THE SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES are entering a new era in 2023. After struggling for most of the past decade where the Quakes have made the playoffs twice – exiting in the first round each time – they have hired Luchi Gonzalez as head coach. With that hire, the likelihood will be a youth-oriented approach to make the most of the team’s improving homegrown talent.

Niko Tsakiris, 17, has a lot going his way as the season is set to open in two weeks. For one, along with Cade Cowell, he is one of the top young players in San Jose and he made 10 appearances in the second half of the 2022 season where he impressed with a string of solid performances. Now under Gonzalez, who earned a reputation of being a developer of young players at the FC Dallas academy and later the first team, Tsakiris seems likely to continue playing a role with the first team.

Finally, there is the United States U-20 team which Tsakiris made last year for the CONCACAF Championships playing up a cycle. In that tournament he scored three goals in five appearances as the U.S. team won the tournament to qualify for the 2023 World Cup and the 2024 Olympics.

It’s a big year ahead for Tsakiris and that all starts with San Jose.

“It was really important for me and my growth just to gain that experience,” Tsakiris told ASN about his 2022 season at a recent U-20 national team camp. “To get good minutes at the end of the season, it was nice because of the work that I put in throughout the season and to get my chance there at the end. It was an opportunity for me to show the coaching staff that I was ready and that I'm able compete at a high level. Things are going to be different with Luchi with what he's done with young players and providing opportunities. I'm not going to take that lightly, but I still have to prove myself to him. I don't want to get ahead of myself. I have to keep the same mentality. He's going to put who he feels is going to win him games.” 

Part of what has Tsakiris one of the players to watch this season isn’t just the prospect that he will play more, but also the highlights he put up during his minutes on the field in 2022 with the Quakes MLS Next Pro team and then later the first team show a potential high ceiling playing both the No. 10 and No 8 positions. 

17-year-old Niko Tsakiris with a pretty sweet outside-of-the-boot through-ball to Espinoza here...

cc: @SexyPassesMLS pic.twitter.com/x87Y6ryHtT

— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) September 25, 2022

But there is also the international side of the game. Tsakiris broke into the U.S. U-20 national team unexpectedly last year after performing well at an April camp that did not consist of any of the core players. Then head coach Mikey Varas named him to the roster for the CONCACAF U-20 Championships as one of just two players who was playing up a cycle, eligible for the 2025 U-20 team as well (the other was Obed Vargas who was replaced due to injury).

Since the CONCACAF Championships last summer, Tsakiris has been a regular with the U-20 team. He was not released by San Jose for the Revelations Cup tournament in September but he was part of the October/November camp in conjunction with the full national team and he was then part of the U-20 January camp.

Next up will likely be a March camp in Europe with the U-20 team and that could be the team’s last gathering before the U-20 World Cup which begins on May 20.

“Mikey's biggest thing is if you work hard and you do what we ask, then this is the spot for you,” Tsakiris recalled. “I enjoyed the challenge and looked at it from not so much, hey, I'm a young guy in the group, but listen, I'm just like everybody else and we're all competing for the same spot here. We're all in the same boat that is trying to make the World Cup. Every camp, every day is an opportunity while you're there.”

Niko Tsakiris finds the equalizer! ????@EarthquakesII 1-1 pic.twitter.com/8MvieJe5xX

— MLS NEXT Pro (@MLSNEXTPRO) August 1, 2022

“After conversations with Mikey, he sees me more as an eight, connecting the two - the defensive and attacking phases,” Tsakiris added. “It's a good spot to be in. And listen, where I can get my opportunity, I'm going to take it - whether that's in the midfield or right back.”

A major factor which got Tsakiris to this point has been his upbringing in a soccer family. His father, Shaun Tsakiris, is a former professional and is the Galaxy’s U-17 academy coach. At times he has been an assistant coach on the U.S. U-20 team, including at the CONCACAF Championships.

“With my dad, he's helped me a ton, both on and off the field,” Tsakiris explained. “Always being around the game and him and picking up little details here and there. Not everyone has this opportunity to be a pro at such a young age and to have someone like my dad in my corner, it's something that I don't take for granted. And I'm lucky and blessed to have him, without a doubt. Taking advantage of him being around him as much as I could was helpful up until this point. And then hopefully it continues to be that way throughout my career. He's been he's been amazing.”

Looking ahead, 2023 is going to be a potentially breakout season for Tsakiris and that starts on February 25 with San Jose’s season opener at Atlanta with potentially the U-20 World Cup on the horizon.