Revs’ Breakout Star Peyton Miller, only 16, joins “The Soccer Show”
On the surface, it might seem like Homegrown Player Peyton Miller has a sharp learning curve ahead of him as a 16-year-old professional soccer player. After all, he is only the second player in Revolution history to make his MLS debut before his 17thbirthday. But despite his youth, the Revs Academy graduate welcomes the challenges ahead of him with open arms.
Miller, a native of Unionville, Connecticut, joined DJ Bean on “The Soccer Show” this morning to talk about his first season in Major League Soccer and his experiences as the youngest player to make the Revs’ roster in a decade.
“It’s amazing,” Miller said of how he’s been welcomed to the Revs’ veteran players. “I get treated like I’m definitely young, but they treat me like I’m one of them, so it’s just great.”
With a confident and fearless mentality, Miller doesn’t spend any time thinking about the age difference between him and the players around him when he steps on the field. When you watch the youngster on the field, his physicality is right on par with the elder players around him, sometimes almost twice his age.
“I don’t really think that it matters how old you are or how young you are,” Miller said. “If you’re good enough to play, you’re good enough to play. It’s the coach having trust in you and the players having trust in you and giving you the opportunity to play.”
The outside back developed through the Revolution Academy prior to joining the senior club this season. To alleviate the long commute from the Hartford area, Miller moved into one of the Revolution’s three residency homes near their headquarters in Foxborough. The commitment paid off soon after, as Miller made his MLS debut on July 17 in Philadelphia, becoming the second-youngest player to appear in a match in Revolution history. He has proceeded to suit up for four league appearances and two starts this season, and is expected to feature again tonight when the Revs take on Orlando City (7:30 p.m.).
New England’s roster features a perfect blend of youth and experience for Miller to learn from. He has spent years playing alongside fellow Homegrown Player Esmir Bajraktarević and Jack Panayotou with Revolution II, and now the teenager also gets to pick the brains of longtime veteran defenders like Andrew Farrell and Jonathan Mensah, who have seen and done it all in the league.
“It helps a lot. Especially like Esmir, I look up to him a lot,” Miller said. “I try to follow in his footsteps and try to take his steps with doing extra stuff after training or the stuff he does off the field. I try to look up to that. I also look to the older guys like [Andrew] Farrell, Bobby [Wood], Ema [Boateng], Jonah [Mensah], those guys, to see what they do to take care of their bodies.”
Miller began the 2024 campaign in an ideal scenario, catching the eye of first-year Revolution Head Coach Caleb Porter during the team’s preseason camp in Florida. Things took a turn for Miller when he suffered a foot injury in a preseason match against Orlando in February, setting back the defender’s sudden rise.
But Miller turned the negative into a positive, using his time away from the field as a learning experience ahead of returning to the team amid a crucial postseason push.
“I’m still learning,” Miller said. “I think that being injured helped me a little bit to learn about my body more and learn how to take care of my body. But also playing when I am playing, toward the end of the season, has helped me a lot because I’m learning along the way.”
New England visits Orlando City SC tonight for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff at Inter&Co Stadium. Listen here on 98.5 The Sports Hub or watch on MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app in English and Spanish.
