ASN: After impressing with the U.S. U-20 crew, Duru aiming for extra in 2025

ASN’s Brian Sciaretta spoke at size with U.S. U-20 proper again Leo Duru who has made his first crew debut with Blackburn and now hopes to be a part of the 2025 U-20 World Cup crew for the USA. 

BY

Brian Sciaretta

Posted
December 13, 2024
7:05 AM

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THE START OF THE 2024/25 season has been a wild experience for Leo Duru. The younger Blackburn proper again acquired phrase that the USA U-20 nationwide crew was scouting him for a call-up. On the final day of August, he made his first crew debut for Blackburn within the Championship and some weeks later, he made his worldwide debut for the U.S. crew’s October camp in Chile.

Duru, 19, has been with Blackburn for the reason that U-10 degree and has been making important progress with the membership lately. He signed a scholarship contract in 2021 adopted by an expert contract in 2023 and an extension this previous Might. He grew up in England and is the son of Nigerian dad and mom. In his improvement, he drew inspiration from his household, together with his cousin Kel Akpobire who performed for Bristol Metropolis and serves as his mentor.

For Duru, his first crew debut got here on August 13 when he performed the second half for Blackburn in a 6-1 win over Stockport County within the EFL Cup. Then on August 31, he made his Championship debut when he performed the ultimate minutes of a 1-1 draw with Burnley. In complete, he has made the primary crew bench six occasions this yr in league play. The membership sits fifth place and enters mid-December on a five-game profitable streak. The promotional race has made it more durable for younger gamers like Duru to interrupt in.

“With Blackburn, we’ve got a really good start to the season,” Duru advised American Soccer Now on the final U.S. U-20 camp in Spain. “We’ve got a really good squad pushing for promotion. It’s been tough for me trying to get into that starting 11… Obviously I need a lot more first team minutes whether that comes in the coming weeks at Blackburn or whether that’s on loan. I’m uncertain at this moment in time. It’s just good to be around first team environment, training with them every day and I just think it makes me a better player.”

As Duru has been breaking into the primary crew with Blackburn, he’s additionally making progress with the USA. Whereas being born in Manchester, UK, Duru additionally holds eligibility for England and Nigeria. His American citizenship stems by his mom who lived within the Philadelphia space for a number of years and was capable of move on citizenship to her son.

What was amusing for Duru is that when he was known as up by the USA U-20 nationwide crew, many at Blackburn had been utterly unaware that he held American citizenship.

That additionally raises the query how U.S. Soccer was capable of determine him if many at his membership didn’t know of his U.S. eligibility. For Duru, he suspects that it got here from a questionnaire just a few years in the past when gamers had been requested to record all their citizenships for a league web site.

“My mom lived in America for quite a long time growing up. That’s how I can play for them. They live around Philadelphia,” Duru defined. “Maybe two years ago we were told there was a portfolio for the Premier League website when I was playing with the U-18s. You had to fill out the nationalities that we could play for so it would go on the website or something like that. I’m guessing that’s how they found England, Nigeria and USA.”

“I think even the people around the club, they were shocked,” he added about his subsequent first call-up. “They didn’t know I had American citizenship. I found out [U.S. Soccer] were watching maybe two months prior to getting put in the preliminary squad. Then I made my debut was doing well for Blackburn. Then I got the message about being in the preliminary squad. That in itself was massive. I was over the moon. And then like a week after that, I got the message that I was going to be in the final roster. Everyone was so happy and it was really good, really good.”

Duru has solely spent restricted time rising up in the USA, by typical vacationer holidays reminiscent of Disney World, however he has now made the U.S. crew a precedence for him. His first camp in October was a hit the place he made important contributions in a 3-0 win over Chile in Santiago. Then in November, he featured in a giant 2-1 win over France in Spain.

“It’s just a different style of play that head coach Marko wanted from me. It was just good to adapt to a different style of football,” Duru mentioned of adjusting on the sphere to the U.S. U-20 crew. “But in some aspects there’s a lot of similarities [to Blackburn]. Marko likes the fullback to play forward as much as possible, which is similar, but then join the attacks, which is also similar. But I’d say the differences are off the ball and with body positions – things like that… They want us to play out a lot, which happens at Blackburn as well, but I think more so in this set up. There’s a lot of playing out and short passes.”

His progress inside the crew is made much more spectacular provided that he didn’t know a single participant when he arrived for his first U.S. camp in Santiago. However he was capable of get to know everybody rapidly and was impressed by his new crew.

“The first camp, I literally knew nobody there,” Duru mentioned. “Julian [Eyestone] moved from America to England but I didn’t know him on a personal level. But all the lads were really welcoming. It was quite easy to settle in.”

“I was impressed,” Duru added of his preliminary impressions of the U-20 crew. “The ball was moving fast. Obviously, that’s what you expect playing for a national team. There’s a lot of really good, technical players. I enjoyed it. It was fast and, maybe not as physical as first team football in England, but definitely the pace of the game and the technicality was all there.”

For head coach Marko Mitrovic, Duru made a constructive first impression and is a testomony to U.S. scouting.

“He’s new into the system, which is great for me,” Mitrovic mentioned. “That’s why we have a scouting department. That’s why we watch so many games to try to create the environment that it’s an open door – you earn it, you’ll be there. Watching recently his development with Blackburn and his games, we believe that was a great time to give him an opportunity and to evaluate him in person with our group. He’s very nice, very charismatic. I believe that he had a decent performance this camp. And looking forward in the future to work more with Leo and to learn more about him … for Leo everything was new. His adaptation to this was very positive.”

His teammate Pedro Soma of Barcelona agrees that Duru has carried out effectively each on and off the sphere.

“Leo is a great guy,” Soma mentioned. “We always make fun of his accent, his English accent, but he’s a great player. Off the field, he’s a great guy. I went through the same thing in my first camp with the U-17 cycle. You feel like you’re an outsider, but three or four days go by and then you feel like they’ve been your brothers forever. And I think that’s what they all went through. And if you ask him now – for sure, he feels very comfortable here. I know he likes he likes our team.”

Whereas 2024 laid the inspiration for Duru’s profession, 2025 must be the yr the place he builds on it. In January he’ll flip 20 and he’ll now must put himself able the place he can play common first-team minutes.

Then there’s the U-20 World Cup which is able to get underway in September. Mitrovic will possible have camps in March after which in the summertime earlier than remaining preparations in early September. Duru has made it a purpose to be a part of that.

 “I looked at the USA team even before I got called up – looking up to players like Dest, who is really, really good – same position as me,” Duru mentioned. “You need to kind of look at your competition and look at what they’re doing and try and implement that into your game.”

“I’ve got something now that I need to try and go after and make sure that I’m in that final squad for the U-20 World Cup – just keep on impressing Marko and the coaching staff so I’m one of the first names on the sheet when it comes to the World Cup next year. It’s definitely something to be excited for and keep working for.”