Crossword Genius

American, leader of team leading early on (2,5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

at first

'early on' is the definition.
(at first can mean originally)

'american leader of team leading' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names).
'leader of' says to take the initial letters.
'leading' becomes 'first' (I've seen this before).
The first letter of 'team' is 't'.
'a'+'t'+'first'='AT FIRST'

(Other definitions for at first that I've seen before include "Originally" , "In the beginning, initially" , "To begin with" , "In the beginning, to start with" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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