Weston McKennie is in his fifth year at Juventus and is thriving again, fueled by "haters" after being told to leave. As he said after a recent training session, he is comfortable in Italy, "just relaxing, playing football and enjoying life". In some ways, as Juventus' second-longest serving non-goalkeeper, the 26-year-old American has become a regular at the Serie A championship club.

So, I asked him: Do you feel like a veteran?

"Hmm. "Uh," McEnany began. "I don't know. And he laughed. “Obviously,” he said with a cheeky grin, “you don’t feel like a veteran when you come back every summer and have to prove yourself again. "

Since arriving in Turin the day before his 22nd birthday, McKennie has been proving himself, or at least trying to. He remembers the critics; "They told me that Juve were too big for me and that I would never play," he said recently. In truth, the club wasn't too big; he did play; but then he was loaned out to England for five months, and when he returned to Italy in 2023, he was out of a locker. He lost his jersey number and his parking spot. He was forced to change in a separate dressing room with the academy kids and was almost forced to find a new club.

He responded with the best season of his career. Juventus responded by expelling him again. Last summer, “I still had access to the locker room and a parking spot,” McKennie said with a laugh. But he trained separately from the majority of the squad in the late afternoon, alongside several other players that Juventus were trying to sack.

"It's difficult," McEnany said, now sounding serious. "To be fair, it was very difficult."

"But," he quickly added, "there's nothing that I haven't encountered before."

So while transfer rumors swirled, the fun-loving Texan put his head down and got to work. He has earned a place in new coach Thiago Motta's plans. He broke into the starting lineup. He has rarely left the side since scoring on his first start in the Champions League against PSV.

He rarely leaves because Motta, months after ditching him, now believes McKennie can play almost anywhere. He has played as a right-back, full-back and left-back. In the midfield, he is both a roaming attacker and a reliable defender, and the best of both worlds. "Weston can do everything," Motta said after their Champions League win over Manchester City in December. "Having a player of this quality is an asset."

McKennie explains that it's certainly "a double-edged sword" for a man who calls himself a "midfielder at heart." "Obviously I'd like to be able to play midfield (every week). "But playing somewhere else is better than not playing at all.

As such, he has grown to accept, or at least embrace, the utility role. "It's more important that I have to accept it," he said. He may not think But he also knew that what his friends jokingly told him was true: “Man, you’re just doing it to yourself — because you’re playing in all these positions and you’re performing.”

How McKennie won back Juventus and his coach

The alternative is that in the summer of 2023 or 2024, McKennie will come to terms with the fact that he has become a casualty of football's cutthroat industry. He spoke to Brazilian-born Italian coach Motta shortly after he took over as Juventus manager in June. McKennie is under contract until 2025, but "I was told I was not part of the program and told I would train on my own if I decided to stay," he said.

"Obviously," McEnany recalled, "I was a little frustrated because it's never a good thing to hear you're not welcome." Looking back, he wonders how much the physical distance between players and coaches affected their interactions. Influence. They spoke by phone rather than in person because McKennie was competing in the America's Cup with the U.S. men's national team. "I think he may have gotten the wrong impression of me on the phone," McEnany said. Perhaps that impression was influenced by what McEnany calls "hiccups from the past," "stories from the past" that once circulated unchecked on the Internet -- and hinted at his immaturity.

"Not knowing someone and then just reading all of this, or having an ear-to-ear conversation, you might also say to yourself, 'Oh, I'm not sure about this person,'" McEnany admits.

"But obviously I've grown, I've matured," he continued. He explained this to Mota. More importantly, he showed it.

He showed that day in and day out, even after Motta publicly stated that he and some other Juve players "must find a new solution and a new club as soon as possible". , Arthur Melo and others were eventually excluded from the lineup for the preseason friendly matches, either on loan or leaving permanently.

But McEnany kept working hard. Days before the Serie A opener, Motta brought him back to the first-team squad, telling the media that McKennie was "a useful and capable player".

"I think when (Motta) sees me, my personality, my work ethic and the way I am, I think he actually understands who I am as a player and as a person," McKennie said .

A week later, he signed a contract extension until 2026.

He will also have to win back disgruntled Juve supporters. It also "hurts a little bit," McEnany said. "I thought to myself, 'I've been here so long, I've given you my blood, my sweat, my tears, I've performed for you.'"

But he knew the only remedy was to keep giving. In the 82nd minute of a frantic Champions League game in Germany, with Juventus reduced to 10 men and making his fourth start, he chased down a Leipzig counterattack, snuffed it out with a lunging tackle and sparked Juventus' winning goal.

"That game said everything you need to know about Weston," Motta said a few days later. "It's more valuable than a goal. ... I'm glad Weston is on the team, he's given us a lot of help."

McKennie on grinding, versatility and future options

Injury and fatigue briefly interrupted McKennie's time in the Juventus lineup. But with his teammates also in trouble, Mr. "Mr. Know-It-All" found a way back. Since scoring as a substitute against Manchester City, he has started eight games in a row in 36 days. Then, on day 39, last Tuesday, he and Juventus traveled to Belgium, where they sealed their place in the knockout stages of the Champions League. On Saturday, they visit Serie A leaders Napoli.

McEnany said their schedule is "a little overwhelming, in general." The grind can be "overwhelming." Even for a dynamic, "happy," energetic player in the prime of his career, "no down time in the winter is not fun."

Of course, he admits he's paid well enough to put up with the situation, but sometimes he has to explain to people back home in the U.S.: "It's not like other sports, basketball or American football, where you can take three months off. ... We "There are 20 days off in the summer, but for 10 of them you're training on your own to get fit in pre-season so you don't really get a lot of free time."

He noted that this has been the case since the 2022 World Cup. And it will remain so for the foreseeable future. After competing in the Champions League, Coppa Italia and Serie A over the next four months, Juventus will travel to the United States for the Club World Cup. The novel tournament, scheduled for June 14-July 13, will coincide with the U.S. national team’s final match before the 2026 World Cup, the CONCACAF Gold Cup (June 14- July 6) overlap.

For most of McKennie's U.S. teammates, that Gold Cup was both an opportunity and a measuring stick. National team coach Mauricio Pochettino will gather his A-team, who will gather, train and compete together for more than a month.

But there is one exception. Club World Cup rules stipulate that it is "not mandatory" for participating teams to release players to the national team; instead, "each participating club automatically commits... to field its strongest team throughout the competition."

So, there is a conflict for McKennie and teammate Tim Weah. When asked if he, Juventus and US Soccer had decided which tournament he would play in, McKennie said he would likely choose Juventus: "Players who are not playing in the Club World Cup may play in the Gold Cup, And those players who are not participating in the Club World Cup may participate in the Gold Cup. "I think the teams that are participating in the Club World Cup will obviously participate in the Club World Cup. That's my assumption. "

However, he clarified that he's not sure - just like he's not sure where he'll be playing against Napoli on Saturday. (He usually finds out the day before the game.)

“I was the one who was told where I needed to be,” he said with a laugh. "I'm right there.