At this point, Matt Turner’s rags-to-riches story is well known. A walk-on at humble Fairfield University in Connecticut, Turner went from undrafted MLS long shot to New England Revolution starter to the U.S. national team’s No. 1 goalkeeper at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Could Brian White be the 2026 tournament’s version of Turner?

The 29-year-old White just received his first call-up to the full-strength USMNT. With UEFA Champions League-level strikers Folarin Balogun and Ricardo Pepi both unavailable this month because of injury, U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino named the Vancouver Whitecaps forward to his roster for Thursday’s Concacaf Nations League semifinal against Panama. The winner will meet either Canada or Mexico in Sunday’s final.

“It’s a vote of confidence, and you try and take that to heart,” White told FOX Sports in a phone interview. “You know they trust you to come into camp and help the team in any way you can.” 

With Balogun and Pepi out, Josh Sargent is expected to lead the line for the Americans in the two games. (The semifinal losers will play for third place before Sunday’s title bout.) But White — the second-oldest field player selected by Pochettino after 37-year-old Tim Ream — could definitely play an important role off the bench during this camp, especially if the U.S. needs a goal.

It’s an opportunity White has waited his whole career for.

White played four years of college soccer at Duke before turning pro with the Red Bulls in his home state of New Jersey. He started with the club’s lower division development squad, scored 10 times in 26 appearances, then was promoted to the MLS franchise late in the 2018 season. But despite nine regular season goals in 2019, White couldn’t stick in the Red Bulls’ XI.

It took a 2021 trade to Vancouver for White to become a lineup staple in the U.S. and Canada’s top league. He’s rewarded the Whitecaps for their confidence, notching back-to-back 15-goal seasons in 2023 and 2024.

That production earned White a second consecutive January camp call-up this winter. White scored his first international goal in the 3-0 friendly win over Costa Rica.

“He performed really well today and he scored, which for a striker is the most important” thing,” Pochettino told reporters afterward.

Clearly, the coach liked what he saw out of White and 24-year-old Charlotte target man Patrick Agyemang, whom Pochettino also summoned this month. Agyemang is an NCAA product like White and Turner, an increasingly rare distinction these days. The overwhelming majority of the current U.S. squad turned pro as teenagers, forgoing the scholastic route. 

“I think it should just tell everybody,” Turner said, “if you just keep focusing on yourself and bettering yourself every day, the doors are never closed.”

After being named to the squad last week, White promptly celebrated the call-up by helping the Caps stun Mexican powerhouse Monterrey in the Concacaf Champions Cup round of 16, one of the biggest wins in the Canadian team’s 50-plus year history.

Vancouver also sits alone atop the 30-team MLS standings, with a perfect 4-0 record. The hot start to 2025 has turned heads south of the border, where the Whitecaps are usually an afterthought. If they’re a thought at all. 

“Especially when I was at Red Bull, we never really heard much about Vancouver,” White said. “I think it’s difficult sometimes for the casual MLS fan to tune in for Whitecaps game at 10:30 at night Eastern time.”

White is getting noticed now, too. A strong performance this week could keep him in the mix when Balogun and Pepi return this summer. It won’t be easy, though. With the next World Cup less than 15 months away, the competition for places will be fierce. 

Sargent is in sizzling form for his club and desperate to take advantage of this opportunity. Haji Wright, another 2022 World Cup vet who notched a hat-trick for English second tier side Coventry City over the weekend but who was ineligible for Nations League duty after being left off the preliminary roster because of injury, is another World Cup candidate up top.

Timing is everything, though. World Cup history is littered with players who used a strong late push to snare a roster spot against long odds. Turner is just one example. 

Not that White is looking ahead. Right now, he’s exactly where he’s always wanted to be.

“Playing for the national team is the dream of every player,” he said. “I was never in the youth national teams growing up. I was always on the outside looking in. But I always kept dreaming. It’s something I never gave up on.

“You just keep fighting, hoping to one day maybe get the chance,” he added. “Obviously, 29 is kind of late. 

“But it’s never too late.”

Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports who has covered the United States men’s and women’s national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him at @ByDougMcIntyre.

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