Andy Najar’s announcement that he intends to play internationally for Honduras, if they call upon him, might be the only thing that’s going to be easy for him this season – and even that wasn’t exactly a cake walk as he stood nervously behind a podium to read a prepared statement on Tuesday.
But the way the 18-year-old explained it afterward, through a translator, it hardly ever seemed to be a decision anyway. It was simply about timing – after he’d finished his high school studies, which he agreed to as part of his pro contract with D.C. United; after his first full pro season with D.C. United; and after preseason this year.
Once that was done, Najar looked inside himself and talked with his family, discovering in his heart what was self-evident all along.
“From the beginning I was leaning toward Honduras,” Najar said.
This isn’t meant to diminish his presence on the U.S. national team radar, simply that the reality appears to not quite match the media-fueled range of international possibilities that were generated by Najar’s rookie of the year season in Major League Soccer.
That was clear with how Najar talked on Tuesday. Even so, he was asked if his decision was influenced by the lengthier process he’d face to become a U.S. citizen. He didn’t give any hint of it being a possibility.
“I don’t think it would’ve been more difficult,” he said. “I just first wanted to concentrate on my studies, and I asked the fans to have patience with me, and at the right moment, I would communicate that decision.”
The tougher part for Najar has always been the celebrity status that was immediately imparted upon him in his homeland from the time he turned pro. There were countless reports about him in the Honduran media over the last year, plenty of serious paranoia that they might lose their native son, and Najar’s agent, Chris Megaloudis, has spent endless hours trying to shield Najar from the controversy.
“It was a distraction for me because it was a question that I got asked constantly,” Najar said. “I was just waiting for the right moment to make the decision.”
Instead of training during the offseason abroad, Najar also took the winter off to focus on his studies, only to find out like every other player, time off means lost fitness, just the first of many things weren’t as easy for Najar as they had been as a rookie. Preseason was difficult, and the regular season is expected to be the same. Najar is a known entity in MLS now, and after United’s offseason makeover, he’s actually on a team with more quality players that last year. Simply showing up won’t earn him a place in the first 11 like it did last season, and Najar was dropped from the D.C. starting lineup last weekend in Colorado.
Fortunately, he’s got guys who know exactly what he’s going through to help him.
“I’ve preached to Andy that this is going to be a difficult year for him, and I was in the same situation,” United head coach Ben Olsen said. “I had a rookie-of-the-year. The second year, it’s not that easy. You got expectations. You got people wanting to kick the [expletive] out of you and stop you, and it’s important for him to still keep the passion and the running off the ball and all those little things that makes him special. It’s important for him to keep that going, and he knows it, to keep grinding through it. Maybe [the international decision] was a distraction, and maybe it will help him going forward, but he’s doing just fine.”
“He’s a great kid,” United midfielder Santino Quaranta said. “I think that when you have success and when people build you up so high, it’s so tough to maintain that level. He’s an awesome kid – was this distracting for him? I don’t think so. Now he just needs to concentrate. I know what it feels like in your first year you have a good one. And people expect so much out of you. It’s almost not fair. I told him, ‘You shouldn’t have played so good your first year.’ But he’s doing fine, he’ll be fine.”
