First look at Cavan Sullivan in new Apple TV+ MLS docuseries: ‘I got a target on my back. But I love it.’
‘Onside: Major League Soccer’ will feature 15-year-old phenom Cavan Sullivan. Here’s a special look inside the docuseries.
The new Apple TV+ docuseries Onside: Major League Soccer premieres Friday. It will follow the best players, moments, and stories from the 2024 MLS season, both on and off the pitch. That includes 15-year-old Union phenom Cavan Sullivan.
Ahead of the premiere, Apple shared an exclusive clip from the series featuring Sullivan and his family, which includes his brother, Union midfielder Quinn Sullivan. In the clip, Sullivan can be seen practicing as his teammates and his mother, Heike, talk about his transition into Major League Soccer.
“He’s playing against grown men,” Heike says. “Like a grown [expletive] man with a beard, big hairy legs.”
The teen prodigy, a Philadelphia native from a soccer family, has become one of the centerpieces for the docuseries — and the Union — pushing the star into the spotlight at a young age. If mainstream fans don’t know about Philly’s young phenom now, they will after the series debuts.
“Obviously, they’re bigger, stronger, faster,” said Sullivan, who will eventually join Premier League power Manchester City. “But if you can master driving right at the opponent, it’s really unguardable.”
Sullivan became the youngest athlete in a major American sport league to appear in a league match last July during his first-team debut, with an Apple camera crew on site at Subaru Park. Although Sullivan’s teammates welcomed him into their world, they still needed the young star to prove himself.
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“You’re a professional now,” Union midfielder Alejandro Bedoya said. “You’re playing with big boys, you know what I’m saying. We’re men here. This is our livelihood. Everybody has got to earn their spot. I don’t care who you are. You’re a new player on the team. You got to earn it.”
While Bedoya is clear in how he needs to approach Sullivan, that line is a bit blurrier for older brother — and teammate — Quinn.
“I’m sure he’ll get knocked around, and that’s part of it, right? But you have to find the fine line between being the protector and letting him do his own thing,” Quinn said over a clip of Cavan writhing on the ground in pain. “I have to let him learn the lesson of, ‘OK, you take too many touches, you’re going to get hit, right?’”
The phenom has three more years to play with the Union before he transfers to Man City when he turns 18 years old. But he isn’t focused on his move to England just yet.
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“Yeah, I got a target on my back. But I love it,” Sullivan said through a heavy Philly accent. “It’s another chance to show how you can handle the other team coming out to get you.”
Last month, Apple released the trailer for the series, which gave us our first hint that Sullivan would be featured. And since, he’s been featured in an Adidas ad campaign alongside his idol, Lionel Messi, and was the Union’s representation in a video unveiling the league’s new 30th anniversary sleeve patches.
This weekend, fans will get to see just how big of a role the teenage phenom will play in both the documentary, and the Union’s season, which kicks off Saturday.