If 16-year-old Cavan Sullivan takes the field for the US men’s national team in the coming days, he will join a list of youngest-ever US players that includes recognizable names such as Freddy Adu, the youngest player to ever appear for the US men. Other notable names in the top 20 include Eddie Gaven, Bobby Convey, Christian Pulisic, Yunus Musah, and Gio Reyna. Just below Adu’s name and above those five mentioned are three names unknown to the vast majority of US fans: Mike Slivinski, Mark Jonas, and Nelson Vargas. All three players made their debut in a 1991 friendly against Jamaica, with Slivinski and Jonas both younger than Sullivan will be should he appear for the US this window. Only Vargas featured for the US again, capped an additional three times between 1991 and 1994. The idea of a 16-year-old representing the US at the senior level has become mainstream, but it was unheard of in the early 1990s, long before the US Soccer Federation invested heavily in youth development and talent identification. When Sullivan received his call-up last week, nobody seemed to even remember the three players who, more than three decades ago, carved their names into the record books. Mike Slivinski, who was 16 at the time, expressed surprise that his record had been overlooked, saying, “What am I, a fucking ghost? I don’t think it was a dream, I’m pretty sure I didn’t imagine the one game I played.” When Bora Milutinovic took the reins as US head coach in 1991, he inherited a program approaching a pivotal moment in its history. A year earlier, the US had appeared in their first World Cup in four decades. Milutinovic, who had coached Mexico and Costa Rica, was known for extracting results from underperforming teams. He set out on a talent identification journey that was unprecedented at the time, calling hundreds of players into varying camps and handing nearly 50 of them their first caps in his three years at the helm. In August 1991, Milutinovic attended the U-17 World Cup in Italy, where an unheralded group of US youngsters, including Slivinski, performed well against teams featuring Alessandro Del Piero, Marcelo Gallardo, and Juan Sebastián Verón. Slivinski, who grew up in a trailer park in St Charles, Missouri, honed his skills at his local high school before earning a look from US Soccer. Vargas, who was also featured in the match, played in Miami’s highly-competitive Sunday leagues at age 13, often lining up against ex-professional players twice his age and size. Jonas, who was 16 at the time, was a participant in the federation’s Olympic Developmental Program, at the time the only true pathway for a youth player to stay on the radar of the senior national team. The three high schoolers joined a mix of other newcomers and regulars for the USMNT’s 14 September friendly against Jamaica. They joined US staples such as Paul Caligiuri, Fernando Clavijo, and Hugo Pérez. Slivinski, who had been handed a surprise start, acquitted himself well, drawing a foul and coming close to converting a free kick. Vargas and Jonas entered the match in the second half, doing enough to draw praise from Caligiuri and Milutinovic. There is no video of the match – there never was, as most US friendlies weren’t widely broadcast. None of the three even had a photo of their time with the senior team. The occasion seemed entirely lost on the press; soccer-specific publications noted Slivinski’s debut as the youngest-ever US men’s player, but newspapers never made mention of the fact. Slivinski, who had been handed a surprise start, said after the match, “This experience is indescribable. It’s just a massive honor. I am thrilled, nervous and a little speechless, honestly.” The attention wasn’t the only thing that eluded the trio of youngsters after their debut, which for Jonas and Slivinski served as their lone appearances with the US. Slivinski’s dreams of future call-ups were derailed by injuries, though he’d go on to win an NCAA championship at the University of Virginia and MLS Cup with DC United before hanging up his cleats in 2000. He never played with the national team again. Jonas, who departed for North Carolina State, found himself with a college coach hesitant to release him to attend youth national team camps. He disappeared from Milutinovic’s radar and into the wild world of late-’90s US minor league soccer. Vargas would go three years before pulling on the US shirt again, eventually featuring in a trio of late-1994 friendlies just before Milutinovic was forced out as US boss. He played former USMNT player John Souza in The Game of Their Lives, the film dramatization of the US’s shock victory over England at the 1950 World Cup. All three have since transitioned into youth coaching, perhaps offering them some unique insight into the potential fate of Sullivan and the other teenagers on Mauricio Pochettino’s roster for this international window. Comparing the environment those kids came up in with the one they navigated proves difficult. Slivinski said, “It’s good to see things changing. I am coaching in MLS Next right now; these teams are treated like national teams, practically.” Vargas added, “It is great that these kids get these opportunities. This kid Cavan, he has all the tools. Why not let him test himself against the best players, the older players? The only way you learn how to deal with the fire sometimes is to get thrown into it.”