Tim Weah returned to the Queens soccer club that helped shape his early career on Saturday afternoon, walking back onto the Rosedale Rockets Soccer Club Field on 149th Avenue in Rosedale for a homecoming that tied his past to the biggest stage ahead.
Weah, who was born in Brooklyn and is on loan at Marseille from Juventus, said the visit was about coming home. “Before stepping onto the world stage, it means everything to come back to the community that shaped me and share this moment with the next generation,” he said.
The event came with more than nostalgia. It placed one of the U.S. men’s national team’s most recognized forwards in front of the neighborhood that saw him before the wider world did, at a time when his soccer calendar is turning toward the 2026 World Cup in North America. Mauricio Pochettino named Weah to his 26-man squad for the tournament this summer, and the United States is set to open its campaign against Paraguay on June 12.
The homecoming was hosted in partnership with the Clar HOPE Foundation and Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers, who said Weah’s path should land with young players who are still trying to imagine their own. “Timothy Weah’s journey is a powerful reminder to young people across Southeast Queens and the Rockaways that greatness can come from right here in our community,” Brooks-Powers said.
Weah spent part of his youth with the Rosedale Rockets before later joining the Red Bull New York academy, a path that carried him from neighborhood fields to Europe and then into the U.S. national setup. He has scored seven goals in 49 appearances for the USMNT, and his presence in the squad gives the team another seasoned option as the World Cup draws closer.
He was joined at the event by his father and mother, Clar, a family appearance that gave the afternoon a full-circle feel. That connection carries added weight in soccer circles: his father, George Weah, won the Ballon d’Or in 1995 and later became the 25th president of Liberia, giving the name Weah a global reach that began long before Tim Weah stepped into it himself.
The visit underscored something harder to quantify than goals or call-ups. For a player preparing for a World Cup on home soil across North America, the return to Rosedale was a reminder that elite careers are often built on places most people never see on television. In Weah’s case, the next stop is the international spotlight, but the story still starts on 149th Avenue.
