• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
US Soccer Players

US Soccer Players

The official site of the USMNT Soccer Players with soccer news, schedule, statistics, players, interviews, and exclusive stories.

  • Home
  • Players
  • Games
  • News
  • Guides
  • USNSTPA
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / USMNT Players in the 2025-26 Champions League

USMNT Players in the 2025-26 Champions League

Our preview of the USMNT players in action in the 2025-26 UEFA Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League starts in the qualifying stage. It seems to come as a surprise that the European club competitions have to begin so early to get the qualifiers in, with clubs playing European games that count in early July.

UEFA Champions League qualifying

First round qualifying begins on July 8 and concludes on July 16, with no USMNT players involved in this initial stage of the tournament. Barring player moves during the summer transfer window, that won’t change for the second round of qualifying. That also holds for the third round of qualifying. Cameron Carter-Vickers and Auston Trusty’s Celtic will be part of the play-off round, the final round of Champions League qualifying. Celtic enters the competition in the Champions Path, meaning a home-and-away series against an opponent to be determined stands between them and the league phase of the Champions League.

As it stands, there are five teams with USMNT players that have qualified for the league phase. The switch to a league format from groups began last season, with 24 of the 36 teams in the league phase advancing. The top eight will qualify directly for the round of 16 with the remaining 16 teams playing a knockout round.

USMNT players in the league phase of the Champions League
Weston McKennie (Juventus)
Tim Weah (Juventus)
Folarin Balogun (Monaco)
Paxten Aaronson (Eintracht)
Timmy Chandler (Eintracht)
Giovanni Reyna (Borussia Dortmund)
Malik Tillman (PSV)
Sergino Dest (PSV)
Ricardo Pepi (PSV)

This list does not account for potential transfers and loans and will be updated should a player move clubs.

Europa League qualifying

It’s a similar story for USMNT players in Europa League qualifying that also begins with the first qualifying round on July 10 and 17th. No USMNT are involved in the first, second, third, and playoff rounds of Europa League qualifying.

USMNT players in the league phase of the Europa League
Johnny Cardoso (Real Betis)
Chris Richards (Crystal Palace)
Tanner Tessmann (Lyon)

Crystal Palace’s status in the competition is in question due to multiple club ownership issues, with UEFA yet to make a final decision. Lyon successfully appealed an administrative relegation over financial issue and remains in Ligue 1.

UEFA Conference League qualifying

The UEFA Conference League qualifying schedule matches the Europa League’s, but this time we have a USMNT player involved in the early rounds. Aron Johannsson’s Valur plays Estonian club Flora in the first qualifying round on July 10 and 17. Again with the caveat of potential transfers, Matt Turner’s Nottingham Forest is in the playoff round.

Rosters
Results
FIFA Rankings
Alumni

USMNT News
USMNT Players in MLS
USMNT Players Abroad

About US Soccer Players
Privacy Policy
Contact Us
Sponsorship and Licensing

  

© 2025 USNSTPA • Contact • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 All Rights Reserved - USNSTPA

This website stores data such as cookies for analytics and essential functionality.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in .

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. We do not sell any data we get using cookies – we simply store cookie information in your browser to perform functions such as recognizing you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We use browser local storage to hide the homepage background image on repeated visits to make it easier to see new content.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

3rd Party Cookies

This website uses StatCounter to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.

Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!