J.R. Eskilson @JREskilson Ismar Tandir, New York Red Bulls U18 top scorer, has signed with Sochaux of Ligue 1 according to his facebook. (h/t @BrotherlyGame) A '95 that claims U.S. and Bosnian citizenship on his USSDA profile (http://ussda.demosphere.com/teams/27484436/27484623-27484529/32782916.html) On his Twitter, he mentions playing with Bosnia's U19 team a week ago https://twitter.com/Itandir
Wow, his profile lists him as 6'4", 200 lbs. I think we can consider this photographic evidence of his current commitment to the Bosnian YNT program: Ismar Tandir (izzy)@Itandir4 Dec Europe national team duty #relaxin pic.twitter.com/ZcsdetDB Crest of the Football Association of Bosnian & Herzegovina:
With this kid playing right under everyone's noses, I'm a little startled the US missed out on him. It would be one thing if he was playing in some ethnic league or for some obscure youth club or lived somewhere that doesn't get scouted much. But this kid played in the US Soccer Developmental Academy, the highest level of youth soccer in the country. He played for an MLS academy with all sorts of connections to US Soccer and played for an MLS academy in the biggest market in the country with a long (relatively speaking) history of sending players to the youth national teams. Plus, it's not like he's some small player about whom there are questions regarding his ability to handle the physicality of pro soccer - he's 6-5, and 2 bills. And it wasn't like he wasn't productive, as he was reportedly the Red Bulls U18's top scorer. How does he not get signed by the Red Bulls and how the hell does US Soccer not have this guy already in multiple YNT camps?
If he is good enough for Sochaux wouldn't he be good enough for Red Bulls to sign him when he's sitting right in front of their noses. Is there no money or roster spots to sign a solid talent who wants to sign a professional contract and not go to college. MLS has got to figure this out. Why even have an academy and wasting time and money training potentially good players and then let them go to other teams. Its such a waste.
Who's to say NYRB didn't offer him a deal and it was rejected? Who's to say that Bosnia's U19 coach wasn't influencial is making sure Tandir "stays" in Europe? At this point we don't know. The only thing we do know it that the Sochaux trial and subsequent signing was due to his participation with Bosnia. I hate to lose Academy players but even in a perfect system some will find their way to Europe and some will get overlooked. MLS will have to figure out something and it seems like they are trying, if you believe the rumors of the MLS Reserve League and USL Pro merging.
Yes you are correct anything is in fact possible. This is becoming more that 'some'. More top players are in fact leaving MLS academies than MLS academies are signing. Losing more than 50% is not some.
Many more players are left unsigned from European Academies / youth sides. So if MLS, for example, was signing 40% of those players that would be astonishing and quite remarkable. I guess I may be a little out of tune with the Academies because I can only think of a handful that are leaving for Europe. You may know better that I do and if so your argument may carry more weight.
Nooo. Of the signed professionals not the unsigned players. Over last few yr of the non college players LA signed McBean and Villareal but lost Rodriquez, Arriola, can't yet sign Mendiola. Chivas signed Delgado but lost S. Rodriquez. NY Red Bulls lost Metrikin and Tandir but signed Moreno and Castano. KC lost Turner and really hasn't signed anyone lately. I'm slightly overstating my percentages but the case still holds. There really isn't enough roster spots or budgeted money to easily sign everyone MLS wants to. I get some will go but hope by some its only 10-15%
I got my ethnic sounding NY Red Bulls youth player names mixed up I should have written Sousonis. http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club-soccer-articles/pro-prospects:-man-city-after-us-youth_aid28062
Are we 100% sure this kid has US citizenship? Many Bosnian refugees do not have dual citizenship. One example of a kid who grew up playing in the US was vedad ibisevic. He played a year at SLU then went on to PSG. Many thought he was eligible for the US but wasn't, even though he and his family lived here in St. Louis. Is it possible this is the case with this kid?
Players control their profile on the USSDA website, and he has his citizenship listed as American, but I guess it is possible he could be confused about having official citizenship and simply being a resident in the country. There's no quotes in the article about his citizenship status, so I'm guessing J.R. used his USSDA profile as the source.
Maybe they just couldn't track down his home address, phone number, or e-mail address. This may be his brother? He was a soccer star at the same high school: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/warren-county/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1228799112275070.xml&coll=3
Shrug. All of those kids were free agents, despite the fact that they were at MLS academies. If my choice was Sochaux or Red Bull New York...............I'd be on the next flight to France. One hopes that in the future there will at least be some type of "youth contract" so that MLS clubs get at least a small transfer fee for these players. I mean, poaching players from smaller clubs is the way of the soccer world. How do we think clubs like ManU and Arsenal fill their academies with these young foreign players? ManU didn't pay Lazio anything for Macheda. They just took him. They didn't want to pay anything for Paul Pogba. They just took him. We're going to lose some of these players. We just have to try to ensure that we got something in return. I'm not smart enough to figure out a "youth transfer fee" system, but we know they have them in other countries.
You state facts very well but don't recognize that this is more than some and its becoming more of a problem for MLS because of their restrictions and not in spite of them. I don't subscribe to your its the way of the world so do nothing. I don't necessarily have the fixes but at least I know its a problem and try to think up some solutions to minimize this significant effect of scraping a large talent pool away from future MLS growth. I wish MLS only lost one player like Lazio did and according to Wiki ManU ultimately did pay LeHavre something. MLS, FIFA, UEFA, someone, anyone has to figure this out.
I'm guessing that NYRB didn't pay Match Fit Chelsea anything when they recruited Tandir away before last season.
Youth contracts would also completely eliminate the possibility of playing in college too. While many parents and the players themselves want to go pro ASAP. I think parents would be apprehensive at signing a contract when their kid is say 15 y/o that eliminates a pretty good fall back option if they're not ready (or just turn out not to be good enough) to go pro when they turn 18. That youth contract would also probably pay peanuts considering the minimum salary in MLS is $33K.
How do players from England come to the USA and play in college when they are with academies growing up and don't make it? At SLU we had two players from England, one from Portsmith who was told to take a hike after playing with the reserves and another reserves player who's club I can't remember. They came in as freshmen at 19. It seems there is a way around the contract for foreigners, why not American kids?
It would have to take a review of their contracts, which I'm sure SLU did thoroughly or they risk sanctions. In the NCAA's eyes, if you got paid for a sport before college you also intend on playing in college, you are no longer an amateur in that sport and ineligible. There's been plenty of basketball players from Europe that have been ruled ineligible by the NCAA for having signed youth contracts, Enes Kanter was a notable player the past couple years.
I bet the academy contracts are viewed as a scholarship to a "school". The academy kids do attend classes don't they?