Leeds United midfielder Tyler Adams has always been accustomed to living life in the fast lane.
He had no other option but to adapt, especially when he arrived at Red Bulls’ summer training camp alongside 40,000 other children in the summer of 2010. To stand out in a crowd so big was no easy task, but Adams made an immediate impression.
“Very quickly in our programme we were able to see that he had something that some of the other kids didn’t and that was really the catalyst in accelerating him through our system,” says Simon Barrow, who works as Red Bulls’ senior manager of player development.
“Even at 11-years-old, he was very mature for his age. He had a lot of technical and physical attributes that you’re looking for in a kid that age. He was big, he was strong, he was quick and he was technically efficient but what set him apart from the rest of the kids on those summer camps was his attitude, his determination.”
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An invitation to become a member of the Red Bulls’ youth system was a fitting reward for his relentless pursuit of success. Standing still amounts to stepping backwards in his mind and Adams was determined to make the necessary sacrifices to achieve his goal.
Adams would have to set out on a 150-mile round trip from Poughkeepsie to Red Bulls’ training facility in Whippany, New Jersey, in his mother’s Toyota Corolla. His determination alone would not guarantee him a career at the highest level. The support of his mother, whom he shared an inseparable bond, was also a critical factor in his rise.
“I always felt happiest when I was on the pitch,” Adams revealed in the Players’ Tribune in November 2018. “I also happened to have some talent. My mom recognised that, and when I got the opportunity to join the Red Bulls Academy, she did everything she could to make sure I had the chance to pursue it.
“We had to eat our dinner in the car because our schedule was so tight. She’d make sure I did my homework on the drive down because by the time we drove back it was 10 or 11 at night, so it was too dark.
“Our life was a rollercoaster and we were never quite sure if things were going to stay on the tracks. But we always had each other. I looked up to my mom – I still do. During those early years I was her little shadow, always following her and observing how hard she worked.”
Adams trained with Iron Bound Soccer Club, one of Red Bulls’ academy affiliate clubs just across the river in Harrison, for a short time to ease his transition into their youth system.
He was very mature for his age and spent much of his youth career playing with older age groups, which benefitted him both mentally and physically.
“He was always playing at a higher level,” Barrow reveals. “Not just with Red Bulls but also with the youth national team. He was called up to the US youth national team – I think he was playing with the under-15s when he was probably about 13 or 14 years of age.
“A player’s ability to deal with adversity when they are playing with and against older kids day in, day out, is really one of the determining factors in whether they will continue to do well. Some kids when they’re thrown in at the deep end struggle a little bit.
“They don’t like the challenge, they don’t deal with the adversity so well, if games are difficult, if training is difficult, then they go hiding. But he never did! It’s not easy to do that at a younger age. His ability to deal with challenges and deal with the weight of expectation is one of the main things that set him apart.”
2015 was a defining year for Adams. He became the first player to sign for New York Red Bulls II in March and helped the United States reach the knockout phase of the U17 CONCACAF Championship.
Later that year he featured at the U17 FIFA World Cup and scored on his Red Bulls' debut in a 4-2 off-season victory over English juggernauts Chelsea. A professional contract followed in the winter but despite being presented his Major League Soccer debut by Jesse Marsch in April 2016, Adams returned to the reserve team to complete his development.
Although there was minimal risk of Adams becoming overwhelmed by the pressure, Barrow believes his spell in the second team was crucial in allowing him to make the step-up into the first team.
“We’re very fortunate to have RBII,” Barrow says. “A reserve team where players are playing meaningful, competitive games at a very early age.
“It’s an alternative option to the college pathway, which is still very common over here, and was probably more common when Tyler was coming through our system.
“Him being able to learn his trade and perfect his craft, although he would tell you that he is far from perfecting it even now, with the opportunities he had with RBII was certainly instrumental.”
Adams helped guide the second team to success in the USL Cup in 2016 before becoming a fully fledged member of the first team ahead of the 2017 campaign. Marsch named him in the starting line-up in a goalless draw against Real Salt Lake on Match Day 4 and Adams became a focal point from that moment onwards.
He showcased his versatility by occupying a number of roles, including on either side at full-back and on the wing, as well as his traditional position at the heart of midfield.
At the age of 17, Adams had become one of the first names on the team sheet and it also marked the beginning of a strong working relationship with his current Leeds boss Marsch.
“For a 17-year-old to be the lynchpin that the head coach is building the team around just demonstrated that he embodied all of the values that Jesse was instilling in the team at that time.
“Work rate, commitment, aggression, desire, the high-press – everything that we were trying to implement in our playing style at the time, he embodied that even at a very young age.
“It’s not just a case of him having the attributes but he had the attributes that really fitted the team, they complimented each other so well.”
Adams made his international debut in a draw against Portugal in November 2017 at the age of 18 to crown an extraordinary breakthrough year. The following campaign he played 42 times across all competitions, scoring in Red Bulls’ 3-1 victory over Club Tijuana to guide them into the CONCACAF Champions League semi-finals for the first time.
Marsch left to become assistant manager of RB Leipzig under Ralf Rangnick in the Bundesliga just four months into the campaign. Nevertheless, Adams remained integral to the side as they finished at the summit of the Eastern Conference under the tutelage of Chris Armas.
Adams stayed within the Red Bull system when he was reunited with Marsch at RB Leipzig in January 2019. In his nine years at the club, Adams had become the first player to progress through their Regional Development Schools programme (RDS) and make the transition into the first team.
He had become the Red Bulls’ trailblazer and the legacy that he left at his hometown club stills live on today.
“He was the very first player to make that transition all the way through our system. And that was really exciting for us because it allowed us to show the other kids in our system that it can be done because ‘if you can see it, you can be it’,” Barrow declares.
“They need something concrete, they need something tangible and they need someone to blaze that trail. The cool thing is since then, we’ve actually had more than 30 players that have come through the RDS that are playing professionally somewhere globally.
“Whether that be in MLS, Europe or in the USL [the second tier in the US], so although he was the first, he was actually the first of many. I think without him, maybe we wouldn’t have had the success we had with that age group because he really is the inspiration for the community.”
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