lot of talent in this group. We have some big names and it's very good to play with the other players in this team. I see it as a team that has a lot of potential to do things at the next World Cup. I'm very excited.”

“We have various players, or most of us are already playing professional soccer, which we should be at,” Soma added. “Our best strength is that we can do anything. We're good at counter-attacks. We're good at defending, pressing, low block. Obviously, every player here is very good on the ball. I think our best strength is being so versatile. We can adapt to any situation, play on any field at any time of the.”

At the most recent camp, Soma even wore the captain’s armband for the 3-0 win over South Korea. Combined with the 2-1 win over France days later, the U.S. team has been shining on the defensive side of the game where they are then able to force turnovers and quickly get into the attack. Playing as either a No. 6 defensive midfielder or as a No. 8 box-to-box midfielder, Soma has fit nicely into head coach Marko Mitrovic’s system.

“Of course, we only had two camps, so we're still trying to work out little things that Marko wants to implement in our game,” Soma said. “We're moving very quickly to what we want to do on the ball and what our idea is…Defensively we are very, very compact - not just the backline and the six and the goalkeeper - but the whole the whole team, all 11, and attacking we finished our chances.”

If he participates at the U-20 World Cup, it will mark the latest step in what has been an accelerated rise for Soma within U.S. Soccer. It wasn’t January 2022 when he was called up for the first time internationally – at any level.

At first it was the U-16 team, but within a year he progressed to the U-17 national team where he helped the team to the final of the CONCACAF Championships where he scored in a loss to Mexico in the Championship game. In November and December, he made three starts at the U-17 World Cup where the U.S. team advanced to the knockout round before falling to eventual champions Germany, 3-2.

“Especially some of the guys that have been with me through the whole U-17 cycle and now with the U-20s,” Soma said. “It's pretty cool going through that progression together. We're the younger age in this age group - and from what I've seen, every player here is capable of playing with the older guys. It's who wants it more.”

At the same time as he is taking big strides internationally, he is also progressing with one of the world’s biggest clubs in Barcelona. A native of Boca Raton, Florida, Soma’s European career began in 2018 as part of a student exchange program. Eventually that led him to being discovered and signed by UE Cornellà, a third division team based in Barcelona’s metropolitan area. In his final season at Cornellà in 2023/24, Soma was playing with their first team and made 13 appearances.

Breaking into the first team at Cornellà was a big milestone for Soma and it was an important part of his journey which demanded a lot of sacrifices on the part of both him and his family. His family had to partially relocate, and his parents weren’t always able to be together. Soma also had to leave behind his friends and life in Florida.

“It was when I was 12 in the summer of 2018,” Soma recalled. “I went to do a school exchange program. I ended up staying the 2018/19 season while also playing soccer in that student exchange program. We decided to stay another year - my mom and I, while my dad was still in the States but going back and forth. And after two seasons, I got signed by Cornellà. I'm very grateful for those years at Cornellà.”

“On and off the field, obviously going to another country is a big change, especially at a young age,” he continued. “But I got that support from my parents, which is something I will eternally be grateful for. It's not normal that your parents move to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean just so that their kid can play soccer. So that was something that always gave me a little more push on the field to keep going, to keep pushing. And I think at the end, I miss my friends, obviously from the States.”

After Cornella’s 2023/24 season ended in relegation, he was able to secure the move to Barcelona. Thus far, Soma has settled in with Barca’s reserve team, FC Barcelona Atlètic, which currently plays in the third tier.  He has made 12 appearances, including five starts, as Barca Atlètic sits in 13^th place.

“It was a great summer,” Soma explained. “At the end I turned 18 on June 30th and I got to join one of the biggest clubs in the world -  if not the biggest. It was one of the best days, so far, of my career - the day I joined Barcelona. That adaptation has been easy. I think I'm a Barca style player and after one or two weeks I felt really a part of the team already. I didn't have to take too long to adapt. That was very positive.”

In addition to his time with the second team, there have been other signs of progress for Soma. During the September international window, Soma was invited to train with Barca’s first team. Event with many players missing due international duty, Soma was able to train alongside some of the team’s key players and in front of the top coaching staff.

The experience was rewarding for Soma and he came to appreciate the club’s culture shortly after signing.

“Especially when you're a fan of the club, you get excited,” Soma said of training with Barca’s first team. “You have to control your nerves or your emotions. And at the end, it's just another training session. They played a lot more pressure situations. They're on big national teams. But the team, these players, at our senior level take care of the youth players that come to train the youth players. They make it very easy to adapt… They do get out of the way to make sure that you feel good and you feel positive because there's other situations in other locker rooms where the veterans don't treat the young guys as good. I think it's a very, very good thing at Barcelona.”

Moving forward, Soma has ambitious goals. He wants to climb within Barcelona, he wants to take part in the U-20 World Cup, and he also has his eyes on the full national team after that. Like many within the U-20 pool, he was impressed that the federation was able to hire Mauricio Pochettino in September and he is looking forward to seeing how that opens up doors for young players in 2025.

“I think it was a big boom,” Soma said of Pochettino. “We weren't expecting it, but when it happened, we were very grateful to have somebody with that much experience and knowledge to take the position of the USA national team coach. I think there's a lot of potential to do big things at the next World Cup. And as a U-20 player, you get excited - to think I could be there at the 2026 World Cup with this new coach. I think it's a big positive.”