The 2024 MLS season kicked off this past weekend with as much anticipation as any year since the league’s founding. 

Why do I feel confident making that statement? Because of a little player called Lionel Messi. You may have heard of him. And no, “little” was not an intentional short joke there.

Daily headlines, sent straight to your inbox.

Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with the latest at and around USC.

Sure, Messi formally signed last season and has already won a trophy with Inter Miami: the inaugural Leagues Cup, in which Miami beat out Nashville S.C. on penalties. 

But that was more of a trial run for Inter Miami. The team was a disaster before the World Cup winner’s arrival, and beyond the initial juice the Leagues Cup run provided, Messi didn’t have either the roster or the stamina to make a late surge to the playoffs, considering he had just played a full August-to-May European season.

As such, Messi and the Flamingos — not an official club nickname, which is a real missed opportunity — will have the world’s eyes on them to try and win a trophy. And with that extra attention, the rest of the MLS, including both clubs and individual players, has a real opportunity to raise its own profile outside of the Messi category. 

Among those best poised to take advantage are the up-and-coming generation of American players who developed in MLS academies. I’m talking about guys like Atlanta United F.C.’s Caleb Wiley at 19 years old, the Seattle Sounders F.C.’s Obed Vargas at 18 and Philadelphia Union’s Jack McGlynn at 20 — young players with a decent number of MLS appearances who could vault themselves into the United States men’s national team conversation or attract European club attention with a strong season. 

On the less-experienced side of that group sits Esmir Bajraktarevic of the New England Revolution, an 18-year-old winger who’s already attracting wunderkind status and may play a sizable role in the 2024 season.

Born in Wisconsin to Bosnian immigrant parents, Bajraktarevic eventually earned a trial with the Revolution and became the first player to live in one of the club’s residency homes, from which they fast-tracked him to the first team. The youngster made his first team debut at just 17 years old, playing 617 MLS minutes in his first two professional seasons, including six starts.

His precocious talent of course attracted the attention of the U.S. men’s national team pipeline, too, earning Bajraktarevic call-ups to the under-19, U-20 and U-23 squads before receiving his first senior cap in a January 2024 friendly against Slovenia. Bajraktarevic played an active 29 minutes in that match, taking two shots and registering a chance created, too.

But what defines Bajraktarevic as a great footballer?

Well, in a way it’s fitting that I began this column by focusing on Messi, because Bajraktarevic shares a similar stature. Messi is notoriously about 5-foot-7, or roughly 170 centimeters, while Transfermarkt lists the “Milwaukee Messi” — as Revs defender Henry Kessler has called Bajraktarevic — at 175 centimeters, about an inch taller than the Argentinian legend. 

Bajraktarevic can play on either wing, with 12 professional appearances on the right and six on the left, the side on which he started this past weekend’s opening game against D.C. United. Despite New England’s 3-1 loss, the young forward was one of the few Revs players who could leave with his head held high, at least from a statistical perspective. In 88 minutes, he accumulated three successful dribbles, one chance created, one shot and was fouled seven times. Plus, New England striker Giacomo Vrioni’s sending-off in the 25th minute meant that the Revs had to play most of the match with 10 men. 

In particular, the seven drawn fouls stick out. Bajraktarevic is one of those players who keeps the ball on a string, teasing the opposition with dummies and fakes and tricky touches. He has the audacity to make defenders look silly. After all, one of his first touches in the USMNT’s red, white and blue was a nutmeg.

His passing in tight areas shines as well. Bajraktarevic shows great spatial awareness and ability to connect with his teammates in and around the penalty area, as he also displayed in his senior international debut. 

In one sequence, he received the ball in the right half-space with his back to the Slovenian goal and a defender behind him, then turned inside with first the touch, quickly releasing the ball to his overlapping Revs and USMNT teammate DeJuan Jones, creating a perfect opportunity for Jones to whip a low cross into the middle. It’s the kind of play that looks extremely simple to the naked eye, but required Bajraktarevic to know exactly where each Slovenian defender was around him to open the space for his teammates.

In order to take the leap to MLS stardom or eventually secure a transfer to a top European team, Bajraktarevic will need to start showing regular end product in 2024. He does not yet have an MLS goal or assist to his name, but the signs suggest his first ones will come soon. 

And as long as Bajraktarevic keeps making developmental progress, it would behoove USMNT Head Coach Gregg Berhalter to keep him involved, since via his parents, Bajraktarevic could always switch allegiances to Bosnia if not selected for U.S. duty. 

At the least, Bajraktarevic will likely play for the U.S. Olympic squad in Paris this summer — effectively a U-23 team that could showcase some future USMNT stars. 

A gold medal would be an epic way for Bajraktarevic to announce his arrival on the world stage. 

Jack Hallinan is a junior writing about the top wunderkinds in men’s and women’s soccer in his column, “Rising Ballers,” which runs every other Thursday. He is also the Talkin’ Troy Podcast Editor at the Daily Trojan.