GOAL spoke with the 23-year-old about his upbringing, losing his Texas accent, and possible future in Championship or MLS
Just a few days before scoring two of the biggest goals in Leyton Orient's 143-year history, Charlie Kelman is reflecting on his love for Dallas, Texas. The accents, the heat, the food, the inescapable shadow of AT&T Stadium – all are so far away from where he is now, but in many ways, all have played a part in getting him there. The Texas accent was lost years ago, but it's still a part of his past and, maybe if he keeps walking the road he's walking on, his future.
No American striker has been as prolific as Kelman this season. His 21-goal campaign earned him the League One Golden Boot and lifted Leyton Orient, a club that has spent all but one of those 143 seasons in England's lower leagues, into the promotion playoff. In the first leg of the semifinal that kickstarts their fight towards the Championship, Kelman scored two more, earning a 2-2 draw with Stockport. And yet, days before he scores those two goals, he's just as excited to talk about home and how it made him.
Ahead of this season – a make-or-break campaign that ultimately made him – Kelman returned to Texas, braving the summer heat. There, at the Dallas Cowboys’ famed Star training complex, he turned himself into the player he always believed he could be but had never fully shown. It was in Texas that he prepared for the biggest year of his career, reinventing himself and, perhaps, reconnecting with the version of him that began this journey not far away.
"I had everything at my disposal," he says. "It was just locking away distractions. The timezone was six hours behind, and my missus was fuming because we could barely speak. My mom, she knew what I was going there to do. I stayed at my brother's and all I did was train. He was moaning to me, saying I needed a night out. And I'll have my night out – when I accomplish what I need to accomplish."
That night out is coming soon, and it's well earned given what has been accomplished this season. His 27 goals in all competitions have more than doubled his tally from the first six years of his career – combined. At 23, Kelmen has blossomed into a player who now has an uncertain future. He's only on loan at Leyton Orient from Championship side Queens Park Rangers, and while he wants to be the man that carries them to the Championship, there's no certainty about what happens when this playoff run ends.
Kelman's goals have his club's fans dreaming, though, and as he looks towards that future, he can't help but dream, too.
"Obviously, I want to play in a World Cup for America," he begins, listing off his goals one by one as if the checklist was sitting in front of him. "I want to play at the AT&T Stadium. That would be special because I've been there on countless school trips. I just want to score as many goals as possible. I want to play at the highest level I can. I want to play for FC Dallas or get to the Premier League and play for West Ham. I know Leyton Orient fans won't like hearing all of that, but these are all my next steps, but obviously I have to take it a step at a time and prove that I can do it."
"Like I said last summer, nothing else matters. I do belong here, and I'm here for a reason. Now I want to stamp that with a sort of authority. I've done it this year, but next step is, like I said, to play at the higher level. But most importantly, to prove that I'm not just a one-season wonder."
This season has proven that Kelman can accomplish things that previously seemed impossible. The Premier League and the U.S. men's national team don't feel particularly close yet, but suddenly, they don't really feel quite so far away.
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Texas beginnings
"Oh, an American accent!"
Kelman is thrilled to hear it as he answers a video call. Born in England, Kelmen spent a large portion of his childhood in Texas, including those crucial development years of ages four to 10. And, at that time, his voice was distinctly American. By the time he returned to England, he had that southern drawl so famous in the Lone Star State.
It didn't last long. By 12, it was all but gone. Secondary school had smashed it right out of him.
"I used to get bullied, mate," he can say with a laugh now. "Year seven? Those were long days."
He's more "mate" than "y'all" these days, but Kelman kept close ties to the area he grew up in. His brother is local, which is why he made that pilgrimage back to get ready for the season both physically and mentally.
He grew up watching FC Dallas, too, and was supposed to go to the MLS Cup final against the Colorado Rapids when he was nine, only to see that fall apart at the last minute. He's been to big games, though, including playoff games and derby battles with the Houston Dynamo. His dream, to this day, is to someday play for FC Dallas.
At one point, he suited up for the club's academy before returning to England and ultimately catching on with Southend United. He may have spent a large chunk of his life in England, but even as he rises up the ranks in his birth country, he still considers FC Dallas his hometown team. He still follows them and still watches when he can.
That connection remains strong, such is the impact his childhood had on the now-23-year-old striker. The thing he misses most? "In-N-Out Burger," he says without hesitation, but that's obviously not all.
"100 percent, when I finish in football, even to go and play football, I definitely want to go and live in America and have a nice ranch someday," he says. "Hopefully, I'll have a few animals, and then I can turn my phone off. I don't really like people… [Growing up] it was just the weather and having my family there. School was different out there, too, with the pep rallies and high school football games and all of that stuff."
Those were a long time ago now, though. It may not quite feel like a pep rally, but this past weekend, fans of Leyton Orient turned out en masse to Brisbane Road, all eager to watch Kelman score again. He did twice, including an 88th-minute penalty to level the score and keep hope alive.
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Leading the way
Few would have predicted this could happen for Leyton Orient. It took a run of six consecutive wins to even get the club into the playoff to begin with. Kelman believed it all along, though. After returning from his summer trip to Dallas to begin his one-year loan with the club, he told manager Richie Wellens what was coming.
"I was working my ass off so, in a sense, I knew that it would happen," Kelman says now. "I went to the gaffer and I said, 'Look, I'm gonna get 20 goals this year and I'll have my holiday next season when I get my Golden Boot'. Now, I've got this baby."
Kelman points to his newly received trophy. It arrived in the mail last week. He couldn't wait to show his mom.
Across English soccer's top four leagues, only two players – Liverpool's Mohamed Salah and Bromley's Michael Cheek – have scored more than Kelmen's 23 (and counting). No American has reached that mark, either. Josh Sargent, Ricardo Pepi, and Brian White have scored goals for fun this season. So, too, has Haji Wright when healthy. None have matched Kelman's totals. Christian Pulisic has 12 goals for Milan.
What makes the run all the wilder, though, is that those goals aren't spread particularly evenly. Six goals came in games before the start of the new year. The ensuing 17 have come since the calendar turned to 2025 and Leyton Orient entered crunch time in their promotion push.
"Something clicked," Kelmen says, "in a sense that, going forward, we started understanding each other's movements and where to play and where to run. I do a lot of training, and I'm the last to leave the training pitch because I want to keep finishing. It's never enough. Even now, I sit in bed thinking about a chance that I'm going to get. I feel obsessed. I have an obsessive nature and, once I get something in my head, I can't let it go. I think my obsessiveness has taken over, and those different scenarios that I feel I needed to work on, I've improved on."
Kelman's success isn't an accident, either.
He led League One this season in shots on target. He was third in the competition in percentage of shots on target. All but one of his goals came from open play. The pure goalscoring number isn't a fluke, but rather a result, one that makes all the sense in the world when you look at the stats that back it up.
The stats are inching him closer to his dreams, the ones that have him staying up late at night, glued to the TV wondering when and if his time will come.
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USMNT dreams
There was a point at which Kelman was a highly-touted prospect in the American soccer system. He played for the the United States' U18s and U20s, having earned his place by scoring a whopping 61 goals for Southend United at the youth level at age 16. His seven goals for Southend in League One earned him a move to QPR in 2020, but in the five years since, he's bounced between League One and League Two on loan with Gillingham, Leyton Orient, Wigan Athletic, and now Leyton Orient all over again.
It's never been easy.
"I joined QPR and I wasn't ready to play in the Championship," he admits now. "I almost had impostor syndrome when I went to QPR because of the size of the club. There was this expectancy that, at 18, you had to be the next Charlie Austin, and if you know Charlie Austin, he's a serious, serious bagsman. I felt I didn't belong there because I hadn't scored enough goals or had enough experience, so it was difficult for me. Then I had these loan spells and couldn't get into the mindset of it. I just felt like I didn't belong."
And things only got worse from there.
"I was at Gillingham when I was 19, my first loan, and we had a falling out in the dressing room," he recalled. "I remember I came back to my mum's and I was crying. I didn't want to play football anymore. This wasn't what I dreamed it to be. She was there for me. She said, 'I'll give you 24 hours to feel sorry for yourself, and then, once you wake back up, it's back on.'"
His mom was right, and now, Kelman has given himself even more reasons to believe he can turn his career into what he dreamed it could be.
As he's yo-yoed through English soccer, though, Kelman has kept ties with the American game. He's still in touch with former FC Dallas midfielder Tanner Tessmann, now a regular for both the USMNT and Lyon. Former teammate Thomas Roberts is now at Stabaek. Patrick Schulte, once his U20 teammate, is thriving with the Columbus Crew and now has a real chance at being the USMNT's No. 1 in goal.
There are others, too. Kellman routinely does social media check-ins with his American friends and, privately, he hopes to reach the heights some of them have. It's why, despite the time zone issues, he was up late during the international break watching the USMNT play in the Nations League. It's why he's hoping that Mauricio Pochettino might just be watching his breakout season.
Kelman isn't delusional. He knows goals in League One don't count as much as goals in the Champions League or a top flight, but still just 23, he hopes they can be a start.
"I want to play for the U.S. team," he says. "Obviously, the Gold Cup is this summer, and maybe that's come too soon for me to get in, but I want to go play in the Championship next year, and I want to prove I can play at that level. Obviously, Josh Sargent and Haji Wright are top players at that level and have gotten themselves into that U.S. setup and are doing well. Hopefully, I can be the next one."
And he believes both his perseverance and ability with pay dividends.
"There's a very talented pool of players in my position," he says. "But that's my next step: proving I can do it at a high level. I don't feel I've been able to attack that with a fair chance. I've always been played out of position or played in my position a handful of times. I was able to give that a full go this season, and hopefully I can use that to get myself into that setup."
Before that, though, there's one more task ahead of him with Leyton Orient, and the weight of that isn't lost on him.
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A changing life
Kelman knows his history. He knows that Leyton Orient are in somewhat uncharted waters. He knows that a club of this size is always one kick away from a life-changing promotion or, as has been more often than not in this club's particular history, sinking further into the lower leagues.
"They've been through this roller coaster of emotions," he says. "I was just at the shopping center with my girlfriend and the security guard came up to me as I was looking at a suit through the glass. He said, 'Oh, you can buy one of them when you get us promoted.' It makes you realize you're really touching the hearts of people. Sometimes you can get carried away thinking what you're doing doesn't matter but to these people, this is life or death, and it's only right we make it that way for ourselves as well."
It's not just mall cops who are taking notice. Kellman's life has fundamentally changed in the last few months, and it can certainly change further if the goals keep coming. He's being recognized more now. He's doing interviews now. He got a Team of the Season card in EAFC, brought home that Golden Boot and, hopefully, can lead Leyton Orient to the promised land.
"It's not you that changes – it's everything around you that changes," he says, reflecting on the last few months. "I'm still the same kid. I go home, play career mode, and get moaned at for not picking up after myself. I'm still the same person away from football."
Everything around Kelman will continue to change. He wanted it to change when he nearly quit at 19. He wanted it to change when he went back to Texas last summer, determined to make it so. And he wants it to change every time he sees someone he played with or against, putting on that USMNT shirt and living out his dream.
Goals change lives. A few more this season will make him a Leyton Orient legend, giving those who worship the club memories they'll hold onto forever. A few more this season will change his life, too, as he heads into a huge period of his professional career, wherever that may take him. FC Dallas, the Championship, the USMNT – who knows?
Kelman sure doesn't, but as he looks ahead what what could be, he's excited to figure it all out.
"It's everything I've sort of manifested," he says. "I prayed a lot as well. It's no coincidence. Praying means hard work, and you get what you deserve. I think I always knew this was going to happen."
There's more hard work to come, and more dreams to chase, whether they be in Dallas or London. Kelman is just getting started and, even with a Golden Boot in hand, Kelman believes bigger things are on the horizon. It's the Texas in him, most likely. Everything is bigger there, you know, even dreams.