Taha Arfsten's Journey from World Cup to Middlesbrough
The World Cup is over. The anthem has faded. The cards have been put away on that Orange County balcony.
Now, Taha Arfsten is heading for Middlesbrough.
From the beach to Boro
After the USMNT’s loss to Belgium in Seattle, the squad scattered. Some players went home, some chased the sun, some disappeared into off-season routines. Arfsten’s compass pointed to California.
“I spent like a week at home with my family,” he says. “I went to the beach for a little bit. I just took a little mental break. Then, I came back to Columbus, started training, and I just played in a couple games.
“It kind of just ends, and you have to move on, but it was such a massive moment that it's kind of hard to move on.”
That “massive moment” was his first World Cup. Six weeks that felt like six minutes. Goals, wins, celebrations — the obvious stuff that makes the highlight reels.
But when Arfsten thinks back, his mind goes somewhere quieter.
The anthem and the balcony
“The national anthem,” he says, smiling. “Whenever people ask me, I always say that just because they let everybody go out there, so I was out there every game. You're singing the national anthem at the World Cup, and the world's watching. In that moment, it seems like everyone is watching."
Then there were the nights when nobody was watching.
“The stuff you remember most is the relationships you make,” he says. “For me, me and a group of like five other teammates, we'd play cards every single night on the balcony at the hotel in Orange County. We'd just look at the ocean, play cards. That was like such a fun time because you just talk about stuff. You learn a lot about people."
Those balcony nights are gone now. The ocean view gets swapped for the North Sea wind. Middlesbrough is a long way from Orange County, in miles and in mood.
But this move has been coming.
Two goals for 2026
Back in January, speaking to GOAL, Arfsten set himself two targets for 2026. One: make the World Cup. Two: get to Europe.
The first box is already ticked. The second is about to be.
On paper, it looks neat. Almost too neat. College standout. MLS breakthrough. World Cup. Europe. A clean upward line.
He insists it has never felt that way.
“My whole journey, it feels like ups and downs and going through a lot of hurdles just to get to Columbus,” he said in January. “To be where I am now, I feel like I'm just learning as I go. All of this is new to me. I feel like the one thing I want people to understand is that this isn't linear."
He’s right. It hasn’t been.
After breaking through at UC-Davis, his sophomore season vanished when COVID-19 shut everything down. After his junior year, he signed with San Jose Earthquakes II, a step that usually leads into the first team. Instead, he ended up in Columbus via the MLS Draft.
Before his USMNT debut in January 2025, he had never worn a U.S. shirt at any youth level. No golden-boy tag. No youth hype machine. Just work, and more work.
Nothing came particularly easy. It still doesn’t.
New league, familiar faces
Now comes Middlesbrough. A historic English club, a relentless division, and no easing-in period.
There is at least some comfort waiting. USMNT teammates Sebastian Berhalter and Aidan Morris are already at the club, familiar faces in a new dressing room. They’ll help, but they won’t slow the schedule.
The Championship season starts on August 15. Before that, an EFL Cup opener against Wrexham lands on August 7. Arfsten won’t have the luxury of a gentle introduction. He’ll drop straight into a squad already shifting from pre-season rhythms to competitive edge.
Before he crosses the Atlantic, though, he allowed himself one more week in MLS colors — as an All-Star.
One last week with the stars
The MLS All-Star experience gave Arfsten a final taste of the league he’s leaving behind. He played 44 minutes, helped the MLS All-Stars edge Liga MX 4-3, and soaked in the occasion.
The football was fun. The company meant more.
He reunited with Tim Ream and Matt Freese, the two USMNT teammates who shared his World Cup ride and then, like everyone else, vanished back into club life after the Belgium defeat.
“It's super cool to see them,” Arfsten says. “Obviously, this summer, that's like your family for over a month, almost two months, and you're with them every single day, training with them, battling with them. You go through all those emotions together, so it's definitely a special bond and it's always fun to see them."
Ream, the veteran who once made the same jump from MLS and the college game to England, felt it too.
“It's been a whirlwind for all of us,” Ream said. “And I think we're all trying to get back to normal, but it was amazing to see those guys and catch up and talk about the World Cup and how amazing it was.”
Then came the question every young player secretly wants answered: any advice?
Ream didn’t complicate it.
“Just be yourself,” he said. “You don't have to change. You don't have to change anything. You've gotten to this level and gotten to the World Cup by being yourself and doing what got you there. I think that's the key of going through a career. We all know there are ups and downs, that it's no different than anything. It's the same as going through life, but if you can be the same person, no matter if you're doing well or struggling, then you're going to be okay."
The fight to be impossible to ignore
Ups and downs are coming. The Championship is unforgiving, 46 league games of attrition, with promotion to the Premier League as the prize and failure as the norm. The travel is long, the pitches tight, the schedule brutal.
At the same time, a new World Cup cycle is beginning for the USMNT. Roles will shift. Some World Cup heroes will fade. Others will emerge. A new coach may arrive, or not, but the competition will sharpen either way.
Arfsten is jumping straight into that chaos. New club. New league. New fight for his national team place.
His own target is simple, and ruthless.
“I think scoring goals, getting assists, making noise wherever I'm at, it's just making it hard to not select me,” he says. “At the end of the day, that's what it's about. I feel like we can talk about who plays where, who does what, but like I feel like if I'm just always making noise wherever I'm at and just making it hard to not select me, that's my job as a player, and that's what I'm going to try and do."
The anthem, the balcony, the beach — those belong to one chapter.
The next one starts in the north of England, in a league that doesn’t care how you got there, only whether you can survive.
