IRVINE, Calif. — Malik Tillman, a U.S. men’s national team midfielder who figures to play a key role in the World Cup run that opens Friday against Paraguay, has provoked good-natured teasing from teammates over a recent photoshoot in Flaunt magazine.
Chris Richards said Wednesday, with a laugh, that the images “have been sent around the group chat a few times,” calling them “some questionable pictures.” The spread includes a shot of Tillman wearing a couture hat described in the piece as resembling an elongated mushroom and another in which he pairs a jacket, shirt and tie with very-short shorts, dress socks and leather shoes.
Tillman told Flaunt that fashion is an important outlet for his creativity. “Fashion is a big part of how or where I can express my creativity,” he said, adding that financial means helped fuel the interest: “And I think if you want to dress trendy and be in the fashion game, you do need a certain amount of money. So, when I got my first professional contract, that’s when I really got into it.”
Teammates Weston McKennie and Alex Freeman also participated in shorter features and shoots with Flaunt, though the story notes their outfits were not as experimental as Tillman’s. The reaction in the locker room has been light-hearted, with players joking rather than criticizing.
Mark McKenzie summed up the attitude, saying, “You can get clowned for it, but at the same time, you put yourself in environments like that and ultimately it was about exposure, you know what I mean? I’m always up for exposure, you know, expressing ourselves in different ways. I had no issue with it.”
