What players were developed from MLS academies?

[TheGodofSoccer]

Who in MLS came from an MLS academy? I'm sure there are guys, but Adu and Altidore don't count. They were nationally known way before joining an MLS club.

It's great that the MLS is finally investing largely in their own system, but creating a U16 team and a U18 team is not player development. It's recruiting players developed at other youth clubs and slapping an MLS jersey on them. Clubs need to create the entire program, from U12 up to U18.

Until then, all we have are these MLS clubs promoting their academies by how many wins and titles they get. Great youth club won-loss records are not a predictor of how many players will make the MLS and the National Team. These clubs like to say how many kids play in college. But why would it be an MLS Academy's goal to develop players for college?

[USvsIRELAND]

A few CDUSA youngsters and thats it.

You might want to wait a few years before starting this thread.

[ATLGunner]

Who in MLS came from an MLS academy? I'm sure there are guys, but Adu and Altidore don't count. They were nationally known way before joining an MLS club.

It's great that the MLS is finally investing largely in their own system, but creating a U16 team and a U18 team is not player development. It's recruiting players developed at other youth clubs and slapping an MLS jersey on them. Clubs need to create the entire program, from U12 up to U18.

Until then, all we have are these MLS clubs promoting their academies by how many wins and titles they get. Great youth club won-loss records are not a predictor of how many players will make the MLS and the National Team. These clubs like to say how many kids play in college. But why would it be an MLS Academy's goal to develop players for college?

Thats because this is the first year any academy could promote a player (none were ready), and most academies aren't even a year old.

Some clubs are starting younger teams.

Just be patient. It's been barely over a year since they announced the right for MLS teams to promote players, and that announcement included a two year buffer. You can't exactly criticize the system right now.

And those clubs you are talking about promoting how they get players into college aren't MLS clubs, they are non-affiliated youth clubs (which are 98% of all clubs).

Do a little research and you'll figure out what is going on.

[AndyMead]

Who in MLS came from an MLS academy?

Come back in 10 years.

[clydej]

Even though the OP was mistaken about what exactly the MLS academies are. There have been a few players that came through the PDL teams that were loosely associated with MLS. I believe Gavin Glinton was a member of the Fire Reserves.

[phillypride]

I've read about Matt Kassel being a possible signing for the Red Bulls out of their youth academy. Ives wrote some pieces on him and here's one from espn
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=530064&root=mls&cc=5901

I guess he's still likely to be the first academy player signed, right?

[Stan Collins]

Hard to say. He will be attending Maryland in the fall, but the suspicion here is that it isn't to go there four years.

I will say, this is the best starting place to make a guess:
http://ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_7897089.html

It's the all-conference teams for the first DAP season. Red Bulls have four players on it, including Kassel. (The Crew, amazingly, have 5.)

[polman]

Hard to say. He will be attending Maryland in the fall, but the suspicion here is that it isn't to go there four years.

I will say, this is the best starting place to make a guess:
http://ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_7897089.html

It's the all-conference teams for the first DAP season. Red Bulls have four players on it, including Kassel. (The Crew, amazingly, have 5.)

It will be very difficult to get the professional academies producing real talent at the MLS level any time soon. The idea is good obviously, but without a large budget to sign and develop talent, what kid with half a brain will give up a college scholarship and an education to toil at the youth level for next to nothing? Unless MLS teams decide to sign top tier talent for the type of cash that MLB and the NBA sign their top picks, forget it. Maybe 15-20 years down the road, but don't hold your breath.

[6 ft. Leprechaun]

It will be very difficult to get the professional academies producing real talent at the MLS level any time soon. The idea is good obviously, but without a large budget to sign and develop talent, what kid with half a brain will give up a college scholarship and an education to toil at the youth level for next to nothing? Unless MLS teams decide to sign top tier talent for the type of cash that MLB and the NBA sign their top picks, forget it. Maybe 15-20 years down the road, but don't hold your breath.

I may be being dense here but how would attending an academy prevent someone from going to college?

[myshap]

Hard to say. He will be attending Maryland in the fall, but the suspicion here is that it isn't to go there four years.

I will say, this is the best starting place to make a guess:
http://ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_7897089.html

It's the all-conference teams for the first DAP season. Red Bulls have four players on it, including Kassel. (The Crew, amazingly, have 5.)

Although to be fair, I think it's important to point out that the Crew really didn't "develop" any of those 5 players. They brought the team together and provided them good coaching, but the credit has to go out to the tremendous athletic ability of Ohio youth and Ohio club teams that have been training those kids since U8 for the team this year.

Not to mention that conference team leaves out Thomas Schmitt and Travis Wall who from what I've seen, along with Nicky Blevins, are the cream of the crop.

Schmitt impresses me the most of all of them. Go back and watch the second goal for the Crew in the 3rd place match. That pass he made showed a tremendous amount of technical and tactical ability.

[Stan Collins]

I may be being dense here but how would attending an academy prevent someone from going to college? It doesn't, and Kassel will be doing just that.

[MountainHawk]

It doesn't, and Kassel will be doing just that.
It prevents them from playing soccer for the college, though, right?

[Stan Collins]

Nope. The MLS academies are designed not to take away NCAA eligibility.

[MountainHawk]

Nope. The MLS academies are designed not to take away NCAA eligibility.
Oh, didn't realize that.

[TheGodofSoccer]

Nope. The MLS academies are designed not to take away NCAA eligibility.

Playing devil's advocate here (irony), why should the MLS academies worry about collegiate eligibility?

[The_Drizzle]

Playing devil's advocate here (irony), why should the MLS academies worry about collegiate eligibility?

Because not every player who comes through the academy will make the first team.

Athletics based scholarships are a big deal over here. Although soccer is still a "lesser" sport, it's a great opportunity for some players (who either aren't ready, or won't be playing professionally) to gain a college education. Since many of the academy players won't be offered full professional contracts, it gives many players a fallback should they not be offered a contract.

[TheGodofSoccer]

Because not every player who comes through the academy will make the first team.

Athletics based scholarships are a big deal over here. Although soccer is still a "lesser" sport, it's a great opportunity for some players (who either aren't ready, or won't be playing professionally) to gain a college education. Since many of the academy players won't be offered full professional contracts, it gives many players a fallback should they not be offered a contract.

I'm "over here" by the way. My question: Why is it the job of MLS to incur a large expense to develop players who will likely never play for them. The return on the investment isn't there.

Take Matt Kassel for example. From the Red Bulls perspective, he should be on their team making $30K a year, playing soccer every day, getting coached by their coaches. Instead, he's at the University of Maryland, with no guarantee he'll play for the Red Bulls despite the fact that they invested a lot of money in his development. Porque.

[The_Drizzle]

I'm "over here" by the way. My question: Why is it the job of MLS to incur a large expense to develop players who will likely never play for them. The return on the investment isn't there.
Sorry about the "over here" thing. Without a location, I just assumed you were from abroad and curious.

MLS isn't incurring the expense to develop players for the NCAA. They're attempting to develop the players for MLS. It's just a fact, however, that not everyone who plays in a youth system is going to become a professional. If MLS is developing loads of talent for the pro-game, then excellent, but even then there will still be players who will either fail, give-up, or go unnoticed along the way.

If MLS were to set up a youth system that didn't meet NCAA standards, then you'd essentially be asking a fourteen year-old kid to make a decision, knowing that a large percentage don't pan out. This is simply a way to keep everyone's options open.

]Take Matt Kassel for example. From the Red Bulls perspective, he should be on their team making $30K a year, playing soccer every day, getting coached by their coaches. Instead, he's at the University of Maryland, with no guarantee he'll play for the Red Bulls despite the fact that they invested a lot of money in his development. Porque.
It wasn't until this year that Kassel could even be offered a contract (and IIRC he was offered a developmental deal but decided to go to school for the year instead). Prior to this past year, it made no sense to put in the money for development (and very few did) because there was no mechanism for the team to sign the player directly.

Red Bull still has his rights (it's not like Kassel could just jump ship to any other MLS team) if he signs with MLS (unless RBNY were to sign two other prospects instead, this is a temporary rule to protect the teams who had youth development programs from those without).

I just don't see what the problem is. If Kassel signs with MLS, he'll be playing for RBNY, unless RBNY has better prospects. He's playing a year at Maryland instead of playing in reserve games for RBNY. It's not a big deal.

[Stan Collins]

If MLS were to set up a youth system that didn't meet NCAA standards, then you'd essentially be asking a fourteen year-old kid to make a decision, knowing that a large percentage don't pan out. This is simply a way to keep everyone's options open. Right, and the upshot of that is, kids would never join the program if it weren't NCAA compliant. 95% of the kids in the talent pool you'd be thinking of drawing from (barring the 1% that are just phenoms, and the rest that might just not be academically inclined) want college as a Plan B, in case they don't rate as high at 18 as they did at 14.

I just don't see what the problem is. If Kassel signs with MLS, he'll be playing for RBNY, unless RBNY has better prospects. He's playing a year at Maryland instead of playing in reserve games for RBNY. It's not a big deal. Yes, RBNY certainly has bigger fish to fry. Chief among these is that they have 4 or 5 players rated pretty closely to each other as prospects, and the current MLS rules make it impossible for the team to bring them all in. The second issue is roster size, which probably prevented them from bringing in at least one guy this year.

[USvsIRELAND]

You know technically College soccer is not soccer, it doesn't abide by FIFA rules. So even if Academy players get paid they should be able to play the messed up crap that is called college soccer in college.