The path between European football and Major League Soccer has become a well-trodden one in recent years, with Steven Gerrard, David Beckham, David Villa, Thierry Henry, Andrea Pirlo, Frank Lampard, Kaká and now Zlatan Ibrahimovic, having crossed the Atlantic in the latter stages of their career. It isn’t just high-profile stars in their 30s who have made the move stateside, though. Philadelphia Union centre-back Jack Elliott was born in London but has only ever played professional football in the US, having been scouted while representing an amateur team in London. The switch from Sunday League to MLS, via the West Virginia University team, has been a surreal one for the 22-year-old. In Elliot’s debut campaign in MLS last year, he lined up against David Villa, Sebastian Giovinco and Jozy Altidore. “It was a crazy experience playing against them,” he says. “Luckily I started off easy – playing my first start at home against David Villa! But it was amazing. He’s one of the toughest strikers I’ve played against. His movement and speed are still world class, making him a difficult opponent.” Trying to keep a World Cup winner quiet is a very different challenge to marking a hungover centre-forward on a mud-caked pitch in south London, but Elliott owes plenty to his experiences in youth and amateur football in England. He earned his big break while playing for Old Wilsonians against Walton Casuals in the Surrey Premier Cup. “I played for Fulham academy for a year when I was 12, but I got released and then mainly just played Sunday league and school football. As I got older I moved into men’s football, where I was spotted by a coach [Dan Stratford] from West Virginia University – he was playing in the same game. He asked me if I wanted to go and play over there and I had no second thoughts about it.” It was a exciting proposition for a football-mad teenager who had long dreamt of a professional career, but suddenly moving 3,500 miles away was daunting too. Thankfully for Elliott, he arrived in West Virginia to find a terrific setup both on and off the pitch. “You train as a professional almost every day, working around a regular university life. It’s surprisingly professional: the facilities are top-class, the pitches are good and you’re well looked after with gear and equipment.” The US college system allows promising young athletes to combine sport and education. Would a similar arrangement work in Europe? “I’m not sure it’s better in terms of producing top quality players, but it helps to catch the ones who may have slipped through the cracks of the top academies,” says Elliott, who received an academic scholarship to study Management Information Systems. “Going through the college system allows you to get a degree, which was one of the reasons I had no questions about it. But the quality of football, facilities and fans are something I might not have experienced had I stayed at home.” The 6ft 5in centre-back played 68 games for his university team between 2013 and 2016, before being selected by Philadelphia Union early last year in the fourth round of the SuperDraft, an annual event in which MLS clubs snap up players who have either graduated from college or been signed by the league. “It was one of the best days of my life,” says Elliott. “Philadelphia was a place I’d been many times before and really enjoyed, plus it wasn’t too far from West Virginia.” The young defender made his MLS debut from the bench in a 2-1 defeat to DC United last March. Despite the disappointing result, Elliott performed well and soon became a regular in Jim Curtin’s starting XI. “It all happened very quickly. The second game of the season I was in the 18 [matchday squad] for the first team and then I played 45 minutes at DC. It allowed the coaches to see I could handle the pressure of the league. And then the next week I was starting. I’m very thankful for it. When I got subbed in, I had 15 minutes to think about it. It’s not a lot of time; I was just warming up. It was good that I didn’t have time to think about it. I just went out there and played the way I play.” It can be particularly tough for young centre-backs to establish themselves, with many managers unwilling to risk inexperienced players in such a key position. Yet by the end of the 2017 season, Elliott had made 30 appearances in MLS and racked up more minutes than all but two of his Union team-mates. The Londoner played with such maturity that he was nominated for the MLS Rookie of the Year award, which was ultimately won by Atlanta United midfielder Julian Gressel. “I’d never have expected to be there at the start of the year, so it was nice to get that sort of recognition at the end of it,” he says. “I didn’t expect to play as much, but from my first few weeks there I could see it was a place where I could belong.” Elliott is not the only Londoner in the Union squad. Former Arsenal and Hull City forward Jay Simpson is also in his second year at the club, having moved to Philadelphia from Leyton Orient a few weeks before Elliott signed. “Football in the US is still growing so obviously it isn’t as big as it is in the UK,” says Elliott. “As kids they don’t play it every day in school and they don’t see it as much on TV. I feel kids here don’t get to play enough unstructured football, which in some ways can help to develop a player in different ways than structured coaching does.” It’s a point US Soccer would be wise to consider as the national team attempts to recover from its failure to qualify for the World Cup. Elliott cannot afford to dwell on such big-picture issues for too long, though, with his focus now firmly on his second season with the Union. “Individually, I’d like to build on what I did last year and improve as a player And, as a team, our ambition is to get to the play-offs and make a run there.” If he can replicate his performances from last season – and that pivotal match in the Surrey Premier Cup – Union will fancy their chances of achieving that goal. The Guardian Sport