FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – In just the few short months since he joined the New England Revolution, it has become clear that Alhassan Yusuf is the kind of player who prefers to let his game do the talking. Not in any sort of combative sense – he doesn’t go around with a chip on his shoulder – but rather because he’s simply a soft-spoken person, carrying himself with a humility that almost betrays the level of play he brings on the pitch.

When the newcomer addressed reporters last week before leaving for the offseason, he fielded a question about the challenging travel situation he and his teammates with the Nigerian Men’s National Team faced on international duty earlier in the month. His response was succinct, perhaps even understated: “It was tough.”

Ever the optimist, though, he managed to find a silver lining. “But it’s an experience for me, that kind of thing,” Yusuf said. “You have to expect it when you travel for that kind of game. So, it was tough, but in the end, you learn something along the way.”

But don’t be fooled – his game can do some serious talking. Making only seven appearances in his debut season for the Revs, the midfielder has already demonstrated the level of quality he brings to the squad and generated plenty of buzz around what he will offer over the course of a full season.

Yusuf was hailed as a dedicated, athletic, box-to-box player when he joined from Belgian side Royal Antwerp FC in the summer, with strong defensive capabilities as well as a knack for getting forward. And he has certainly shown those qualities already, doing well at both winning the ball and facilitating play, and forming a strong partnership with fellow central midfielder Matt Polster.

“He’s a good guy off the pitch, so that also goes into the pitch,” Yusuf said, already eager to lift up a teammate. “He is a leader – he’s talking every time, trying to lift the team. I always enjoy playing beside him. For me as a player [who likes] to go everywhere, he’s trying to read the situation and cover me off. So yeah, just looking forward to seeing how we’re going to play together next year.”

And club captain Carles Gil felt the same way about his new midfield partner, adding that he and the rest of the squad owed it to Yusuf and fellow newcomer Luca Langoni to put up a better showing in 2025 to give these additions their best chance to shine.

“I think they are good players and competitive players,” Gil said. “Yusuf, I think is a very good player and he’s showing that in the games that he had. For sure, he will help this team. I say the same thing, to have the best Yusuf or Luca, they need the team. In the situation that we had, they played good games but in the end, we lose 4-0 and then it doesn’t matter what happened individually, if your team loses 4-0, you know? … It wasn’t the season they expected. I hope we have better luck for next year.”

As strong as he is defensively, the underlying statistics shed light on a further dimension of Yusuf’s game: according to FBRef, the midfielder’s 0.22 Expected Assists per 90 minutes, a figure that only models for primary assists, was second only to Gil’s 0.29 across the Revolution squad for the entire year, and only slightly ahead of Langoni’s 0.21. Yusuf put these creative capabilities on full display in the Revs’ Decision Day clash with Inter Miami CF, notching an assist on Dylan Borrero’s goal and playing the key pass to Langoni for the game’s opener after having won the ball in midfield.

“It’s my style of play to try to play, press high, transition,” Yusuf said of how he slotted into head coach Caleb Porter’s overall system. “Yeah, of course we didn’t win a lot of games. It didn’t work out this season. But for me, we just have to see how it’s going to be next season. I hope nothing changes in terms of that style, so [we] just have to believe and trust it and see what is going to come.”

And Porter and his staff made clear in the summer that this type of holistic midfielder was precisely what they expected in Yusuf. The coach was happy to say as much after the midfielder debuted against Orlando City SC.

“Just what we saw when we scouted him,” Porter said of Yusuf’s performance. “He’s got range. He’s a good player, smart, good on the ball, covers a lot of ground, runs, tackles, and gets forward. He plays vertical. We saw exactly what we saw when he scouted him.”

And when the Revs completed their season sweep over Nashville SC in September, assistant coach Pablo Moreira echoed the same sentiment, adding that a few performances in particular opened his eyes to just who Alhassan Yusuf was.

“It’s exactly what we expect out of him, and I think as more games go, you're going to see him be more comfortable,” Moreira said “But it's what we saw, it's why we wanted him here, and he's just scratching the surface because, I said this last time, he's got a world class engine. You don't sneak into the Nigerian National Team without having a superhuman power, and that's his. He's just got an engine that he can go, and like you saw, he's aggressive. He's a little undersized, but you saw aerially, he wins balls. He's connecting all his passes. And it's just, again, what we saw out of him. If anyone has any questions about Yusuf, there's a game that we all saw. It was against Barcelona [in the UEFA Champions League], and to me, he was man of the match. So that's his standard, and he's going to raise it to that level.”

Unfortunately, as smooth as Yusuf’s transition to the greater Boston area has been on the field, settling in has proven to be more challenging away from it. Between two international windows and plenty of away days, there just hasn’t been the time for the newcomer to tackle what can be a notoriously difficult housing market.

“It’s hard, because I’m still in the hotel,” Yusuf shared. “I haven’t found a place, because I’ve been back and forth [on international duty], two weeks here and then travel back. So yeah, I’m just looking forward for next season, the preseason, and then to settle into the city and find a place.”

But even that challenge had its bright side for Yusuf: the help he was getting from his teammates, and the opportunity to get to know them better through the process.

“Yeah, talking with all of them,” he said. “I’m trying to know places. I’m trying to know them more and to connect with them, their families, and all the wives. That’s something that will help you settle in more quickly.”