Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial You mean you hope he learns that he can't expect to be the star of the show, that he has to play some defence and that he has to make off-the-ball runs without his coach having to chew him out?
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial hey, he does that which you say and actually learns how to finish more often, all the better, but if he goes to Ghana's nt, not as good for US Socce, at least at NT level....If Lletget pulls all these things off and were to represent the US in 4-5 years, awesome...Good luck, to both.. Btw, you do know my previous post was mostly a joke, no?
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial No. You've got to remember that no one in the YA Forum has a sense of humor on the third Tuesday of the month.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial In this case I'd never put any stock in those Adu to Ghana threads so I missed it. My bad.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial I don't know where he was born, but is as Argentine as Claudio Reyna was... in this case both parents. He tried out for River Plate and made it (that is what parents told me). I don't know what he's feelings are... it will be a tough call deciding between Argentina and US, but fortunately for the US in Argentina there are hundreds of players of Sebastian's caliber. Although Argentina lost Trezeguet to France, in that case he did all his youth in Argentina and debuted for Platense at age 17. The others, Camoranesi, Pernía, Franco, others were lost with knowledge. For you that like this info, in Argentina there is the son of a former player, that like Trezeguet was born in france while his dad played there, Gonzalo Higuain, new star of River that has said he wants to play for France... Go figure!
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial Why would we be against someone playing for the US?????? That makes no sense.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial Yeah, that struck me as hyperbole but the dude's got inside info so let's not chase him off.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial who said i was ? Does mean nothing anymore?!?! I was playing with the "fact" Adu is doubting whether he'll end up playing for the USMNT in the future to favor native Ghana..
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial West Ham is great trial trial to have. Their academy record is as goo as any in England.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial Argentinian born, then? How long in the U.S.? This worries me a bit. The kid is slick with the ball and athletic but so are other 13 year olds. What made him stand out was his speed of play and tactical understanding. Unlike other 13 year old U.S. ball wizards, who are slow-playing solo acts, he was thinking before receiving the ball and playing beautiful combination soccer. I would feel better if an American-born kid had developed that tactical sense. Because it's an area that we as a country continue to struggle with, at all age groups. We can get great athletes and have them juggle ... but will they feel the game like Sebastian? I don't think so. Something is still missing.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial Tincho just said that he doesn't know where Lletget was born, but both his parents are from Argentina.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial I have seen Argentine soccer for many years and I can assure you that there are hundreds like Sebastian. If you don't believe me I will be happy to tour you around buenos Aires or Rosario, from the futsal leagues (club Parque, Maldonado, Estrella), to the clubs to the dirt fields where talent is raised. And praises to John for touching the important subject of "What made him stand out was his speed of play and tactical understanding". I believe that all these Nike commercials are accentuating a trend into this "wizard" thing, as in the best players are the ones that can do more tricks. Soccer is a lot more than tricks. If you don´t believe me go to Brazil and ask brazilians how they feel about Ronaldinho doing all those commercials! I was there during the World Cup!
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial Since Argetina cannot use all those great talents, can we ship half of them back to USA? We can start a adoption campaign. I am sure we can find out 50 families to adopt them. I, for example, can adopt 3 to 5 of them without problem.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial On the past England team Lampard, James, Joe Cole, Carrick, and Ferdinand. They also produced Ince, Defoe, and Glen Johnson who is considered a prospect for the England.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial He must have US citizenship to be included in the US U15? No? Can anyone answer this question?
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial Although to be fair, with the geographical restrictions they sure are well placed when it comes to talent available. Blackburn could have the best youth methods out there and still be severely handicapped comparatively. I nevertheless agree as other London clubs have the same advantages and haven't exploited it like they have. Not yet anyway.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial It is wrong to suggest that the success of the West Ham academy is due to little more than it's location. Thanks to the vision of men like the late Ron Greenwood, West Ham has had a tradition of producing home grown talent since the 1960s and have continued to produce players who have gone on to win representitive honours to the present day. We are not the only club to have a successful academies of course, Southampton have an excellent academy in a comparitively lightly populated area, likewise Middlesbrough and Ipswich. Manchester United are an example of a first class academy in a heavily populated area. Academy success is built up and reputation earned by having a skillful youth coaching set up and the club having a proven track record in giving young homegrown talent a chance in their first teams. It is also dependant on how a club prioritizes it's finances and clubs like West Ham have always invested heavily in it's youth set up and they are by no means cheap to run. Clubs like that deserve credit not cheap put downs about being "well placed". Michael Carrick came from Newcastle, hardly on West Ham's doorstep. Referring to earlier posts David James was not a West Ham academy product, I think he started off at Watford but not sure. Jermain Defoe joined from Charlton at age 16.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial Actually, no. To PLAY for the US, even in a youth national team friendly against another national team, a player needs to be a citizen. But citizenship is not required to be in camp, nor is inclusion in a camp exclusively proof one is a citizen. Freddy Adu was in Bradenton and training with the 17s before he became a US citizen. He could play in games against youth clubs and what not, but not against other national teams. Ramon Nunez, who wasn't even a permanent resident - and still isn't - of the US, was in several U18 national team camps for the US. Dema Kovalenko trained with the US U23 team a few times under Clive Charles. I could go on with the examples but they would be redundant.
Re: 13 Year Old Yank gets West Ham Trial It would be wrong, but I didn't make any such suggestion. But it would be equally wrong to say it _isn't_ a factor.