Antonee Robinson of the USMNT: “I would like to send a message. We are a team that should be respected.”

Antonee Robinson has come a long way in the 4½ years since his failed move to AC Milan.

For a while, that was the only topic of conversation about him. It was a line that regularly appeared in the commentary on the programmes, lamenting how he had almost moved from the “weak” Wigan Athletic, then in the English second division and now in the third, to the Italian giants, seven-time European champions.

The transfer fell through after his medical revealed an irregular heart rhythm and he was only spared a medical procedure due to the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK. As Robinson explained to The Athletic in 2021, during the three-month football hiatus he stopped taking caffeine shots before games and the problem disappeared.

“I don’t pay as much attention to it now that the problem has actually been recognised,” Robinson tells The Athletic. “I know that if I ever move to another club in the future, I can at least say, ‘Look, this is the problem I had, this is the truth of the doctors and specialists, it’s OK.'”

“It’s not too much of a shock anymore. I still don’t drink coffee or take caffeine shots or anything like that. I don’t drink caffeinated beverages. But other than that, I eat pretty much the same. I eat pretty healthy, but I still snack a lot. Of course, I have a very high metabolism — and I’m running after a 2-year-old all day, so I burn off everything I eat pretty well.”

He talks about his daughter Atlas. Robinson’s second child, Ocean, was born this month. He has also grown up on the field.

The whole Milan affair could have left a feeling of regret, but with Fulham, the opposite was the case. The USMNT international’s last season was described as his “best” yet by his Fulham head coach Marco Silva.

The Athletic voted him our Fulham Player of the Season and in the first part of this interview with him, Robinson spoke at length about his development on the field, highlighting the strengths he has honed and the weaknesses he has ironed out with the help of manager Silva. His determination to continue to improve was clear to see.

Aside from the support of his manager, he ultimately put his progress down to maturity. “A lot of things have improved, but mostly it’s just a bit more experience, maturity and feeling comfortable in the league,” he says.

That feeling is probably even more pronounced on international duty with the USA. He has now won 41 caps and is higher up the group. “It’s quite strange because at Fulham we don’t have the youngest team,” he said. “So I’m one of the youngest players on the team. Then I go to the USA and I’m one of the oldest players. I get to experience both sides of the coin.”

“I really love playing for my country – and I’ve been in this group for six years now – especially because I’ve seen a lot of the guys who started with me develop and do incredible things, like Weston (McKennie) and Tim Weah winning the Coppa Italia (with Juventus). They were there at my very first training camp.

“Watching all of us develop and become established players in top leagues and on the national team has been an incredible journey. I enjoy every minute I get to play for them. I know it will end at some point, but I hope it’s a long, long time away.”

Robinson’s journey with the USMNT includes a complete reset after failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and then rebuilding with an eye on the future. That future is now underway as the U.S. stands at what could be a pivotal point in the country’s soccer history.

If that happens, soccer in the United States could take a step to the next level. This goes beyond Lionel Messi joining MLS last season. Soccer will take center stage on an international level. The United States will host the Men’s World Cup in 2026, co-hosted with Canada and Mexico, and first this summer will host the Copa America, also on U.S. soil.

Robinson was part of the development cycle that was geared towards performing at the top of his game in those two tournaments. Does that bring pressure? “Yeah, a little bit,” he says. “A lot of the guys who came into the team at a similar time to me, it was a real rebuilding phase. They brought in a lot of young guys who they thought could have a chance in the future. So there was a lot of pressure on us, especially before the World Cup.”

“Almost everyone on the squad is now playing in a European league rather than MLS. And it’s a very, very talented squad. You look at guys like Christian Pulisic and Gio Reyna, who have incredible talents. And then Weston, who is an incredible player. There’s a lot of hype about it on the American side. With that comes just the added pressure of us wanting to compete against the best teams in the world and people seeing that there’s no reason we can’t do that.”

Robinson believes in the potential of this group of players. “What better opportunity than the World Cup in the USA on home soil?” he asks. “And this Copa America will be a kind of World Cup preparation. It is the biggest competition we can take part in, apart from the World Cup. It is like the European Championship for the European countries, it is that big. It is a very important competition.”

(Copa America is the South American equivalent of the European Championship, although the ten countries of the South American continent often have several visiting teams join them to make the tournament bigger – in this case, six teams from North and Central America and the Caribbean.)

“So I would love for us to leave our mark there and send the message to the world that we are a team that deserves respect and that we can go on and achieve even more great things.”

It won’t be easy. In the group stage, the USMNT will face Panama, Uruguay and Bolivia. If they can overcome that hurdle, they will face even tougher opponents in the knockout rounds. Brazil and Argentina are obviously the heavyweights. As much as the quality of the group is exciting, expectations may be beyond the impossible. Robinson is well aware of that, but also sees a path the USMNT can take.

“You definitely have to keep expectations in check a little bit,” he says. “Looking at us, it would be silly to say we’re the best team in the world because we know we’re not, we’re not there yet. You look at what other teams are doing and it’s about finding the ability to beat a team that’s better than you.”

“A great example is Morocco at the World Cup. They played unbelievably and beat some of the best teams. On paper, nobody would say they were one of the best teams at the World Cup, but they managed to win all those games. That’s something we have to do.”

“If we go to the Copa America, we can only win it if we beat Uruguay, if we beat Colombia, if we beat Brazil, if we beat Argentina. We may not think the team is better than them, but we have to find a way together to compete. Even if we don’t play the best in this game, we still have to find a way to win.

“I expect that if we play Argentina in the final, who have 90% possession and 30 shots on goal, it will mean we win 1-0. I don’t care. We want to win the cup.”

It is this drive that has propelled Robinson forward at Fulham so far.

It might also help his country.