If you think of the average 16-year-old, most likely your mind would go to a kid hanging out with friends, starting high school and playing video games â the usual kid-related activities.
In the soccer world, a player like Gustavo Caraballo is not like most 16-year-olds.
Three weeks ago, the Orlando City Academy product got the opportunity of a lifetime, starting for the Lions' first team in their preseason opener against Brazilian powerhouse Atletico Mineiro.
Despite having a 22-year difference with the captain of the opposing side, Brazilian star Hulk, the young Lion held his own against "Galo" and had an impressive 70 minutes of play in front of the City faithful.
"I've worked hard for this opportunity, taken a lot of patience," Caraballo said after the match. "A lot of hard work, discipline, and just grateful that they were able to trust me, give me the start and make everyone that's helped me proud."
It's even more special for the young winger that he was able to play that match in front of his father, Gustavo Caraballo Sr. The former professional soccer player in Venezuela, who also played with the Venezuelan national team, has been a mentor for his son in his professional journey.
"He knows what it's about," Caraballo said. "He told me, âKeep doing what youâre doing. Keep working hard. Keep your head on the ground. This is just one little step in a long career.â"
What made the moment even more special was the fact that both father and son became pros around the same time in their lives. "Thereâs a little friendly competition there," Caraballo said, "But I was just happy I could make him proud."
Caraballo's story is one that the Lions Academy hopes can become more of a trend in the coming years. Over the last two seasons, the youth system for the Lions has grown exponentially, with added age groups from last year to this year and record-breaking success on the pitch.
Just this past year, midfielder Colin Guske, who started 2024 with the Academy, signed his first pro deal with Orlando City B and will now play with the first team heading into 2025 after signing an MLS contract back in December.
"I think the fact that now we have the full pathway, it's allowing us to buy more time to develop players right and focusing on the individual fundamentals that they need to build the proper building blocks," Orlando City Academy Director Javier Carillo said. "We're exposing players to individual fundamental skills to help them to compete and then to learn how to win games, and I think the fact that we have this clear pathway between first team, second team and Academy is allowing us to promote players and expose players at an early age to new challenges, where the players continue to reach new heights. And I think that's what's really making the big difference for us."
While the more recent success of Guske, who just turned 18 years old this past month, is fresh in mind, there are also the players that have had a slow and steady growth in the pathway that are looking to make an impact this year.
The biggest example of this is fullback Alex Freeman. Over the past two seasons, Freeman has had an expedited growth in his abilities. After signing a Homegrown contract with the MLS side in 2022, Freeman didn't really start to see marked progress until his second year, 2023, when he began to start matches with Orlando City B. In 2024, he took another leap forward, finishing the MLS Next Pro campaign with 17 goal contributions, leading OCB in assists with nine and finishing second in goals with eight.
Now in 2025, Freeman, who has already started a number of preseason matches, including the match against Atletico Mineiro, will look to cement himself into the MLS side at the young age of 20.
"I think they just stress what we've been trying to do last few years, which is make a very clear pathway between the Academy, OCB and the first team," said Ricardo Moreira, Orlando City's VP of Soccer Operations and Technical Director. "Having players like Gustavo, Guske, Freeman and Thomas (Williams), making an impact in the first team, that's a real success for us.
"It also shows how the integration that we have on a daily basis has led to that success. Training at the same time on the fields side-by-side, so the Academy, OCB and first team have that level of cohesion. They're meeting every morning to discuss how training is going to be, which player is going to be where, to help their development. I think that just shows that we are separated physically by buildings, but there's a lot of integration in terms of what we want to do and how do we see the pathway between the three layers of teams that we have.
