Ricardo Pepi may still only be 23 years old, but he has been waiting a long time for this moment. On Tuesday, the PSV Eindhoven striker was officially named to Mauricio Pochettino’s USA roster for the FIFA World Cup 2026™, paving the way for his first appearance in the global finals.
It is fitting that Pepi’s first World Cup will happen in North America. The 23-year-old Mexican-American’s background as the US-born son of Mexican parents exemplifies the close relationship of the two nations. Hailing from the west Texas border city of El Paso, Pepi has become one of the best goalscorers in the USA player pool.
“I think he’s the striker with the best scoring touch on the U.S. national team,” said Pochettino of Pepi to Telemundo following the USA squad announcement. “He’s a player who doesn’t need to be deeply involved in play and will always create scoring opportunities in front of goal. With his experience in Europe, having played for a team like PSV, I think it was essential to have him in that role.”
The thrill that he will feel on 12 June against Paraguay at Los Angeles Stadium will be a stark contrast from the heartbreak of November 2022 when he was one of the notable omissions from Gregg Berhalter’s roster for Qatar 2022.
He was just 18 years old when he scored three goals during that qualifying campaign, including a crucial game-winner against Honduras to earn the Stars & Stripes their first victory, followed by a brace in a home win against Jamaica. His international form and impressive goal haul with FC Dallas of Major League Soccer (MLS) led to a high-profile move overseas in January 2022 to Bundesliga outfit Augsburg, commanding the most expensive fee for an American MLS player to a European club.
A rich vein of form on loan at Groningen in the Netherlands was not enough to convince Berhalter, but it made an impact on newly hired PSV technical director and former USA international Earnie Stewart, who secured Pepi’s services in January 2023.
There have been hurdles in his time in Dutch football, including various injuries and a transfer to Fulham that broke down in the late stages, but Pepi has found his best version in Eindhoven, amassing double-digit goals in back-to-back seasons and 21 goal contributions in 2025-26. It has paid off handsomely with a trip to the finals.
“Ricardo has done well. He’s progressed as a player,” Stewart said of Pepi to FIFA. “The one innate ability he has is anything around or in the 18-yard box, he’s lethal… he’s really lethal when he gets it on his right foot. Sometimes in our director’s box, we joke that we already know it’s a goal – like you can get up and start clapping – because that’s how lethal he can be. But he’s also developed himself into being there for the team at the right time in our way of playing.”
Pepi joins Folarin Balogun and Haji Wright as the USA strikers at the World Cup, but his strengths differ from the two. Most expect Balogun to start in the opener against Paraguay, but Pepi is the perfect change of pace forward should it be required. His shooting accuracy is arguably the best among the three, he relentlessly pressures, and coming off the bench won’t pose a problem.
This past season at PSV, when he wasn’t recovering from surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee, Pepi was in and out of the starting XI, so shuttling between the lineup and the bench will not faze the Lone Star State native.
“Ricardo Pepi offers something different,” said former USA striker Jozy Altidore to NBC. “A little bit more crafty, a little bit rough around the edges. But he’s constantly pressing and a very good finisher.”
It has been a long and winding road for Pepi to get to this point, with detours along the way, but the kid from El Paso, who broke out in Dallas and found his stride thousands of miles away in the Netherlands, has finally gotten his moment, and there’s little doubt he’ll make the most of it.
