PSV
Ricardo Pepi: “Pressure is not having food on the table”
The forward spoke with the ‘Men in Blazers’ podcast about how he has experienced his first year at PSV.
At just 20 years of age, Ricardo Pepi has established himself as one of the top forwards in the USMNT setup. The striker has managed to make a name for himself in the Netherlands, first at Groningen and now at PSV, a club that paid €10 million to German outfit Augsburg for his services. In an interview with the podcast ‘Men in Blazers’, Pepi had time to look back on his career to date, from his breakthrough in the Eredivisie to his role with the USMNT.
“Pressure? No. Pressure is not having food on the table. That’s what real pressure is. I don’t think pressure is playing the sport I love, something I grew up playing as a little kid. I don’t consider that pressure, I don’t have that pressure,” Pepi explained. “I only think about my family. They have given me opportunities and I want to give back to them. I also want to prove myself and become the best player I can be.”
Joining PSV
Pepi has earned the right to be considered one of the stars of the Eredivisie, with PSV taking a gamble on him. “Ernie Stewart was the key to my signing for PSV. I remember talking to him and my agent and he said: ‘We are interested in you. We see a lot of your qualities as a striker, our striker for the future. We want to improve you so that you can eventually make the jump to another club’. When I arrived I didn’t know anything about the signings they were going to make. The first few weeks of pre-season I heard rumours that Malik Tillman and Sergino Dest might come in and I was excited. Eventually they came and I think it’s amazing that we’re here.”
Missing 2022 World Cup
The striker was one of the key players in the USA’s qualification for the 2022 World Cup, but in the end, he was left out of the final roster. “I remember having a call with Gregg (Berhalter) in the morning, it would have been 9 am,” he said. “I was in Groningen and he said ‘Hey, you played a very important role with us to qualify for this World Cup. If it wasn’t for you and your important goals we wouldn’t have made it’. It started like that and then all of a sudden he told me he wasn’t going to the World Cup. I couldn’t digest it at first, I was sitting in my car for two or three minutes before I called my agent. He thought it was a joke, but it wasn’t. Then I called my dad and he didn’t believe me either. It was unbelievable.
“The World Cup thing hurt for a while but I had to keep going.” From the World Cup setback, Pepi was able to bounce back and make 2023 the year of his international breakthrough. Now one of the USMNT’s heavyweights, the striker is expected to play a key role in the upcoming Copa América on home soil.