First Year of impact of MLS on USA talent development?

[MJ-inBRITAIN]

Just wondering when you think this will be?

For me I would consider it two waves. Wave 1 being the kids that as teenagers knew that there was a future as a professional soccer player and so that helped to influence them. Wave 2 being when as a 3-4 year old they start kicking a ball around because daddy has been influenced by the league.

I think we've just been seeing the first crop of wave 1 develop into players but not the wave 2 kids yet. I think wave 2 will see a dramatic rise in talent and probably the size of the talent pool. We may see our first bonafide global A-list talent from this group.

The reason I think that is because of personal circumstances I "believe" that touch, control and basic proprioception and spatial awareness of the ball/feet thing happens. I don't have any proof or evidence for that however so would be interested in your thoughts.

[SilentAssassin]

Just wondering when you think this will be?

For me I would consider it two waves. Wave 1 being the kids that as teenagers knew that there was a future as a professional soccer player and so that helped to influence them. Wave 2 being when as a 3-4 year old they start kicking a ball around because daddy has been influenced by the league.

I think we've just been seeing the first crop of wave 1 develop into players but not the wave 2 kids yet. I think wave 2 will see a dramatic rise in talent and probably the size of the talent pool. We may see our first bonafide global A-list talent from this group.

The reason I think that is because of personal circumstances I "believe" that touch, control and basic proprioception and spatial awareness of the ball/feet thing happens. I don't have any proof or evidence for that however so would be interested in your thoughts.
I think Beckham could be the cause of a wave by himself. Before Beckham, there were a lot of kids who didn't even know what MLS was, but everybody heard about Beckham coming and getting a bajillion dollars. Maybe it was different in cities with MLS teams, but that was my experience in St. Louis.

[MJ-inBRITAIN]

I think Beckham could be the cause of a wave by himself. Before Beckham, there were a lot of kids who didn't even know what MLS was, but everybody heard about Beckham coming and getting a bajillion dollars. Maybe it was different in cities with MLS teams, but that was my experience in St. Louis.

Interesting yes, I never thought of that. You know I've seen quite a few kids here in England with Beckham's Galaxy kit on - amazing isn't it?

[scoachd1]

Just wondering when you think this will be?

For me I would consider it two waves. Wave 1 being the kids that as teenagers knew that there was a future as a professional soccer player and so that helped to influence them. Wave 2 being when as a 3-4 year old they start kicking a ball around because daddy has been influenced by the league.

I think we've just been seeing the first crop of wave 1 develop into players but not the wave 2 kids yet. I think wave 2 will see a dramatic rise in talent and probably the size of the talent pool. We may see our first bonafide global A-list talent from this group.

The reason I think that is because of personal circumstances I "believe" that touch, control and basic proprioception and spatial awareness of the ball/feet thing happens. I don't have any proof or evidence for that however so would be interested in your thoughts.

MLS has been critical to the development of US talent starting in year 1, but I don't think the primary impact is has been at the younger ages. If you look at the statistics, there really hasn't been a real increase in youth participation since the league started. Instead the impact has been from 17 - 25 as the league has given large numbers of US players a place to continue to develop as well as a place to be seen by foreign clubs.

I think the second important wave will be the number of potentially capable coaches that come from this environment. There has been a huge shortage of competent coaches and the large number of MLS players coming from a professional environment is starting to address this problem. Kids of all ages will benefit as will the resulting level of play.

Another important milestone is the introduction of youth teams. Not only will kids get much better coaching during high school ages where US kids typically start to fall behind, but I also think it will help change the dynamics of youth soccer. The goal will no longer to be win games so you can get high rankings. But instead it will transform into bragging rights as to how many kids have made it to the professional academy teams. It will probably take expansion to reach more large populations centers and a few years for the MLS teams to seperate themselves from other club teams but it will happen.

[art]

I think the second important wave will be the number of potentially capable coaches that come from this environment.

To me this is #1, we have made great strides in player development but without better coaching we are hitting a wall. Hopefully soon the days of a parent buying a "soccer for dummies" book to coach his kid's U12 team are coming to an end.

[Stan Collins]

Here's Ives Galarcep on the issue:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=578695&sec=mls&root=mls&cc=5901

[sostoked]

I think Beckham could be the cause of a wave by himself. Before Beckham, there were a lot of kids who didn't even know what MLS was, but everybody heard about Beckham coming and getting a bajillion dollars. Maybe it was different in cities with MLS teams, but that was my experience in St. Louis.


By far the biggest wave we've ever seen and ever will see would be the Pele wave.

[Stan Collins]

Unfortunately, the NASL did not survive long enough to see what the real Pele impact would be. It's sad, I think the the league could have stuck it out another 5 years, it would still be here, the "children of Pele" would have started coming into the league, and there would be some tradition by now.

[GersMan]

Unfortunately, the NASL did not survive long enough to see what the real Pele impact would be. It's sad, I think the the league could have stuck it out another 5 years, it would still be here, the "children of Pele" would have started coming into the league, and there would be some tradition by now.

So you're saying Pele really got around when he was living in the U.S.? :D

Sorry, couldn't resist.

But seriously folks....I'm curious to know more about these supposed rule tweaks in the Galarcep article and how they would affect opportunities for our young players.

[jpg75]

Here's Ives Galarcep on the issue:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=578695&sec=mls&root=mls&cc=5901

Rules currently limit teams to signing one academy graduate to a Generation adidas contract every three years (unless the player graduates from the program sooner), and also prevents teams from signing players younger than 20 to developmental contracts. The first rule means that, theoretically, a team could be prevented from signing a high-level academy graduate because its Generation adidas slot is already occupied.

What genius thought up these rules!? If the eldest Academy teams are U18 and you can't sign the kid to a DEV deal until he turns 20, what the heck is he supposed to do for the year or two in between?

[Stan Collins]

Rules currently limit teams to signing one academy graduate to a Generation adidas contract every three years (unless the player graduates from the program sooner), and also prevents teams from signing players younger than 20 to developmental contracts. The first rule means that, theoretically, a team could be prevented from signing a high-level academy graduate because its Generation adidas slot is already occupied.

What genius thought up these rules!? If the eldest Academy teams are U18 and you can't sign the kid to a DEV deal until he turns 20, what the heck is he supposed to do for the year or two in between?
Keep in mind, the rules had three ways this could be done, it's just that each has a downside:

1- Generation Adidas. Downside: you can have only one of these callup GenAds at a time. (The Galaxy added Tristan Bowen, 18, this way, because they only had one real prospect and so this downside was trivial to them.)
2 - Regular old, senior roster contract. Downside: with an 18 man senior roster, it's hard to fit a callup in.
3 - Dev contract. Downside: has to be 20, and anyway most of these prospects won't take that tiny offer.

You could try to fix any one of these and help out, but probably the first two would be the ones to concentrate on. Personally, I would fix the second one by making the regular rosters bigger (because there are several other reasons for doing that as well, like depth).

I should add, the league knew full well when they designed these rules that it wouldn't be easy (I think they underestimated just how hard, but they did not want easy) to add players this way. There are a couple reasons for this:

1- The league doesn't want to be in the business of just developing and selling players. Like it or lump it, but that's just not the business model they prefer.
2- Parity: if a team became a 'factory' for developing prospects and moving them on, they would have a more or less permanently higher salary cap (you get to keep up to 500k for your cap each time you sell a player), and the league didn't want that imbalance.

[jpg75]

What i don't get is why they're so uptight about selling top notch prospects that they normally would not have had signed. It's essentially free money, instead of the player going straight to Europe they get to sign them to an MLS contract and the league pulls in a big wad (2/3 of the fee!) a few years down the road. And really, why is a prospect more likely to jump to Europe if they sign GA out of an MLS Academy instead of Bradenton?

I just don't understand why teams have to wait until the player is 20 to sign a DEV deal out of their Academy. Most of these players are going to be depth players, if you want them to develop into MLS players they're better off training between the ages of 18-20 with the team instead of having to go to College/PDL, CSL or lose them when they jump to Scandanavia or some middling Euro soccer nations. If this rule is going to be kept, then allow teams to field U20 squads so they can keep these players in their system.

And just so i understand the rules:

Generation Adidas: Team signs 1 player at a time from the Academy to a GA contract. This will last up to 3 years unless the player graduates due to performance and then they can sign the next hotshot prospect. How long do the players have to be part of the Academy? Is there a 2-yr requirement?

Discovery Pick: Team signs any # of players as Discovery picks, but the player then must be allocated to the SR. roster and must be paid the MLS minimum salary.

Development deal: 2 players each year can be signed to a DEV deal straight from the Academy provided they have played atleast 2 years in that teams Academy. These players must be 20 years old when they sign (or turn 20 that calendar year?).

The first 2 rules make sense to me, but the last one seems unnecessarily restrictive - I don't see why 18 shouldn't be the age limit. That way if you have 2 teenage prospects and you sign one to a GA, then the other is still on the books and can be signed to the GA deal if the other graduates early.