Upon arrival this winter at Barnsley, a second-division soccer club in a former mining town three hours north of London, Daryl Dike introduced himself to his new teammates.
They knew he had come on loan from MLS’s Orlando City, where he enjoyed a splendid rookie season last year and had recently debuted with the U.S. national team.
“Oh, I’m from Oklahoma,” he said.
“I told them it’s by Texas,” he said with a smile during a recent Zoom interview. “Because everyone knows about Texas.”
In the seven weeks since the geography lesson, Barnsley players and supporters alike have gotten to know a lot about the 20-year-old striker from Edmond, an Oklahoma City suburb.