U.S. teen Tim Weah scores first Ligue 1 goal for PSG (Video)

Senior reporter

Sun, Aug 12, 2018, 11:00 PM

American youngster Tim Weah’s meteoric rise continued Sunday with another first. This time, it was a first league goal for the French champions.

Weah, 18, replaced Neymar with less than 10 minutes to go in Paris Saint-Germain’s 2018-19 Ligue 1 opener against Caen. In those 10 minutes, he hit the post, then scored PSG’s third goal in a 3-0 victory:

Tim Weah really took off his shirt after scoring the worst goal of all time pic.twitter.com/LdeInAUTV5
— ty (@finalthrd) August 12, 2018

It wasn’t exactly a golazo. In fact, it was just the opposite. But oh well. Weah didn’t care. He took off his shirt and wheeled away in celebration. And can you really fault the kid for being excited after opening his league account?

Plus, even if it wasn’t a beauty, it wouldn’t have been possible without tireless pressing – which is an imperative part of a forward’s game under Thomas Tuchel.

What a moment for Timothy Weah to score his first #Ligue1 goal!!!
Awful mistake by #Caen goalkeeper Brice Samba, but credit to Weah for pressing hard and capitalizing on the chance.#PSGSMC #PSG #AllezParis #USMNT 👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/iuryl40tcg
— Jason Foster (@JogaBonito_USA) August 12, 2018

And it made up for his near-miss less than two minutes after entering the game:

I'm going to say it again: Timothy Weah's movement as a striker is really, really good. Minutes after coming on for PSG, Weah almost scored as a direct result of his active, intelligent movement inside the box. pic.twitter.com/SPo2aTIEyb
— Joseph Lowery (@joeInCleats) August 12, 2018

Tim Weah’s many recent firsts

Weah, after starring for the U.S. Under-17s in 2017, broke into the PSG first team late in the 2017-18 season. He made his first Ligue 1 start in May with the title already secured.

The teenager then had a strong preseason. With World Cup stars vacationing – or working their ways back from vacation – he scored his first competitive goal for the club in last week’s French super cup – the Trophee des Championes.

Tim Weah's goal. pic.twitter.com/GT3IvaaWbW
— USMNT (@USMNTvideos) August 4, 2018

Weah also got his first U.S. men’s national team start and first USMNT goal back in May in a friendly against Bolivia.

So yeah, it’s been a pretty impressive few months for the Brooklyn native (and son of legendary Ballon d’Or winner George Weah).

On Sunday, George and Tim also became the second father-son duo to notch Ligue 1 goals. The first were Jean and Youri Djorkaeff.

Will Weah continue to get playing time for PSG?

Weah has scored on consecutive weekends. The question is whether he’ll continue to get opportunities as the season wears on.

The positive, of course, is that he is taking the chances he’s getting. The negative is that those chances might soon dry up. Neymar returned to the starting 11 Sunday, but Kylian Mbappe and Edinson Cavani are still unavailable. Once they’re back, Weah likely won’t be in PSG’s matchday 18. He appears to be behind those three, Angel Di Maria and Christopher Nkunku on the attacking depth chart. German World Cup starter Julian Draxler also got off the bench before him on Sunday.

If all those players are still at the club come September, Weah might need to head out on loan to get regular minutes. It’s certainly not a disaster if he finds himself struggling for playing time at 18 years old. But it’s better to be playing than sitting on the bench.

So, loan? Or stay, train with some of the world’s best players, but battle for sparse playing time? These are the decisions Weah will have to consider – over the next month, perhaps in January, perhaps next summer – as he continues to develop.

Whatever he chooses, he’s one of the most promising U.S. national team prospects out there.