Juventus winger Timothy Weah reveals he went to trial at Chelsea when he was younger and that his compatriot Weston McKennie is ‘one of the main reasons’ why he moved to Turin in 2023.
The American winger joined Juventus on a permanent transfer from Lille a year ago.
Son of former Ballon d’Or winner George, Weah spoke about his life and career in an interview with The Athletic.
“Honestly, my parents didn’t force football on me. It’s something I kind of just ended up doing. When I was younger, I used to play basketball,” he said.
His father scored an iconic coast-to-coast goal against Hellas Verona in 1996 while playing for Milan.
“I’ve seen this goal like a million times,” admitted Tim.
“To be that great of a dribbler, especially in that period where players are coming for legs, they were coming hard at you.”
Born in New York on February 22, 2000, Weah’s first youth team in Europe was PSG.
“I went to trial at Chelsea when I was younger. I spent some time there with guys like Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori, all those guys,” he recalled.
“Then I went to Toulouse on trial, which went very well. I ended up playing against PSG and that’s how PSG saw me. They asked me to come over and, yeah, I mean, the decision for me was a no-brainer. PSG! Who doesn’t want to play for PSG? At the time, they had Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani. All these great players. So I was like, yeah, I definitely want to take the chance.
“When we made that decision, it was kind of a rough one because I was like, ‘Dang, I’m leaving home. I’m leaving my friends. I’m out of school’. I had been playing for the Red Bulls, where I had so many friends and I was so comfortable. It was rough. But I knew that I had to make the sacrifice if I wanted to become a professional player.”
Weah made his USMNT debut in 2018 and has scored six goals in 41 appearances with his national team. Many of his compatriots are also playing in Serie A, including Yunus Musah and Christian Pulisic.
“The connection we [he and Pulisic] have on the field is amazing,” said Weah.
Weah on Chelsea trial, Pulisic ‘connection’ and ‘one of the main reasons’ he joined Juventus
“I know when Christian does certain movements that I have to do another movement to try to create something. I know, 100 per cent, that when he gets the ball, a lot of defenders are going to be crowding him, so I know that opens up space for me to try to make something happen and create. This goal was a perfect situation. I saw him get the ball and saw a whole bunch of space.
“I’m not your typical No 9 who is going to bang in 15 or 20 goals a season,” he continued.
“But I’d love to get to that point. That’s definitely on my bucket list.”
Obviously, another American star in the league is Weah’s Juventus teammate McKennie.
“Honestly, Wes is one of the main reasons why I came here,” Weah said.
“I knew he was here and I knew I was going to have one of my best friends on the team here. And off the pitch, I’m always at his house. We’re always chilling, so already we have that type of relationship, and then taking that to the field was amazing, obviously in a different position because when I play with him on the national team, I’m higher up, so we have a different connection, but playing lower and closer to him.
“I mean, if you look at a lot of my games, the majority of my best games are when me and Wes are playing next to each other.
“I think he has a tank (physicality) that no one else has. He runs 24/7. He’s one of the highest jumpers I’ve ever seen. He’s scored so many important goals off set pieces. He’s one of those box-to-box players that are just killers and he’s so important to have on a team.
“So having him, having that energy, having his energy, the understanding that we have… our connection is super-solid. And then obviously, when I came here, I didn’t speak Italian, so having him, who can kind of translate for me, was a blessing. And I’m so blessed to have him again this year and hopefully we can get some more trophies together.”
Weah has been covering different roles at the Allianz Stadium. He mostly played as a right wing-back under Massimiliano Allegri last season, while new Bianconeri coach Thiago Motta has been deploying him as a right winger and a striker.
“Obviously, as a player, you want to focus on one position and kind of perfect that,” he said.
“But I’m also a player who has fun in different positions. I love seeing the game from the perspective of a different player’s eyes. So playing centre-back, playing right-back… I get a buzz from it. And then doing well in those positions is like the biggest high for me because people are like, ‘Woah, he can play up top, he can play in defence’.
“I played the whole season at right-back, wing-back, and then at the end of the season, Juve came calling…. for the same position, which was a surprise to me because it was my first year playing the position. It was kind of crazy.”
Weah crossed paths with his coach, Thiago Motta when the latter was a senior PSG player.
“He was an older player, and I was a young kid,” he recalled.
“So we didn’t really have that much interaction, but he was an amazing player. Going into the first team, he was technically one of the most gifted players at PSG, so to be on the bench and playing with all these great players and watching them do what they did was fun.
“And now to him being my coach, it’s going to be 10 times harder. Because he knows me while he was playing in his career, I’m definitely going to have to work 10 times harder than everyone else to to prove myself. It’s fun at the end of the day. I’m just enjoying every moment.”
Juventus meet their rivals Inter in the next Serie A match. One of the biggest threats will be Marcus Thuram, the second-best Serie A scorer this season with seven goals in eight games.
“He’s had an amazing start to the season. Marcus is doing well and I’m proud of him. Obviously, he plays for Inter. But we don’t like Inter! But we like Marcus,” Weah concluded.
