Tim sat for this interview in May, for a profile to run during the tournament. His parents were rummaging around upstairs somewhere. They’d both sit with the reporter when Tim was finished. Every one of these stories seemed to come with the same tagline, though. “I always hear them say, ‘Timothy Weah, son of George Weah,’” Clar Weah, Tim’s mother, said. “I’ve heard it so many times: ‘Son of George Weah.’”

Maybe that’s because George has had an outsize impact on his son’s career. Tim certainly inherited his soccer talent from his father. According to family lore, Tim started kicking a ball when he was barely 1 year old. Not just any ball, either — a soccer ball designed for 12-year-olds. “I said, ‘Oh, this could be interesting,’” George said.

As a preteen, Tim started playing with an elite New York-area club team. George saw enough potential that, when the boy was 13, he helped connect Tim with Chelsea of the English Premier League, one of his former teams, about possible entry into its youth academy. Chelsea turned them down. But George had more connections. He set Tim up with Paris Saint-Germain, another of his former clubs, which took in his son.

“He proved himself,” George said, unprompted. “He did not just earn it because one of his parents played. He worked so hard. He fought very hard.”

Tim spent the next several years in France, training at PSG’s academy. There, he had the chance to work with world-class coaches and trainers, honing his game around the clock. “I learned so much,” Tim said. “They built me into the player that I am to this day.”

PSG’s senior team featured some of the best players in the world — Neymar, Ángel Di María, Kylian Mbappé. But Tim only played a handful of games with the senior club. He was still a teenager and wasn’t a wunderkind like those others, or like his father once upon a time. Naturally, Tim had to deal with being constantly compared with his father, too.

“When you have a dad who’s successful, if you’re having a bad game, they often say, ‘His dad is better,’” Clar said.