After playing with Lionel Messi at Inter Miami, the 81-cap USA international is back in Major League Soccer with Cincinnati.
Before joining the Magpies, Yedlin played 23 games for Sunderland, but he is best remembered for his five seasons with Newcastle.
DeAndre Yedlin is one of many players who have played for both Sunderland and Newcastle after crossing the Tyne-Wear divide. Nearly 70 players have played for both clubs, ranging from Len Shackleton to Louis Saha.
Yedlin is included in the diverse roll-call along with Paul Bracewell, Lee Clark, Steve Cauldwell, Jack Colback, Robbie Elliott, and others if you narrow the list to players who played consecutive games for each team. Surprisingly, the route between each squad is well-traveled.
“The largest one on my resume is Newcastle. People in the United States refer to me as “the Newcastle player” instead of “Sunderland.” However, Yedlin was a Sunderland player first.
My life was somewhat impacted by Big Sam.
Yedlin arrived to Wearside on loan from Tottenham after failing to establish himself in the first team in the mid-2010s, when Kyle Walker (ranked No. 5 on FourFourTwo’s list of the greatest Premier League defenders of all time) was the starting right-back. Prior to receiving the England job offer in 2016, Sam Allardyce was the team’s manager.
I needed to improve my positioning because Big Sam is a little more defensive. I didn’t play a different position on the pitch, but I had to put in a lot more effort defensively because that’s how the squad wanted to play. Yedlin views this phase of his career as a turning point in his life.
I can’t recall who we were playing against, but I was kicked out of one game after 20 minutes. That’s not exactly what you want for a football player. I spent the next two months pouting and feeling sorry for myself, which is obviously not the ideal situation to be in. I was also on loan.
“Look, you put yourself in this situation; you need to get yourself out,” I told myself. To go and play is the purpose of a loan. When I searched Amazon for books about achievement, Brian Tracy’s Maximum Achievement came up.
Although Yedlin acknowledges that he had not yet read a book in its whole, he promised to finish Tracy’s book on goal-setting since he felt it helped him focus his mind. “People don’t know how significant the mental side of any athletic discipline is when they watch the game. Although we train physically for a large portion of the game, I believe that more than 70–80% of it is mental.
It let me concentrate more on that, which I believe benefited me both on and off the pitch. I began practicing mindfulness and meditation as a result.
Together with his former Inter Miami teammate Drake Callender, Yedlin became a published author this year when they co-wrote the children’s book X Marks the Spot, which is about an African American boy named X and the value of being aware of your environment and yourself.
“Looking back, Sunderland was perhaps one of the most significant periods of my life. However, since all of my acquaintances back home knew Newcastle, it was a significant event for me when I arrived there. It was an important moment to play for such a famous team at that stadium under the legendary coach Rafa Benitez.
Technically, it was a step down because Newcastle had been demoted from the Premier League, whereas Sunderland had averted relegation in 2016. Yedlin, Matt Ritchie, Isaac Hayden, and Ciaran Clark were among the many excellent players Benitez signed to a permanent contract.
I was able to play the way I was accustomed to since we had a fantastic squad and were frequently on the ball. Rafa was adored by me. He plays a disciplined, well-organised style that is primarily defensive in nature.
He posed a serious defensive positioning problem, which was arguably my weakest area. I could compensate for positioning errors because I was always really quick, but at that level, you get exposed in that area.
After five years, Yedlin had found a permanent home on Tyneside. He played with Spanish players Joselu, Mikel Merino, and Ayoze Perez during this period; all of them went on to have successful careers both domestically and abroad.
There are instances where athletes who don’t perform well in one location could suddenly succeed after moving to a different team or nation. That may be due to circumstances off the pitch as much as on the pitch.
Though it wasn’t constant, you could see hints of it. Ultimately, they were competent players. Perhaps a change of environment was all they needed. Making sure my family is happy is probably my main priority as a player, and that plays a significant role. I’ll be happy and do well if they’re happy. Now that they’re clearly blossoming, I’m very happy for them.
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