GOAL EXCLUSIVE: Lighting up Eredivisie and generating transfer talk, the American star discusses both his struggles and successes
Every great goalscorer has a celebration, and they inevitably become more iconic the more often you see them. Think of Cristiano Ronaldo's "Siii." What would Thierry Henry be without the famous knee slide that eventually became a statue? How many photos of Lionel Messi pointing to the sky are there? How many great goals have concluded in a Kylian Mbappe shrug?
They're iconic not just because of the quality but because of the quantity. We've seen them all so many times.
Ricardo Pepi isn't in that company, although he hopes to be someday. Outside of his hometown of El Paso, he hasn't reached that iconic status just yet. But that personal celebration? He's found it, and it's one that means something. It's not one found in glory. It's not one meant to commemorate the euphoria that comes with scoring at the highest of levels, although Pepi has felt that rush on a regular basis of late.
No, Pepi's celebration isn't necessarily based on joy. Instead, it's rooted in pain.
The U.S. men's national team star stumbled into it about a year ago. After growing up watching the Japanese animated TV series "Naruto" with his uncle, he inevitably fell back into the show as an adult. Professional athletes have time on their hands and, when they do, there are worse hobbies than locking yourself inside and binge watching anime.
Throughout his rewatch, Pepi found himself captivated not by the namesake of the show, but rather by a character named Itachi Uchiha. Itachi is no hero, but not quite a villain, either. He's a complex character whose ability, the Sharingan, is awakened by suffering. It's marked by a red eye. Loss of a loved one, conflict, pain, failure, all make Itachi's abilities stronger. To unlock his highest self, he must first suffer great loss but, through that anguish, he gains power.
That character, those feelings, resonated with Pepi, and a celebration was born. He changed his Instagram profile picture to a photo of Itachi covering his face. Every time Pepi scores a goal – and there have been plenty of those lately – Pepi covers his face in the same way.
"They get a red eye that's called the Sharingan," Pepi said to GOAL, "and they get it after a series of obstacles, whether it's losing a loved one or going through something difficult. The reason I started doing it was because I'd been going through a series of – not for the last month obviously but before that – it was a series of obstacles. On the field, I wasn't playing as much as I wanted to, even though I was doing so well. So, to be honest, every time I would score, it would just be a sigh of relief. And then came the celebration and, I don't know, but, for some reason, it made me feel like a superhero."
Pepi is playing like one at the moment, as well. And that hasn't gone unnoticed. He's suddenly one of the most discussed transfer targets in Europe in the January transfer window. Sources have told GOALthat massive clubs in England and France have already pushed to sign the PSV star, and more offers are expected. The Pepi sweepstakes is just beginning, and it's largely because the world has seen so much of his new celebration, thanks to his scorching goal-scoring.
Pepi sat down with GOALto discuss life in the limelight, what he wants going forward and how the struggles have prepared him for whatever's next.
Getty ImagesReflecting on the early days
Pepi was just back in his hometown of El Paso, Texas making the rounds during this holiday season. It was a nice change of pace. He stopped by a local children's hospital, went to a hockey game, spent time with family. It was a much-needed break considering everything that's going on.
He's scored 10 goals in just 636 Eredivisie minutes this season, establishing himself as a Golden Boot contender despite not starting on his own team. He added another in the Champions League, netting a 95th-minute winner in a gigantic victory over Shakhtar Donetsk. PSV look set to runaway with the Eredivisie and could qualify for the next stages of the Champions League. Pepi has undeniably played a huge part.
He returned home on a high this winter, but heading back to Texas did also ground him a bit. It reminded him of his path from his hometown to Eindhoven, and how that path shaped him. Yes, his on-field momentum was paused, but this off-field time was needed.
"Every time I come back to Texas, I feel like I see something new," he says, "and then, all of a sudden, it starts feeling big to me. I'm like 'Yo, I'm from here, why does it feel like this?' When I go home, it feels like there's never enough time."
In the moments at home in which he gets to talk up his own achievements, he finds it important to also think back on his own struggles. It's not just about where he is, but how he got there.
Pepi is quick to point to his upbringing. His parents, Daniel and Anette, both worked hard. The Pepis were determined to create a better life for their children and, now just short of his 22nd birthday, Pepi is starting to realize how much they sacrificed. His mother's life was, obviously, very different than her son's. At an age in which Pepi is the subject of eight-figure transfer offers in Europe, his mother was putting her head down, joining his father in working to give their kids whatever they needed. His father moved across Texas to help Pepi begin his professional career. There were so many gifts in his upbringing that he might not have really understood. Not until now.
"I've just been thinking about that sacrifices that it takes to be able to make it to to where to where I am now," Pepi said. "It's really the sacrifices that my family had to make. When I first moved to FC Dallas, there was a year by myself and then my dad had to move halfway between El Paso and Dallas to find to find an apartment and set everything up for the family before everyone moved.
"Most of the time, people just kind of lose sight of that. It's going to take a lot of sacrifices to be able to get where you are. This is all kudos to my family who made that sacrifice. I need to shout out my family a little better for making all the efforts that they've made for me to be me."
He knows the struggles of his family, and Pepi also learned lessons from his own ups and downs. The life of a striker is loaded with them, and Pepi knows that better than most.
AdvertisementImagoDealing with adversity, success as a striker
At FC Dallas, things came easy for Pepi. He was the MLS Young Player of the Year in 2021 at just 18. He scored 13 goals that season. Europe came calling soon after. Pepi moved to Augsburg for a fee of nearly $20 million. The move failed. Pepi never got into the team, partly because they never truly trusted him. Part of that's on the club for not handing the keys to their record signing. Part of it is also on Pepi, in a way, for not seizing those opportunity.
"When I first moved to Augsburg, I didn't know what to expect," he says. "I was kind of just there. I was just adapting as much as I can. I see myself now [at PSV], and things are a little bit easier. I have a little bit more experience living in Europe and so you can just focus on the obstacles that are on the pitch.
"Off the pitch, for the past year and a half that I've been in Eindhoven I've been pretty comfortable. I've been really good in the city. I know my way around. I have friends there. But like I said, when I first got to Augsburg, I didn't really know anyone. I wasn't really interested in going out and starting to meet people and stuff like that. Now I have way more experience."
That comfort has translated on the pitch. It's been converted into confidence, and that has resulted in goals. Strikers are measured by how they finish, and few are finishing at a rate like Pepi.
Compared to forwards in the top 14 leagues, Pepi is in the 99th percentile in non-penalty goals-per-game (1.27), shots-per-90 minutes (4.87) and touches in the penalty box per 90 (8.47). He's in the 95th percentile in assists, too. In just about every measurable metric as a striker, Pepi is shining. Eye test or statistically, Pepi matches up against just about anyone.
He's earning the praise now, and it's made all the sweeter given that he knows what it's like when the praise erodes. His dry spell at Augsburg cost him a spot at the 2022 World Cup and, in many ways, he faded out of sight. Once hailed as the future of the USMNT – Pepi was one of the big reasons the USMNT even qualified for Qatar – the goals suddenly dried up, and the U.S. moved on, without him.
"After a bad performance or something like that, you kind of just want people to back you up," he says. "There are off days. There are times where things don't go your way. It'd be nice to get support from people at those times. It's not always just blaming you for all you didn't do. At the same time, you're in a profession where you know you're those things are gonna happen. People can blame you for those things. It's just finding the right balance and knowing what you've been through to be able to get to the position you're at and just accepting that."
That perspective has been informative for Pepi as he evalutes his current success. Maybe two years ago, he would think that this wave would last forever. Now, he knows it probably won't. He experience tells him that luck will turn again, no matter which part of that wave he's riding.
"It's something about just the confidence that you have in yourself," he says. "All of a sudden, for me, I start doing things that I normally wouldn't do if I wasn't playing so much, but that's just because you trust yourself, you believe in yourself. All of a sudden, you've already proved that you can do these type of things.
"I definitely think when I'm at my all-time high in confidence, I can definitely do things out of the ordinary."
Getty ImagesThe transfer rumors
Pepi still smiles when you ask about it. It should be commonplace for him now, given his recent success, but just the mention of the words "Champions League" get a rise out of him.
He scored his first goals in the competition last season, netting against Sturm Graz and Sevilla in two PSV wins. He added another against Shakhtar this season, too. Despite it all, it still doesn't really feel real to him. Pepi still doesn't really believe that he's playing at this level.
"Every time I score in the Champions League, it takes me two or three days to process what's going on," Pepi says. "It's like 'I really did that, that's an actual thing'. It just feels like it's not real. It's an unreal feeling, man. The way I'd describe it is it kind of just feels like a miracle just happened, you know? It's like something you can't really believe."
He's starting to believe, though, and so is the rest of the world. Those Champions League goals, and the boatloads he's scored in Holland, have him on the radar of some of the world's biggest clubs. For many players, that would be overwhelming. Pepi, though, knows no better.
He admits he sees the chatter. He checks social media and sees the messages. He sees the comments from fans, the reports in various languages linking him to one club or another. He's lived in this world since his FC Dallas breakthrough. He was still a teenager when transfer rumors became part of his life. Now 22, he doesn't really remember what life was like without them.
"It's just like such a normal thing now," he says. "You know if you're performing or if you're trying to get away for a loan or something like that, they'll be there. I think I've just made it a part of life already. That's the life that I live. Of course, there are going to be rumors of you going on, but at the same time, rumors can also affect your head a little bit. I just try to stay off, avoid distractions… If my agent doesn't tell me that there's a deal or that there's interest, I don't pay attention to it. I like to just keep things very compact in terms of information, so I can just focus on on the main goal, which is performing on the pitch."
Getty Images SportAnother side of himself
Pepi is finding that confidence in other ways, as well. He's more open to expressing himself. He's not fully sure the world has gotten to see much of the real him. They've heard the buttoned up media answers, and Pepi does always tend to say the right thing. Over the last few years in particularly, he's been asked plenty of questions about his career and he's almost always been able to give the right answer.
"I want to to express the person I am more, you know?" Pepi says. "I feel like, on camera, I haven't really been able to to express myself in terms of just my personality off the pitch or just my background, where my family comes from, all of that."
The right answer isn't always the fun one, and there are times where Pepi is eager to show that other side of him. It's the happy-go-lucky side. The one who, after a recent video shoot with GOAL, laughed and pointed out how much inevitable chaos he just stirred up in the comment section for naming Ronaldo as his GOAT. It's the side that fell back into Naruto in his early 20s, largely because he wanted to rewatch a show that, as a kid, he thought was just something fun.
"There's a lot of cool characters," he says, "but there's a lot of life lessons in there, too."
Pepi, maybe most of all, is enjoying the connection that comes with his success. He enjoys bouncing around Eindhoven with teammates, going out to dinner after some of PSV's many big wins. He even enjoys meeting fans virtually on MyPark in NBA2K, where's he's excited to talk to just about anyone that recognizes him in game.
"On top of my character, I have a little soccer ball and so it shows people that you're verified," he says. "Anytime that you play against people, like, they're always sending you a message on PlayStation, like, 'Oh, you play soccer?' It makes it really fun."
Pepi isn't wildly famous, at least not yet, even compared to other American stars playing in Europe, such as Christian Pulisic and Antonee Robinson. He does realize that he can make an impact, though, particularly back in Texas, where he's established himself as a local success story.
"Sometimes you don't really realize that you're at that point until you actually start getting people to ask you for your autograph," he says, "or you start going to a hospital and then, all of a sudden, little kids get really excited to see you. You have to be proud of yourself, but at the same time, I think there are moments in life that you have to kind of give back to to the world. That's what I believe in, and that's what I try to stick to."