14-year-old Cavan Sullivan signs deal with Philadelphia Union that will land him with Man City at 18

Cavan Sullivan shrugs off words like prodigy, phenom or even wonderkid, all things he's been called at just 14.

But there's no doubt Sullivan is talented. On Thursday, the Philadelphia Union formally announced that they've signed their academy prospect to a Homegrown contract that will eventually land him with Manchester City.

“I tend not to even listen to what they call me or what they say about me. It’s really just what I think of myself,” Sullivan said. “I don’t really listen to anyone, whether it’s good or bad. So it doesn’t really get to me whatsoever.”

The long-rumored deal — said to be the richest Homegrown signing in Major League Soccer history, although no details were released — allows the Union to continue to develop Sullivan and benefit in the short term from his ability, before profiting when he likely heads overseas to the Premier League. It also allows him to stay at home for a few more years.

Sullivan is considered one of the best young American players. In a match last April between the U.S. under-15 team and England in Spain, he scored both goals in a 2-2 draw that the Americans won in a penalty shootout.

He was named the best player at the CONCACAF under-15 championships. He had a pair of assists in the 4-2 victory over Mexico in the final.

Union coach Jim Curtin recently called Sullivan “a special talent, top talent not only in this country but in the world.”

Sullivan has already made his professional debut, coming off the bench for the Union's MLS NEXT team last month and getting an assist on the game-winning goal. He's made two appearances for the team, a step below the Union's senior squad.

The teen hopes to make his Union senior debut this year. If he does, he'll join his brother, Quinn, another academy product who has played for the team since 2021.

Sullivan (14 years, 224 days) is the fifth-youngest player to sign a first-team contract in MLS history. If he plays for the Union before July 29, he'll become the youngest player ever to appear in a match. Freddy Adu was 14 years, 306 days old when he debuted for D.C. United in 2004.

“I think Jim Curtin was really integral in getting Cavan here, if I’m being completely honest," said his dad, Brendan Sullivan. “He called us, he reached out to us, he said, `Look, I think he can play for me right away. With a little bit of a little bit of coaching, we think that he’s ready and we’re willing to take that on.'”

Sullivan, a Philadelphia native, is the youngest of four brothers. Quinn, 20, is the oldest. Brendan Sullivan played professionally in the A-League, which eventually became the USL First Division, a tier below MLS. His mother, Heike, played at Penn. Grandfather Larry coached at Villanova from 1991-2007.

Sullivan said he first started to get attention by clubs when he was just 10.

“I think that’s really when I thought, `This is happening.' It didn’t feel real but definitely triggered something in my mind where I was like, `I can do this,'" Sullivan said.

Sullivan can't play for Manchester City until he is 18. But he holds a German passport that could allow him to move to Europe and play for City-affiliated teams — like Girona in Spain or Palermo in Italy — when he turns 16.

Because of the collaborative transfer agreement with Manchester City, Sullivan's deal is unusual. It signals that the Premier League club trusts that the Union can develop an elite player.

Sullivan isn't looking too far ahead. In many ways he's a typical teenager, albeit a very gifted one. He jokes: “I'm a pretty boring kid, to be honest.”

“I mean, you can see him. He’s a pretty even-keeled kid," his mother said. “He really does that on his own. I’m sure we help keep him grounded, but I think he is already grounded, and I think he should get a lot of credit for that.”

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Philadelphia Union manager Jim Curtin, from left, new player Cavan Sullivan, 14, reserve team coach Marlon LeBlanc, and academy director Jon Scheer pose for a photo as Sullivan holds up his new No. 6 jersey during an MLS soccer news conference at Subaru Park in Chester, Pa., Thursday, May 9, 2024. (Jonathan Tannenwald/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP

Philadelphia Union manager Jim Curtin, from left, new player Cavan Sullivan, reserve team coach Marlon LeBlanc, and academy director Jon Scheer attend an MLS soccer news conference at Subaru Park in Chester, Pa., Thursday, May 9, 2024. (Jonathan Tannenwald/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP

Philadelphia Union manager Jim Curtin, left, speaks alongside new player Cavan Sullivan, 14, during an MLS soccer news conference at Subaru Park in Chester, Pa., Thursday, May 9, 2024. (Jonathan Tannenwald/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP

Philadelphia Union manager Jim Curtin, left, and new player Cavan Sullivan, 14, hold up Sullivan's No. 6 jersey during an MLS soccer news conference at Subaru Park in Chester, Pa., Thursday, May 9, 2024. (Jonathan Tannenwald/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP

Philadelphia Union new player Cavan Sullivan, 14, speaks during an MLS soccer news conference at Subaru Park in Chester, Pa., Thursday, May 9, 2024. (Jonathan Tannenwald/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP

Philadelphia Union player Cavan Sullivan, 14, holds up his No. 6 jersey during an MLS soccer news conference at Subaru Park in Chester, Pa., Thursday, May 9, 2024. (Jonathan Tannenwald/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP

JERUSALEM (AP) — The helicopter crash in which Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s foreign minister and other officials were killed is likely to reverberate across the Middle East, where Iran’s influence runs wide and deep.

That's because Iran has spent decades supporting armed groups and militants in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the Palestinian territories, allowing it to project power and potentially deter attacks from the United States or Israel, the sworn enemies of its 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Tensions have never been higher than they were last month, when Iran under Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel in response to an airstrike on an Iranian Consulate in Syria that killed two Iranian generals and five officers.

Israel, with the help of the United States, Britain, Jordan and others, intercepted nearly all the projectiles. In response, Israel apparently launched its own strike against an air defense radar system in the Iranian city of Isfahan, causing no casualties but sending an unmistakable message.

The sides have waged a shadow war of covert operations and cyberattacks for years, but the exchange of fire in April was their first direct military confrontation.

The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has drawn in other Iranian allies, with each attack and counterattack threatening to set off a wider war.

It's a combustible mix that could be ignited by unexpected events, such as Sunday's deadly crash.

Israel has long viewed Iran as its greatest threat because of Tehran's controversial nuclear program, its ballistic missiles and its support for armed groups sworn to Israel's destruction.

Iran views itself as the chief patron of Palestinian resistance to Israeli rule, and top officials for years have called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Raisi, who was a hard-liner viewed as a protégé and possible successor of Khamenei, chastised Israel last month, saying “the Zionist Israeli regime has been committing oppression against the people of Palestine for 75 years.”

“First of all we have to expel the usurpers, secondly we should make them pay the cost for all the damages they have created, and thirdly, we have to bring to justice the oppressor and usurper," he said.

Israel is believed to have carried out numerous attacks over the years targeting senior Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists.

There is no evidence Israel was involved in Sunday's helicopter crash, and Israeli officials have not commented on the incident.

Arab countries on the Persian Gulf have also long viewed Iran with suspicion, a key factor in the decision of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to normalize relations with Israel in 2020, and of Saudi Arabia to consider such a move.

Iran has provided financial and other support over the years to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which led the Oct. 7 attack into Israel that triggered the Gaza war, and the smaller but more radical Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which took part in it. But there is no evidence that Iran was directly involved in the attack.

Since the start of the war, Iran's leaders have expressed solidarity with the Palestinians. Their allies in the region have gone much further.

Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, Iran's most militarily advanced proxy, has waged a low-intensity conflict with Israel since the start of the Gaza war. The two sides have traded strikes on a near-daily basis along the Israel-Lebanon border, forcing tens of thousands of people on both sides to flee.

So far, however, the conflict has not boiled over into a full-blown war that would be disastrous for both countries.

Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq launched repeated attacks on U.S. bases in the opening months of the war but pulled back after U.S. retaliatory strikes for a drone attack that killed three American soldiers in January.

Yemen's Houthi rebels, another ally of Iran, have repeatedly targeted international shipping in what they portray as a blockade of Israel. Those strikes, which often target ships with no apparent links to Israel, have also drawn U.S.-led retaliation.

Iran's influence extends beyond the Middle East and its rivalry with Israel.

Israel and Western countries have long suspected Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons in the guise of a peaceful atomic program in what they see as a threat to non-proliferation everywhere.

Then-President Donald Trump's withdrawal from a landmark nuclear pact between Iran and world powers in 2018, and his imposition of crushing sanctions, led Iran to gradually abandon all the limits placed on its program by the deal.

These days, Iran is enriching uranium to up to 60% purity — near weapons-grade levels of 90%. Surveillance cameras installed by the U.N. nuclear agency have been disrupted, and Iran has barred some of the agency's most experienced inspectors. Iran has always insisted its nuclear program is for purely peaceful purposes, but the United States and others believe it had an active nuclear weapons program until 2003.

Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed power in the Middle East but has never acknowledged having such weapons.

Iran has also emerged as a key ally of Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, and is widely accused of supplying exploding drones that have wreaked havoc on Ukraine's cities. Raisi himself denied the allegations last fall in an interview with The Associated Press, saying Iran had not supplied such weapons since the outbreak of hostilities in February 2022.

Iranian officials have made contradictory comments about the drones, while U.S. and European officials say the sheer number being used in the war in Ukraine shows that the flow of such weapons has intensified since the war began.

In this photo provided by Moj News Agency, rescue teams' vehicles are seen near the site of the incident of the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Varzaghan in northwestern Iran, Sunday, May 19, 2024. A helicopter carrying President Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday, sparking a massive rescue operation in a fog-shrouded forest as the public was urged to pray. (Azin Haghighi/Moj News Agency via AP)

An Iranian woman prays for President Ebrahim Raisi in a ceremony at Vali-e-Asr square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 19, 2024. A helicopter carrying President Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday, sparking a massive rescue operation in a fog-shrouded forest as the public was urged to pray. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People pray for President Ebrahim Raisi in a ceremony at Vali-e-Asr square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 19, 2024. A helicopter carrying President Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday, sparking a massive rescue operation in a fog-shrouded forest as the public was urged to pray. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

FILE - People gather around a component from an intercepted ballistic missile that fell near the Dead Sea in Israel, Saturday, April 20, 2024. The apparent crash of a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other top officials is likely to reverberate across the Middle East. Tensions have soared since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and Israel and Iran directly traded fire for the first time ever in April. (AP Photo/Itamar Grinberg, File)

FILE - Iranian worshippers chant slogans during an anti-Israeli gathering after Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 19, 2024. The apparent crash of a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other top officials is likely to reverberate across the Middle East. Tensions have soared since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and Israel and Iran directly traded fire for the first time ever in April. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)