Marseille Move: How It Prepared Tim Weah for the USMNT World Cup Stage

NEW YORK – Four days after playing his final game this season with Marseille and five days before the U.S. men's national team's World Cup journey officially begins, Tim Weah was busy traversing the spread-out boroughs of New York. He spent his morning in Harlem flanking mayor Zohran Mamdani and his evening taking in the New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden. Somewhere in the middle of the day, and after braving some of New York's inconsistent but uncompromising traffic , he was moving around his family's home in Springfield Gardens, the quiet Queens neighborhood nestled inside a pocket of the borough he has always called home.

There is plenty of purpose in all of his activities on a rainy Thursday, but they also act as a useful distraction.

"I don't know yet," Weah claimed. "We're just all pretty much waiting for the roster."

The waiting game is the natural conclusion to three-and-a-half years of work that essentially started the moment the USMNT were eliminated from the 2022 World Cup in a 3-1 defeat to the Netherlands , the crushing nature of that round of 16 blow still easy to recall for the players who were there. The time in between World Cups somehow always feels in service of the next one, the period defined by meticulously taken decisions, big and small. Preparation varies from person to person but in his experience, though, planning can only get you so far.

"There's no limit to whatever preparation you can do that'll get you ready for a World Cup," he said in an exclusive sit-down with CBS Sports. "No matter how much you prepare, it all comes down to how the guys are feeling in their heads because a World Cup is not easy. You can do a whole bunch of preparation but if you're nervous and you get out there, it's tough. I think we've done a great job."

Weah finds his footing in Marseille

In Weah's case, his winding road to what he hopes will be his second World Cup is headlined by a transfer from Juventus to Marseille last summer. He has already checked off the goal he set for himself for the move, he's a regular fixture at the club, collecting the regular playing time that is essentially a prerequisite to crack Pochettino's World Cup team. Living in the port city on the Mediterranean Sea, though, is an exercise in intense contrasts.

"The city is a very football-forward city, so depending on our results, that's going to determine how people in the city live their lives, how people in the city love," he said. "When we win, it's a celebration. People are going out to restaurants and enjoying. When we lose, people are going home to their wives and starting arguments. That's what I mean by [the fact that] it's super intense. Our results will affect the daily lives of the individuals that are in Marseille, so it's a lot, a lot of responsibility to carry, obviously, and if you're not prepared for that, then it can be tough."

The club is equally intense, to the point that he insists no player should make the move wihtout careful consideration. "You just have to be ready," he said. It helps that the club has embraced him quickly after his playing time dwindled at Juventus, Weah playing 41 games across all competitions in his first season with Marseille.

"I think coming back to France was the goal initially and then Marseille came, which was perfect because they're a big club and I knew that once they reached out to me, I was going to play there," he said. "I think it was the best decision because I needed a place where I could get consistent game time, be a leader, be an important player and Marseille gave me that."

Weah, though, does have his escapes from Marseille's intensity. He's a homebody by habit and has a house by the beach, where he can watch the waves at his convenience. He balances that out with some screen time. Weah is always ready for his next watch, and asking for recommendations.

"I watched the new 'Dracula,' absolutely loved it," he said, name-dropping the film by French director Luc Besson. " I want to watch the Michael Jackson biopic. I haven't watched that yet." The conversation reveals his wide-ranging tastes. "I love the Food Network. I watch Booby Flay. I love it. I love 'Iron Chef.' There's this new one – I don't think it's on the Food Network, but it's this new one with Gordon Ramsay, 'Next Level Chef' … 'Top Chef' … It's like a comfort watch. Food Network's like a comfort watch for me because when I was a kid, I used to put it on all the time."

Weah is a well-documented foodie – he once came up with a lengthy list of eateries he missed as an American living in Europe and caused a stir when he said he preferred Italian food in the U.S. than Italian food he ate in Turin during his years at Juventus. He keeps things simple during the season for the most part, sticking to a a diet just like most professional athletes, which lends itself well to the fact that he does not have the most glowing review for Marseille as a food destination.

"They're going to hate me when I say this, but it's not my favorite," he said. "It's not my favorite. When I'm overseas, I don't really get the full food experience just because I'm always eating at home. I try to keep my diet pretty strict." He is sticking to that diet for the time being, though he usually returns to New York with a list of places he is ready to frequent after months away. "When I'm back here, I'm everywhere – Chinese Tuxedo. I have a whole list of restaurants that I go to … If I'm free, I'll be out like every other night."

'All eyes are on you' as World Cup host

New York will be the first stop of many for the USMNT, the World Cup team set to be unveiled at an event on Tuesday before pre-tournament stops in Atlanta, Charlotte and Chicago. They will settle in Irvine, Calif. for their base camp, the eyes of the nation – and the world – finally fully focused on them. By its very nature, a World Cup on home soil is supposed to be a defining moment for the hosts and is especially so for the U.S. team, who hope at long last to break into the elites of the game with a groundbreaking showing. Weah characterizes the dynamic less as a pressure and more an obligation to do their part.

"Obviously we're the main actors in the situation of the World Cup and I think it's our job to just perform," he said. "I think once we perform, this sport is going to grow in itself. Being that it's a World Cup, all eyes are on you and when you're the host nation as well so I think football in America is growing day to day but it's our job now as the actors to go out there and perform, bring a smile to people's faces, joy in people's heart, bring different cultures and traditions together to where everyone wants to play soccer and everyone wants their kids to be soccer players. I think that's going to be beautiful. There's no better place to do it than in America."

USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino is never short of reminders that no player is a lock for the World Cup roster, but Weah brings a varied skillset – he is traditionally a winger but has played much of the season at Marseille as a wingback, a flexibility that usually goes a long way in cracking a World Cup team.

"I'm just so used to it," he said of the adjustment between the two positions. "It's kind of like second nature for me. I think on the U.S., I can't tell you what Poch is going to do, but I feel like I'm going to be more of a winger rather than a wingback just because of the qualities that I do bring to the national team. It's a lot of running in behind, so the closer I am to the opposite, I think it's just going to benefit us, and while at Marseille, I play a little further back just because I control the pace of the game from behind, I get up more to support Mason [Greenwood] … "I like playing both positions. I'm like a Swiss Army knife. I enjoy being it, because you get the experience of different positions."

The responsibility of furthering soccer's growth in the U.S. is not actually the sole responsibility of the national team's players, though it seems to weigh on them regardless. It is why, even on a quote-unquote off day, he is keeping busy. Weah has filled whatever semblance of free time he has had since Marseille's season concluded on Sunday by watching the series finale of "The Boys," a satirical superhero show that he binged the first five seasons of in a three-week span, and finding different ways to pitch in with the efforts of growing soccer's profile in the country. He is back in Queens in large part because of a community event at Rosedale Soccer Club on Saturday, a youth organization built by his uncle in the neighborhood he grew up in.

"This is the club that, when the fields weren't grass, when they were dust, we were all out there kicking it around and it's just humble beginnings," he noted, delving into his upbringing as the son of a Jamaican mother who happens to call Africa's only Ballon d'Or winner his father. "Growing up, unless I went to, I don't know, New Haven or Manhattan or out there in Long Island, I was just around Caribbean families from Jamaicans to Trinidadians to Guyanese, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, everyone. It's just a really humble place to be and to grow up, I think, as a kid. We grew up around a lot of love, a lot of good energy. On the weekends when school's done, we'd go out to Rosedale soccer field and we'd have cookouts, we'd play music."

Weah's plans do not end there. He was in attendance as Mamdani announced a discounted World Cup ticket initiative for 1,000 lucky New York City residents , the latest in a growing number of projects from the soccer-loving mayor to make the sport more accessible to locals .

"The relationship was already amazing from a distance, I think," Weah said. "When I saw his videos and I saw that he was always mentioning me, I think the love for him, it just exploded from there. I think what he's done for the city has been amazing. What he's doing for the World Cup is amazing. I think making tickets accessible for people who can't really afford it is an amazing gesture and he's someone that's very football forward, which is amazing. Having a mayor that you can connect with – he's young, he's for the people, by the people . He's a football fan and he's a football player at that, which is something that's amazing."

The event in Harlem, Weah hoped, was an important networking opportunity – and maybe a step closer to a kickabout with the mayor.

"I think connecting with him today is definitely the start of a wonderful relationship so hopefully I can get in his office and get in his ear a little bit," he said. "On a personal level, I love street football so I want to be able in the future to maybe, I don't know, purchase a building and turn it into a hub for street football and allow the younger generation to come in there and work on their game and improve and just have fun and just a safe place for us to play – or it's just not on the streets… Hopefully I can play with [Mamdani] on the streets, but I've heard he's pretty good. I can't wait to see but it's good talking to him."

Join the Conversation comments

_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/tim-weah-world-cup-usmnt-marseille/)._