As USMNT look for leaders, Raul Jimenez shows they can blossom late | OneFootball

There were stretches of months, years even, when it appeared Raul Jimenez would never recapture the form he was in during the 2020-2021 Premier League season for Wolverhampton Wanderers, before a frightening collision and traumatic brain injury turned his career upside down.

And even now at the relatively advanced age of 33, he is a slightly different kind of player now.

But if this weekend's Concacaf Nations League fixtures showed us anything, it is that the path to becoming a national team leader isn't always linear. Because without a shadow of a doubt, Jimenez proved he is Mexico's most important player and the best player in the region at the current moment.

A complete forward

Jimenez's back-to-back braces against Canada and Panama provided all the offense Mexico needed to win its first Nations League crown. But they also allowed us to marvel at the complete game of the now-Fulham striker, who has always done the less-celebrated parts of being a world class forward to an exceptional level.

It's part of why Fulham took a chance on him to fill the weighty shoes left by Aleksandar Mitrovic's move to Saudi Arabia two Premier League seasons ago. While Jimenez might not be the goal merchant that Mitro was, he provided the reference point for a Fulham side that has become more balanced in each progressive season back in the Premier League.

And now Jimenez is back in double digits in goals for the first time in the Premier League since 2019-2020, the last campaign before his pivotal injury.

USMNT reason to hope

For a USMNT whose squad also seems to be in need of a guiding presence, he's a reminder that international soccer is quite volatile, and that players can emerge later in their careers to become very important. There's similar evidence within USMNT history, from the rise of Tim Ream during the last World Cup cycle, to Jermaine Jones' involvement in the 2014 World Cup side, among others.

It's unclear who might provide such a presence for Pochettino's squad right now. But given the Argentine manager's openness to eligible players almost anywhere, including MLS, it's very possible one of the most important players in the 2026 World Cup squad isn't currently in fans' picture. If he is, his name might be 2023 MLS MVP Luciano Acosta, who is still hoping to gain U.S. citizenship in time to represent the Americans next summer, when he'll be 31.

Mexico's triumph and apparent resurgence should also remind fans that in general, things in international soccer can turn suddenly. Dreadful results in the spring of 2025 aren't terribly predictive for the summer of 2025, let alone the summer of 2026.