Boise native a rising prospect for U.S. Soccer. He’ll play for national team in Europe
Grayson Carter first made a name for himself on Boise’s soccer fields. But now he’s about to suit up for the U.S. national team for the first time.
Carter was one of 20 players selected for the U-15 men’s national youth team for the Torneo delle Nazioni, a 12-country tournament in Italy, Austria and Slovenia. The tournament starts Monday.
U-15 is the youngest level for a U.S. national team.
“It’s just going to be a huge honor to represent our country and to represent where I come from,” Carter, 14, said in a phone interview from Slovenia on Friday. “No one else on the national team is from a town like Boise, Idaho, so it helps me to have a chip on my shoulder.
“I don’t come from a big town or a big club, but I can still accomplish my goals.”
Carter is one of seven forwards for the U.S., which is in Group B with Belgium and Slovenia. The U.S. opens against Slovenia on Monday.
Other national teams at the tournament are England, Italy, Chile, Mexico, Czech Republic, Romania, Austria, Norway and Portugal.
Carter grew up in the Boise Timbers Thorn club in the Treasure Valley. He led the Boise Timbers’ U-14 club to a runner-up finish at the Far West Regionals last summer, the best finish for an Idaho boys team at the 14-state regional championship since 2013.
He then joined the Portland Timbers’ academy in August. He was scheduled to be a ninth-grader at West Junior High in Boise this year.
“It was always a goal of mine to make it to the national team level,” Carter said. “I was really proud of myself for achieving one of my goals. But it was more of a, ‘This is a step for me, not the end goal.’ I want to keep pursuing this and doing things at this level.
“It’s exciting. But at the same time, I realized I need to focus on the next thing.”
Carter would be the first player with Idaho ties to play for a U.S. men’s national team since Ander Egiluz in 2016. Egiluz made two appearances for the U-19 team during the Slovakia Cup that summer.
Egiluz attended Boise’s Valley View Elementary and played for the Boise Nationals youth club for one year to be near his mother’s family. The Spanish native then returned home and played in Athletic Bilbao’s youth academy. He recently signed with the El Paso Locomotive in the USL Championship.
BOISE’S SMITH ON VERGE OF NATIONAL TEAM
Carter is not alone in putting Idaho soccer on the map.
Boise High sophomore Sammy Smith was an alternate for the U-17 women’s national team for the Concacaf Championships, which started Saturday in the Dominican Republic.
Alternates make the team and travel only if there’s an injury. No one was injured.
Smith trained with the national team last week in Florida in preparation for the Concacaf tournament. She remains in the player pool for the U-17 Women’s World Cup in India in October.
This story was originally published April 23, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
