'Just need to prove myself to myself' - USMNT striker Patrick Agyemang’s World Cup dream is over - but his story isn’t

Agyemang laughed about it in March, but it is a fun fact: the first day he ever spent in Europe was the day he did his medical.

Prior to signing with Derby in a transfer worth around $8 million, he'd never set foot in England or the rest of the old continent. He'd dreamed of it, of course, but at no point did he ever really have the opportunity. He was never some youth national team hotshot who travelled the world for youth tournaments or trials. Instead, he was a player that almost everyone missed as he went from the lowest levels of the college game to the highest levels of the American game.

Because of that, Agyemang really had no clue what he'd signed up for. The deal was essentially done before his flight landed in England, but he really wasn't sure what awaited him. Where would he live? What would the city be like? How would he adjust to the food or the weather? Those were all concerns. What wasn't, though, was the soccer itself.

"I wanted to be in a place where they valued me, and they wanted me to be the best version of myself," he says. "I didn't want to feel like someone on the side or easily replaced. I didn't want it to be like, 'Oh, you're not doing well, so we'll get someone who will do well'. I wanted to be one of the main guys, and Derby emphasized that with me. I had never played with anyone there or been around them, but they said that they wanted me to be one of their best players. They wanted me to be a goalscoring player. 'Maybe it takes time, maybe a year or two, but we want you to get there'. They had a plan for me and, because of that, I knew I was fine."

During this first season, Agyemang was more than fine. Agyemang scored 10 goals and provided three assists in the Championship. His goal tally is enough to tie for the lead scorer at the club, and when tacking those assists on, no Derby player has more goal contributions this season than the club's American striker.

That came even though Agyemang's time at Derby was initially marred by a different injury, one that tested him mentally throughout last summer, in particular.

As he joined Derby this summer, the club confirmed his start would be delayed. Agyemang would require hernia surgery before making his debut for the club, delaying his start to the season.

The world didn't really know how much the injury was bothering Agyemang. Before that surgery, he hadn't felt like himself for a while. After it, it took a while to get back to where he felt he could be. It was the hardest part of it all, and it came while he was thousands of miles from home.

"It was like, 'Pat, can you adjust to this league quickly enough and will your body allow you to?'," he recalled. "Those were the things for me. For a while, I was more worried that what I dealt with would come back and that it would be up and down. I told myself that, if I feel good, if I'm able to make sharp cuts and play the way I know I can play, I think I'll be fine."

He added, "Around November or December, that was probably the first time in a year and a half where I felt like myself again. I could run without pain. When I was running, there wasn't that sharp pain that I had throughout 2025. I'd felt that since probably the end of the 2024 season, and it was the worst right before the surgery. During the summer, May-ish, was when it was at its worst."

The time period, the summer, was when he was in his brightest spotlight with the USMNT. Agyemang, despite his physical limitations, played through it because he knew what was at stake.

Agyemang was relishing the competition with the USMNT. In March, he was in camp with Folarin Balogun and Ricardo Pepi. Haji Wright, Josh Sargent, and Brian White had been in and around the team as well. They couldn't all go to the World Cup. Agyemang was doing whatever he could to ensure he would be one who did.

"You're here for a reason," he said. "It's not a vacation; it's a business trip. It's business when I come here. It's a time for me to show my quality. I don't need to compare myself here because I'm here for myself and to be myself, individually and within the team. If you're going to be here, you might as well enjoy the opportunity and show who you are. You don't need to look at someone else and be like, 'Ah, he's doing this'. No, we're all here, we're all different and we all bring different things to show."

It’s a mentality shaped as much by competition as anything else.

"I've been in a good amount of camps with [the coaching staff] and they know me as a person as well. The person is just as important as the player," he continued. "When you bring good vibes around the team and stuff, that's valued as well, but I'm still trying to compete. Everyone wants to play in a World Cup. There's no subtlety about any of that. Everyone wants to play, and I want to play. You're working hard because you don't want to be a passenger. You don't want to just enjoy the ride. I want to be there. I want to play. That's what drives me."

That will surely be what drives his comeback. The World Cup dream is over for now, but there's plenty of story left to write.

In those initial days at Derby, there was a moment that really meant something to Agyemang. It didn't mean he made it per se, but it meant he was on the right path.

That moment came shortly after he arrived in England. He was living at a temporary residence and waiting for his stuff to be shipped over. His brother was visiting and there hadn't been an opportunity to really grocery shop amid the chaos. While they were walking back home with some food, the brothers crossed paths with a group of kids, who immediately realized who they'd bumped into.

"I'm not thinking anything of it, but then they just kept saying my name," he said. "'Is that Agyemang?' and I look over, and they're like, 'No way!'. They ran over and started showing a lot of love. It was crazy. They were just like, 'Bro, we're so happy to have you and we're excited to watch you play'. That was the first time that I was like, 'Wow, this is going to be wild'.

"One time, we had an autograph thing, and it was supposed to be two hours, and it went for like four. It was crazy. Thousands of fans. It's still difficult to wrap my head around. It's part of the journey, and I'm thankful for it."

Those little moments made it all feel real. He was far from East Hartford, playing at a level that he, and at times he alone, had dreamed about. Life had been pretty good throughout his meteoric rise from obscurity to prominence. The next steps of that journey, though, will come in the shadows: on surgery tables, in the gym, and at home. There will be no more long walks and no more big goals for a while. There will also be no World Cup either.

Agyemang knows better than most that stories don't end if you don't stop writing them. A new chapter begins, and it's a bitter one, given what was lost because of it, but that’s the path.

"I think, as time goes, my story will get more details," he says to conclude that interview in Atlanta. "For now, I've said everything I've needed to say."