Haji Wright scored for Antalyaspor on Sunday, as he so often does – he ranks second in the Turkish Süper Lig’s scoring charts with nine goals this season. Among U.S. strikers in Europe, only Josh Sargent, on eight goals for Norwich City, is on the same tier of sheer productivity.With those nine comprising the bulk of Antalyaspor’s 19 total goals thus far, Wright also carries the burden of being far and away the main finishing threat for his club, a weight that much heavier when your team drifts in and around the relegation places, as Antalyaspor did earlier in the campaign.He’s currently on a better pace than his breakthrough 2021-22, where he scored 14 times in 32 matches on loan to earn a permanent transfer from Danish side SønderjyskE amid heavy interest from England’s Hull City and other suitors. He capped that season with a U.S. national team call-up and a goal, from the penalty spot, on his senior international debut vs. Morocco in June.Does all that add up to a realistic shot at the USMNT’s World Cup roster when it’s named on Wednesday? Your guess is as good as Wright’s, it seems.“I mean, when you’re playing well, normally you get rewarded with a call-up,” Wright told Pro Soccer Wire in an exclusive conversation from Turkey this week. “And then if you don’t get called up, it kind of means you won’t be a part of the tournament. So it’s difficult for me to give a solid answer, because I don’t really know. It kind of feels like it’s up in the air.“No, nothing yet,” he said when asked about recent contact from Gregg Berhalter or his staff. “But we don’t really usually communicate that often. I think it’s pretty normal. I’m not sure if any of the players have really heard too much.”Berhalter saw enough quality in Wright to give him his first three caps in the USMNT’s June camp, with a Concacaf Nations League appearance at El Salvador in addition to the friendlies against Morocco and Uruguay. His levels of both performance and mentality in a difficult European environment would seem to line up with what Berhalter says he’s seeking in his player pool.
“I take it as a good responsibility,” said the lanky frontrunner of the extent to which Antalyaspor attack relies on him. “I think playing with pressure shows character, and I think I enjoy the pressure and I thrive under the pressure. I also want to be the guy that’s scoring goals and getting opportunities and being the player in front of goal. Most people can tell, probably, I’m a goalscorer and I want to be involved in the goals. I appreciate the responsibility.”His summer call-up was a reunion with former YNT and Bradenton Residency Program colleagues like Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie and Luca de la Torre, which helped him slot quickly into the group dynamic.Yet Berhalter pulled Wright off at halftime of the El Salvador match and afterward said he didn’t “fully capitalize” on his “opportunity” on an “unlucky night.” Three months later he was abruptly left off the roster for the United States’ September camp despite scoring five goals in Antalyaspor’s first three matches of the season.Even if the Yanks’ generally dismal outings versus Japan and Saudi Arabia could be said to have enhanced the reputations of those who didn’t take part, that was a sobering – and confusing – development for a well-traveled 24-year-old who seems to have done just about everything in his power to state his case for the USMNT’s troubled No. 9 job.“As a newcomer, it’s difficult to get adjusted to a new system, to new players around you, new coach, new environment,” said Wright of his June experience. “And I think in training I tried my best to adjust, tried to show myself. And then in the minutes that I got, I did the same. Think I had a few good touches, performances. I was hoping to be a part of the September camp so that I could build on that. But of course, that didn’t happen. So now I’m just waiting to see, trying to play my best now and hoping for the best.”The Süper Lig’s relatively low profile in the United States is probably not helping Wright, who admits he’s in the dark as to whether playing in Turkey is harming his national team chances.
“I understand in the U.S. market, I know Turkey’s not really viewed as an amazing league with amazing players that are a top level, even though it is a very high level in Turkey and there are very good teams fighting in the Champions League, fighting in Europa League, fighting in Conference League, that are doing well in those leagues,” said Wright.“It’s difficult to say whether or not I’m on the radar or not, because I haven’t really had that much communication with the national team.”But the league boasts a dense accumulation of talent and a fervent soccer culture that has helped bring out the best in Wright, a former U.S. youth international who labored to find stability and opportunity at previous stops in Germany and the Netherlands.
“I like to call it life experience,” he said. “Every country that I played in, every league that I played in taught me something, and I grew as a person, as a player from that. And I think definitely if you’re able to perform in different countries, different leagues, it shows character, and that’s something I want to prove to people – that I’m not just a pushover, or a player with a bad mentality, or whatever it may be. that I can also be a top player one day, and that I also have a great mentality.“For me, personally, it was just a matter of not being 100 percent ready,” he said of his past difficulties. “The more you play, the more you learn, especially in soccer. It’s kind of difficult to learn if you’re not playing. I just needed to get on the field and make the mistakes so that I can learn from them.
“Basically what I’ve done on my journey to where I’m at now, I’ve made a lot of mistakes. But with every mistake comes a lesson, and I’ve learned from every lesson.”