WHIPPANY, NJ — During the dog days of summer, Daniel Edelman is akin to plenty of 20-year-olds living in the suburbs of New Jersey, just 30 miles outside of New York City.
He comes home from work where his mother makes dinner, his two younger brothers are waiting for him, and — when he’s not feeling up to it — even his laundry is done.
That, of course, is where the similarities with your run-of-the-mill young adult ends. Edelman’s summer job — which also includes plenty of hours on nights and weekends and begins in the spring and ends in autumn — is that of the up-and-coming holding midfielder for the New York Red Bulls.
“It’s still fun,” Edelman told amNewYork. “I get to go home after training and see my two younger brothers. Mom (Loyola University’s all-time leading scorer in women’s basketball) is at home and dad (a collegiate standout at Loyola, too) is in and out of the house. I’m going to stay at home now while I’m here. No need to move out or anything. I think some of the guys on the team are a little bit jealous that I get to go home.”
Not many professional athletes get to rest their heads every night in the childhood bedroom, still, which makes Edelman’s journey toward stardom all the more captivating.
In a six-day stretch that began on Sunday, the youngster played in front of DC United manager and Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney and helped keep their striker Benteke, a former Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, and Liverpool — the same Liverpool that he gushed over as a child while idolizing the legendary Steven Gerrard — striker at bay in a 1-0 victory.
The “whirlwind” week, as Edelman described it, ends on Saturday night at Red Bull Arena where he will be lining up opposite one of the greatest ever, Lionel Messi, in his MLS debut, another boyhood idol of his in holding midfielder Sergio Busquets — both of whom lifted Spanish giants Barcelona to dizzying heights in the 2010s — and the…
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