Kellyn Acosta Reflects on Challenging 2025 With Chicago Fire
At 30 years of age, Kellyn Kai Perry-Acosta has done just about everything there is to do in American soccer. He’s conquered the three most prestigious soccer trophies in the U.S. game, he’s represented his country in the biggest tournament in all of sports, and he’s played for four different Major League Soccer clubs: FC Dallas, Colorado Rapids, LAFC, and Chicago Fire. However, Acosta’s soccer journey didn’t begin in Dallas or Colorado or Los Angeles or Chicago, but in the ninth-most populous city of Texas: Plano.
“Plano set me up to who I am today,” stated Acosta in an exclusive R.org interview. “I’m a minority, not only by looks, but also playing a sport that others weren’t accustomed to playing. I was viewed as different, and it took me a bit to really embrace it because I wanted to just fit in. I played American football and basketball and hung out with certain crowds, but for me, my heart was into soccer. It was my first love, my first sport, and a sport that I really just enjoyed playing from an early age. It’s the world’s game, so I think having that sport in my life allowed me to view the world very differently.”
Connecting with his Japanese Roots
The son of a Japanese-American father and an African-American mother, Kellyn Acosta traces his surname back to his Mexican paternal step-grandfather. Growing up in a predominantly white community, Acosta had to overcome two stigmas – preferring soccer to more traditional American sports like football and basketball, and being Asian-American. To avoid getting bullied by other students, he’d often ask his Japanese grandmother to drop him off around the corner from school. Little did he know, but he’d soon be making history for the 25 million Asian Americans who live across the United States.
“It was definitely a challenge for me, because it’s very confusing for most people on the outside looking in,” says Acosta of his mixed heritage. “Obviously, I look African-American, and then people see my last name and automatically think I’m Dominican, Puerto Rican, or Colombian, and I’m like, ‘No, that’s my step-grandpa, who’s Mexican, that’s why I have that last name,’ and then I tell them I’m also Asian, and they’re like, ‘There’s no way that you could be that too!’ think just going through the headache of trying to explain every situation, rather than people just saying ‘That’s cool, it’s almost like I have to convince someone that I am what I am, which I found very difficult, because people just didn’t understand.
I don’t say I was ashamed, but I was a bit embarrassed whenever my grandma was picking me up from some event and people looked at her and asked, ‘Who’s this Asian lady? Is she lost?’ and I had to explain that’s my grandmother. I tried to push that to the side so that people didn’t look at me as weird. My background was weird, and I also dressed differently, because I play soccer, so I was wearing soccer jerseys and tighter soccer pants.”
“I played soccer growing up, which was very different from the sports that kids usually played in Texas, so I was all-around just an outlier in everything that I did. At that age, rather than trying to explain everything to people, I just wanted to fit in and feel like I was cool, and I did all the things that other people did, so it took me a bit of time to really embrace the Asian side of me. Playing soccer, there was a learning curve that I had to follow as I went, but what really made me dive deeper into my Asian heritage was when I moved to LA and went to Little Tokyo.
They just embraced me with open arms, they even had my grandma fly in to LA to share that experience with her as well, and she hadn’t flown in 40 years, so it was one of those things that was super special. When we went to this museum, I got to hear my dad talk about his childhood in Japan, where he lived until his 12, and my grandmother reflected on her time in Japan. I had never heard these stories before, so it was really cool. It also sucks, because as I reflect, I wish I had shared more experiences with her and my dad like that.”
Acosta joined FC Dallas’ academy in 2009 and rapidly ascended through the youth ranks for club and country, playing in the 2011 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Mexico as the USA reached the Round of 16 before becoming the youngest member of the U.S. squad at the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Türkiye. After previously committing to play for the University of Maryland’s soccer team, Acosta decided to instead sign a homegrown contract with Dallas and wait a year before being selected and patiently bide his time with FC Dallas, where he was named the 2011/12 U.S. Soccer Development Academy Central Conference Player of the Year in 2011–12.
He made his first-team debut in a 3-0 defeat at Seattle Sounders before starting in 11 of Dallas’ final 12 matches of the season (all at right back) and beginning the 2014 season as their starting option on the right side of defense. However, his progress came to a screeching halt after he was forced to undergo surgery for an avulsion fracture of the kneecap and spend the next four months on the sidelines.
Enjoying Success With Dallas and Colorado
Acosta bounced back with a strong 2015 season that saw him score four goals and tally an assist in 26 appearances across all competitions for Dallas, in addition to traveling to New Zealand for the FIFA U-20 World Cup and starting in four of the U.S.’s five matches. Although he served as the national team’s left back, Acosta enjoyed a positional transformation under Óscar Pareja and established himself as a vital cog in the holding midfield role for Dallas as they came within inches of reaching the MLS Cup Final.
Alongside the likes of Maximiliano Urruti and Tesho Akindele, Acosta proved instrumental in ending Dallas’ 19-year trophy drought, with the club winning their second U.S. Open Cup title as well as their first-ever Supporters’ Shield. However, while Dallas emerged as the best team of the MLS regular season, they failed to secure their first-ever MLS Cup title after losing to Seattle in the Western Conference semifinals. Acosta would rack up 13 goals and nine assists in 139 appearances for Dallas before being traded to Colorado Rapids on July 23, 2018, in exchange for Dominique Badji.
“It was difficult undergoing a mid-season trade. I got traded the day before my 23rd birthday, and it was a big life change for me. For the past nine years, I had been part of FC Dallas from the academy all the way to the first team…it was my home. I had to leave a place that I knew well, I had to leave coaches that I knew well, I had to leave my friends and family, and move to a totally new environment. I had never really lived away from home in unsupervised fashion. I was in the IMG Academy for a couple years, but this was different. Now, I was all grown up, not knowing anyone in Colorado, having to start from scratch with a team that was not performing well at the time. If you add all those things together, I mean, it’s a recipe for disaster. It was definitely tough, it was a big learning curve, but honestly, it was great for my career and helped shape who I am today.”
Despite having to juggle a newborn son and a major life transition, Acosta enjoyed a seamless transition to life in the Rockies and quickly emerged as a key figure in the team. Whether playing as a winger or an attacking midfielder or a second striker or a defensive midfielder, Acosta was able to constantly assert his presence with his tough tackling, his measured passing, and his penchant for popping into goal-scoring scenarios. He set the example for his teammates to follow and proved instrumental in transforming Colorado’s fortunes.
Having finished with the third-worst record in MLS in 2017 and 2018, Colorado would pick up the pace in 2019 by narrowly missing out on a playoff spot before finishing with the fifth-best record in the West in 2020 and exiting the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs. Acosta proved vital alongside the likes of Andre Shinyashiki and Lalas Abubakar as Colorado finished with the best record of the Western Conference and the second-best overall, only to end up losing to Portland in the first round, with his performances prompting the attention of national team manager Gregg Berhalter.
Reaching the Apex with LAFC and USMNT
At that point, Acosta had not played for the USA in over two years, the last of his 23 appearances coming in a friendly defeat to Italy in November 2018. He returned to the fold in December 2020 and came off the bench in a 6-0 friendly win vs. El Salvador, before enjoying a historic 2021 that saw him become the first USMNT player since 1994 to make 21 caps in a calendar year. Two months after leading the USA to victory against Mexico in Denver in the CONCACAF Nations League Finals, Acosta assisted Miles Robinson’s 117th-minute winner against Mexico in the 2021 Gold Cup Final in Las Vegas.
After a sensational chapter in Colorado that saw him collect seven goals and seven assists in 82 appearances and lead the Rapids from the cellar of MLS to the upper echelon, Acosta was traded to LAFC in January 2022 for $1.1 million in General Allocation Money. It didn’t take long for him to become one of the first names on the team sheet and steer LAFC to the 2022 Supporters’ Shield and the MLS Cup Final, where he opened the scoring in a 3-3 draw vs. Philadelphia Union. The match went to a penalty shootout, with LAFC prevailing 3-0 to secure their first-ever MLS Cup title.
“The demand for success from top to bottom was implemented ever since the first day that I set foot into LAFC’s facilities. I think it came from not only the organization and the players, but also the fans. You felt that as a whole city, they want to win each and every game. It’s not good enough to just win 1-0, they’ll say it should have been 2-0 or 3-0 or 4-0. Having that demand and being in an environment that pushes for that was great for me and great for my career. As a competitor, you don’t want to be content with just barely making it by, right? You want to be convincing, and it was super sweet to just reward ourselves for all the hard work and hoist a trophy at the end. It was an incredible year for me, and I think LA was a great step for my career.”
Rather than having a full offseason to celebrate his successful conquest, Acosta was immediately on the move to Qatar, where he became the first-ever Asian-American to compete in the FIFA World Cup for the USA. He played in their opener vs. Wales and their final group stage match vs. Iran, returning to the squad two months later and coming off the bench vs. Serbia before wearing the captain’s armband for the first time in another friendly vs. Colombia and making his 58th and final cap (so far) in a friendly vs. Mexico in April 2023.
New Beginnings in Chicago
Acosta’s LAFC adventure came to an end after 79 appearances, with Chicago Fire signing him to a three-year contract on February 13, 2024, after the expiry of his contract. The veteran midfielder announced himself to fans in stellar fashion by scoring a last-minute game-winner from the halfway line in a 4-3 victory vs. CF Montréal, finishing with three goals and two assists in 36 appearances that season.
But despite reuniting with Berhalter in the offseason, Acosta found playing time increasingly harder to come by during the tail-end of the 2025 campaign, being left on the bench in four of Chicago’s last five matches. For the first time in his entire MLS career, he finds himself on the outside looking in. Under contract through 2026 at Chicago (who have a club option to extend his deal through 2027), Acosta is more motivated than ever to lock down a place in the Windy City and prove that he’s still got plenty more to offer.
“It’s been difficult. This is the first time in my career that I’m going into a game excited to play, and I end up not playing at all. Being an unused substitute isn’t easy for players, but for me, I can control my attitude, my character, how I am around my teammates, and how much work I put in. I was doing my best to get on the field, and ultimately, Greg went in his own direction with who he wanted to play. He’s the coach, but what I can do is continue to work hard, and when I do get an opportunity to play, make the most of it. Unfortunately, I didn’t play as much as I’d have liked, but that’s how soccer is sometimes. What I can control now is going into the off-season with a good physical and mental reset. It’s all about pushing hard, getting back into it, and come January, this preseason is going to be really pivotal for me.”
It remains to be seen if Kellyn Acosta will add to his trophy cabinet, or if he will make yet another long-awaited return to the US Men’s National Team ahead of next summer’s FIFA World Cup, or if he will be able to ingratiate himself into Berhalter’s good graces in 2026. However, there’s one thing that’s for certain: whenever Acosta does decide to hang up his boots, he will retire as a legend of Major League Soccer.