To America, Alex Freeman is a World Cup star. To TikTok, he’s ‘Diamond’s Little Brother’

SEATTLE — To millions of Americans, Alex Freeman is a rising soccer star who burst onto the World Cup scene last week. He is the 21-year-old who aced his first test in a resounding win over Paraguay. He is the versatile defender who will be key for the United States in Friday’s showdown with Australia, here at Lumen Field.

On TikTok, however?

He is “Diamond’s Little Brother.”

Scroll through the comments on any of his recent posts, and you’ll find a legion of witty fans who had never heard the name “Alex Freeman” a week ago. Now, as one wrote to Freeman, “we are so proud of the man you have become in the last 72 hours we have known you!”

When he sat down for an interview days after the World Cup opener, a U.S. Soccer host began: “Today, I am joined by Diamond’s Little Brother!”

Freeman beamed.

He is aware he has taken the internet by storm, but not with his knifing runs or stout defending.

The story, big sister Diamond Spaulding tells The Athletic, begins with doomscrolling and a comment that seemed innocuous.

Spaulding was on her way to a World Cup fan festival in Houston last Friday when she hovered on a TikTok video from a creator who began: “Alright y’all. Apparently, we have a soccer team. And we’re playing in the World Cup.”

Spaulding, whose TikTok display name is simply Diamond, figured she would educate fellow viewers. “My lil brother playing for the US so cheer for #16,” she wrote.

“I was so excited to tell people he was playing in the World Cup,” Spaulding says a week later, “and I also was rushing to get to fan fest to watch his match, that I forgot to say his name.”

By the time she returned from fan fest, her phone was flooded with notifications, and thousands of TikTok users had a new favorite U.S. men’s soccer player: “Diamond’s Little Brother.”

Many now know his name, of course, but it took on a life of its own.

And that’s when Spaulding messaged Freeman: “So, you’re kinda going viral.”

Freeman wasn’t initially aware, but then he went to TikTok and realized: “It started blowing up.”

His following doubled. His posts from late May and early June were overtaken by users who quickly abbreviated Freeman’s new nickname.

“Hey DLB,” one wrote, “we soooo proud to be cheering for you and your little friends on team USA.”

Another chimed in: “We’re rooting (for) you, DLB!”

“GO USA!!” another wrote. “GO DLB!!!”

There were photoshops and AI-generated images with “DIAMOND’S LITTLE BROTHER” spelled out across the back of Freeman’s jersey.

There were thousands of folks who previously had no interest in the sport and were now writing things like: “I’m so proud of Diamond’s lil brother! He out here doing the damn thing. Go soccer.”

Freeman found it funny. He also found it meaningful in a way that fans inside the soccer bubble might not realize. In a quirky, silly way, it showed how much attention the World Cup will bring to American soccer.

“I think we’re getting more eyes on the U.S. now,” Freeman told U.S. Soccer’s Stars & Stripes House. “It doesn’t matter how we get there. I think that’s a good thing for us.”

Spaulding, in her first video since going viral, spoke to this demographic whose eyes would otherwise be elsewhere. “Trust me, I would be in the same boat as y’all if I didn’t have a sibling playing, because me personally, I don’t watch soccer,” she said. “But it’s actually kind of interesting!”

She and Freeman — who are step-siblings but have considered each other sister and brother since Alex was a few years old — also leaned into the craze. Spaulding says Freeman had the idea to launch some merchandise. Spaulding, a community college student and aspiring nurse, stayed up with a friend past 2 a.m. customizing T-shirts. One, in big, bold letters, blares: “DLB.” Another has “AMERICA’S LITTLE BROTHER” overlaying a picture of Freeman in his USMNT kit.

Spaulding and her friend even built a website and a Linktree. They ran the designs by Freeman, who responded: “Yeah, those are sick.” They’ve already sold scores of shirts as the meme spread.

“I have three computers,” Spaulding says, explaining her setup amid sudden fame. “One is on the homework, and doing my studies. The (second), I’m watching Love Island. And on (the third), I’m doing the T-shirts — being big sister general.”

She has also tried to introduce the TikTok world to Freeman, who is the youngest player on the U.S. World Cup roster.

“Calling him Diamond’s brother is so funny. But y’all, his name is Alex,” Spaulding joked in one video. “I feel like he’s earned the right to have his own name.”

The irony is that, long before he became a multi-million-dollar soccer player for Villarreal in Spain, growing up in South Florida, Freeman was, in fact, best known as “Diamond’s little brother.” She was a high-school track star who would go on to compete at Texas A&M. Alex, eight years younger, looked up to her at their K-through-12 school. “He always wanted to hang out with us,” Spaulding says. “Like, all the time.”

But eventually, Freeman — who is also the son of former NFL wide receiver Antonio Freeman — made a name for himself. He joined a top Florida youth club, Weston FC, and then the academy of Major League Soccer’s Orlando City. In his first full MLS season as a starter, at age 20, he broke into the U.S. national team and never looked back. Now, he’s a starter on the team that routed Paraguay in its World Cup opener, which was the most-watched soccer game in U.S. history.

Spaulding was among the 27.5 million viewers. She can’t afford to miss school, so she’s watching the group stage from afar. Perhaps she’ll get to a knockout-round game, but for now, she’ll watch from a Houston bar with her friends and some newfound followers of Diamond’s Little Brother’s big sister.