FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. – Cristian Roldan was being cheeky as he spoke about Alex Zendejas, the last name on the U.S. men's national team's World Cup roster if going in numerical order.
"We joked around about his number being No. 26," Roldan, who will wear the No. 25 shirt this summer, said, "because him and myself, we were probably one of the later guys in the roster and we share that kind of sentiment together."
Zendejas' journey to his first World Cup has a last but not least energy to it. He was maybe the most surprising inclusion on head coach Mauricio Pochettino's squad, not because of his abilities but through circumstance. The bulk of his 13 caps came during the 2023 Concacaf Gold Cup, a year before Pochettino arrived. He played just twice for the national team in 2025 and has not worn U.S. colors since a 2-0 win over Japan in September, during which he scored. A stretch of injuries hampered his ability to play for the USMNT for the remainder of the year, but he was then left off the roster for March's losses to Belgium and Portugal. Being on the other side of a series of trials and tribulations, though, has its perks.
The last week, as Zendejas put it, has been "like a movie, man."
How to watch USMNT vs. Senegal, odds
- Date: Sunday, May 31 | Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
- Location: Bank of America Stadium -- Charlotte, N.C.
- TV: TNT | Live stream: HBO Max
- Odds: USMNT +150; Draw +230; Senegal +180
He was in San Antonio when a video shared in a WhatsApp group chat on Friday instantly notified all 26 members of the World Cup team, surrounded by family during a two-week stretch after Club America's season wrapped up. The clan included Zendejas' seven-month-old nephew – "anytime I get to go see him, I'm there, man" – and his Mexican father, Alfredo.
"It's hard to make my dad cry," he noted. "My mom, she's very sensitive like me. I think I'm like that. Whenever my dad cries, that's how you know it's serious. I wasn't with him at the moment, but I was gonna see him like a couple of minutes later. We met up, and then when he hugged me and stuff, I could feel the shaking in his voice. He started tearing up, and that makes me tear up."
His inclusion, though, only counts as so much of a surprise. Zendejas brings a dynamism that few players in the USMNT's pool, boasting both an impressive ability to create chances for his teammates and a comfort to take the shot himself. The winger likely took a spot that may have gone Diego Luna's way, but he enters the World Cup on the back of a strong season with Club America, notching 13 goals and eight assists along the way. He offers a spark the U.S. has missed in recent months, especially off the bench when the group might need to hit another gear in the late stages of a game.
Getty Images "I think the world of him as a person, as a player," Roldan said. "He has something that's different, that's unique. His technical ability, his final product. We see that out in training every time when we're with him and he was killing it. To be fair to him, he was he was doing his thing and after Japan, where he scored the goal, it's unfortunate he gets hurt in the next camp so credit to him for, again, probably having a little bit of doubt in his mind but playing well and continuing to play well and probably one of the best players in Mexico this year and so I'm really happy for him in particular. He deserves it."
Zendejas' personality is a defining aspect of his relationship to his teammates -- Antonee Robinson said he "definitely is a goofball' with an "infectious laugh" all while being a "tenacious player and a fierce competitor." It is a perfect blend for a tight-knit USMNT hoping to incorporate Pochettino's preference for intensity into their identity for a World Cup on home soil. It was not the most easy of seasons for Zendejas at Club America, though.
"if you ask people who know me, they're gonna say I'm a goofy guy, a guy who's always smiling," Zendejas said. "They tell me at club team because it's happened, for sure, this season where they notice me not smiling or down or just serious, and they don't realize, or they tell me that I don't realize it, and then they're like, 'Hey, smile because that's when you play best. When you're with the guy, smiling, laughing, that's when you perform the best. We need that from you,' and I guess I do it naturally. It's just the type of guy I am. I don't like being mean or uptight or just angry. There's no reason for it."
It makes Zendejas an unlikely underdog of sorts on this U.S. roster, a late bloomer who finally peaked at just the right time while his fellow youth national team colleagues prepare for their second World Cup. He has rediscovered the joy his teammates want out of him and joins a team that complements his own stylistic preferences, potentially laying the foundation for a World Cup showing in which he plays a sizable role for the co-hosts – and might entertain onlookers along the way.
"With my family," he said as he detailed how he overcame the struggles of the last year. "Besides my family, I have really good friends at my club team. The reason why I was kind of in that serious mode or angry mode is because maybe the style of play wasn't favoring my style, or simple stuff like that, or mostly because of injuries as well. Obviously, when you're injured, you're going through hard times and just positive talks or just spacing out of doing the daily routine, that, or sure, helps get clicked out of the seriousness, the angry [feelings], and I think having my family, those friends helps a lot."
It would make him a fitting standout on the national team. He is one of two Mexican-American players on the U.S.' World Cup team, a sizable but underrepresented section of soccer enthusiasts in a country not known for its embrace of the world's most popular sport. Born in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, he is one of a handful of players to have earned a cap for both senior national teams. He committed to the U.S. in 2023, the start of a winding road that brought him to the World Cup. His professional experiences are an encapsulation of his origins -- he came up through the FC Dallas academy but has spent the bulk of his club career in Mexico, exposing himself to the best of two stylistic worlds.
"I didn't get to play that much over here in MLS, but it, for sure, helped me with how physical everyone is over here because I got the generation of Blas Perez, Kenny Cooper," he said. "Mostly that team, FC Dallas was more Latinos at the time -- way older than me so that helped me out a little, and then in Mexico, I feel like soccer is very technical, more being able to play, combine with a teammate, not so much like running up and down the field. It's more like possession, style of play and stuff, and I feel like both styles, for sure, helped me grow as a player."
International soccer may have forced him to pick one country over the other, but it is in this setting alone that he -- and others like him -- ever have to make that choice. He is still a unique product of his own upbringing, one that will be familiar to the nation's most passionate contingent of soccer fans.
"At home, I always spoke Spanish," he said. "I love the Mexican culture, their food, their history, especially me living down there. I definitely recommend, if you get a chance, to go visit Mexico City. There's many, many tourists down there. I've actually met a bunch of Americans down there, it's crazy, and Europeans as well, but I love it. I love the Mexican culture. At school, I still had my Latino friends obviously, but I'm an easy person to reach, so anyone can be friends with me. I love both sides and the way it shaped me. I love it, man, because I grew up doing both things at the same time, so I don't prefer one or the other. I'm just grateful to have both citizenships."
For a naturally cheery person, it comes as no surprise that he is finally comfortable in his surroundings – and that he is not stressed by the responsibility of representing a community of people that oftentimes go unrecognized on the USMNT.
"I don't use that as pressure, to put me nervous," he said. "I like to embrace it. Like I said, it's the same pressure of Club America. It's not easy playing at that team.I embrace it. Like I said, I don't really think about it. Right now, people are motivating me, telling me, 'Congratulations. It's nice to see you there. You deserve it,' so I just embrace. You use that as good energy and use it to have good training."
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