Due to the unique combination of personality and play he possesses, McKennie is often selected to be the face of things. This summer, that happens again with Truly. The hard seltzer company's new campaign, 'Believe, USA', will take over a town for this summer's tournament. McKennie, naturally, is part of it all.
That, of course, makes sense. He's one of the USMNT's most recognizable faces. That, by proxy, makes him a role model. Particularly in a World Cup year, kids all over the country will be watching him play in the biggest games on offer. Many of them will wonder what they can do to get there themselves. What does their pathway look like? How can they replicate what McKennie has done for club and country?
McKennie's short answer is simple: you can't. The long answer is a bit more complicated.
"It's an amazing feeling, but also a responsibility at the same time," he says of being a role model. "You see the people that you were looking up to, and social media wasn't as big at the time, but you'd see them on TV playing or maybe in a magazine or, maybe, if you were lucky, you could see them live. Nowadays, obviously, with social media, it's a lot of responsibility as well."
Still, McKennie is quick to ground that responsibility in something simpler.
"I feel like I just try to always be true to myself and true to my values and true to who I am. I think that's what I would want from the people who look up to me and see as inspiration."
"At the end of the day, I'm just a human being. I just happen to be a good soccer player. You have to stay humble and follow that dream and, hopefully, see a pathway out there for you. It may not ever look like mine or Christian [Pulisic's] or Chris Richards or the people they look up to, but the ultimate thing is to just bet on yourself always."
At 27 and in the prime of his career, he's reaping the rewards of his various bets. He is also, somewhat improbably, a veteran. Having broken through as a teenager, McKennie has been on the stage for longer than most. Right now, as he enters the years that are the primes of most players' careers, McKennie has 68 caps across nine years as a senior national team player. As a result, he's now playing alongside players who, at one point, saw him as their reference point.
"He was one of my role models, my idols growing up," said Sebastian Berhalter, who has gone from watching McKennie as the son of former U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter to now calling him a teammate. "I've been watching him for the last six years now. To see what he's doing over at Juventus is inspiring."