Probably Chicago. They had their GM on ExtraTime Podcast and I came away thinking that this guy was a moron when it comes to youth. Offered Andrew Gutman a contract last year and then sort of sold him on going back to Indiana only to lose him to Celtic. Said that they basically encourage all their players to go to college and Mihailovic and his parents basically had to force this issue, so the team would sign him. Portland for sure. They don't really care and they don't have the market where it is it even worth it to invest heavily anyway. Easy to say Houston. Maybe that will change. New England for sure. Minnesota sure doesn't have much urgency in building out their academy.
I would say that Minnesota is building up. I know a California player that was offered a residency option and the Minnesota scout said they had been watching him for 2 years. They’ve made several new hires in the hierarchy so I would expect them to be much improved in the next couple of years. I also think San Jose might be one of the clubs not all that happy about the cost of the Academy system. The women’s side has produced some very good players but the men’s teams have no permanent training facility and the homegrown players that have been signed to contracts appear to have been poached from other clubs and put into the Quakes teams for the minimum amount of time to qualify as “homegrown”. I recall people discussing if Tommy Thompson was within the guidelines to be considered a homegrown because he played so few games for the Quakes academy. I get the impression that the Quakes would prefer to not have the Academy expenses and just scout the local clubs and sign up the players they are interested in. They have high coaching turnover and that makes people think the coaches probably are not well paid and are doing it for resume building.
Portland used to be a US hotbed with Cherundolo, Keller and others I've forgotten from that region. They have either disappeared which makes no sense with MLS there for a while now or Timbers are very poor at find, nurturing and signing them.
Cherundolo is from San Diego and Keller is from Olympia, WA in Sounders territory although both did play for University of Portland. Only active players from there are Rubio Rubin, Erik Hurtado, Brian Rowe along with Marco Farfan who is a HGP.
Agreed. Minnesota will have a fully built out academy this next DA season. (https://www.mnufc.com/academy/faq) Will you add older DA teams? Yes, we will add U16/17 and U18/19 teams for the 2019–20 year. We are working closely with US Soccer on phasing in additional teams. They are also adding a residency program (https://www.mnufc.com/academy/faq and https://www.mnufc.com/post/2018/05/31/mnufc-adding-academy-residential-program-2018-19) Do you have a residency program? Yes, we have recently launched a partnership with the International School of Minnesota and we are currently evaluating players from outside our local market for inclusion in our Academy beginning with the 2018–19 year. They are saying the right things in regards to where they want to take their academy. (https://www.mnufc.com/post/2019/01/01/state-academy-tim-carter)
the humility is noteworthy and contrasts starkly with what we hear from some other development types. easy guy to root for
Houston has even been missing out on players..................from Houston. See Chris Cappis. A massive change in culture has been required, and it has seemed like Paul "gets it." As indicated later in that post, they're having an event with Tom Beyer tomorrow. How many MLS clubs are doing that? Houston has all of the ingredients to be a youth power. They're really raw ingredients, though. Unlike Dallas they don't have a decades long history of youth soccer excellence and infrastructure. (A culture that predates the FC Dallas academy.) It has to be built from scratch down there. Paul seems to understand all of this. Right now in 2019 you can form a good 18 man lineup of players from DFW. Can only find a couple from Houston. In the DFW central midfield do you start Weston McKennie or Kellyn Acosta or Emerson Hyndman or Victor Ulloa or Keaton Parks or Brandon Servania or Paxton Pomykal or Dillon Powers or Lee Nguyen or Corben Bone (back in MLS with Cincinnati; Solar product)..........the list goes on. That's just central midfield. Houston is so far behind Dallas in youth development that its gonna take a very long time to catch up.
Take it for what its worth. By the way, when you add the Funes Mori brothers (which this particular guy didn't do).................FCD is up to $46.6. million [This isn't transfer fees. This is value of players based on transfermarkt. Obviously fraught with assumptions there] Top MLS Academies in creating pros (total value per transfermarkt)*1) FC Dallas - $28.9m2) RBNY - $24.1m3) RSL - $16.8m4) VAN - $15.1m5) PHI - $12.0m6) SEA - $11.4m— Tutul Rahman (@tutulismyname) January 28, 2019 Top MLS Academy Products:1) W McKennie (FCD) $17.7m2) A Davies (VAN) $13m3) C Salcedo (RSL) $11.8m4) D Yedlin (SEA) $9.4m5) Z Steffen (PHI) $7.5m6) T Weah (RBNY) $5.9m7) T Adams (RBNY) $5.3m8) M Miazga (RBNY) $5.0m9) G Zardes (LAG) $4.1m10) W Trapp (CLB) $3.5m— Tutul Rahman (@tutulismyname) January 28, 2019
A club I’m not worried about being cheap with their academy. A proposed Inter Miami CF training academy is being proposed for Fort Lauderdale, as club officials are eyeing the site of venerable Lockhart Stadium. #sportsbiz https://t.co/RBLZCrYvDN pic.twitter.com/C0G8WHNLpc— SoccerStadiumDigest (@thestadiumpitch) January 29, 2019
Yeah, they're certainly making noise. We had heard that Javi Morales (the former RSL star) was moving down there to take on a leadership role with their academy. Don't know if that's finalized or not. I'm hoping the logo and color scheme will grow on me. Hasn't yet...……………..
I think it wouldn't work everywhere but fits Miami well. Just like Timbers wouldn't fit everywhere but fits Portland to a T.
At the United Soccer Coaches Convention earlier this month, I watched a presentation by the Chicago Fire Academy about how they go about developing players. Based on their record I was not expecting much, but I walked away surprisingly impressed by how much work that they were putting into it. Their Academy Technical Director is Cedric Cattenoy, who had made a name for himself working in several capacities for PSG’s Academy. I am not one of those people that is impressed by flashy names or fancy presentations. This guy is the real deal. I was impressed by the depth of the daily routines of each coach in their academy. I thought that they were light years ahead of Crew SC or Toronto FC. Does the Fire ever intend to use all of this excellent work? Recent articles would suggest no. What a shame. There are people there that are doing a really excellent job.
Just to piggyback on this earlier post - people talk about Barcelona’s Academy as if it were this grand, master plan. The fact of the matter is that, after Johan Cruyff left the club, the Academy flew under the radar, pretty much unnoticed, while the club’s first team started to struggle. When they got to the point where they were in trouble, all of a sudden, there was the Academy, churning out future world class players who happened to have a first team that had plenty of playing time to offer young players who were ready to take advantage of the opportunity. Even Barcelona’s famous academy happened without their front office having a clue about it. Cruyff had a bit of a chaotic personality, even if he was a genius, and nothing that he told the academy to do was formally written down. Once Cruyff was gone, the coaches continued to do what the last person who had talked to them had told them to do, pretty much unnoticed by the club. We all know the results. MLS is right to expect their clubs to continue their academies. Even at the highest levels of the game, the front office often doesn’t understand what is going on in their academies. That doesn’t mean that the academies aren’t important. Even academies in clubs that don’t “get it” produce players that are able to go elsewhere to complete their development process. If the people in the front office are clueless about their academy, that is their problem. The academies need to be a minimal requirement for all MLS clubs.
What cities do the best job at player development? Check out @BrianSciaretta’s Tweet: The latest exclusive, in-depth, semi-long form feature for @ClassicASN is now up. Written by @_jameshill, it goes into detail as to which American cities and metro areas are the best at player development. Also full of interactive maps & tables https://t.co/nqrdr0gLhS— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) February 21, 2019 I was trying to figure out which thread this should go into, but since I'm an habitual user of the youth national teams forum I placed it here. I'm open to suggestions to move it elsewhere (Soccer in the USA?)
There should be a thread for general YNT related news that's more big picture... and articles such as this one could be posted in both the appropriate thread and the one for news articles.
Good "get" for the Miami academy. He's been working with the FCD academy kids recently while waiting for this opportunity to start. Best of luck to him. Seems like the kind of guy who could turn into an Oscar Pareja sort.......................... It's official. https://t.co/GwawOKC9XB— 3rd Degree (@3rdDegreeNet) February 22, 2019
Can anyone point me back to a post or recent article that talks about what MLS DA teams charge players? Last I knew DC United was the last of them but on another board others are suggesting its more than that. Curious as to if/what has changed
If an academy team charges a player=pupil, it's not a good thing. It compromizes the selection process as the question arises why a player is in the academy. Academies should be free of charge as it puts the pressure on the staff to select the best kids in order not to waste valuable resources on kids that arenot showing potential and progress.
I think most are free but sometimes tournaments (especially ones added late) aren't. The best answer would come from parents of kids at each team.
I also feel like parents and players might get confused by the fact that MLS teams have Academy teams but they also have club teams that are pay to play.
I’m guessing they may be promising some players that if they show well in the club team they can be moved up to Academy ball. As my good friend pointed out to me “why would they want to do that and lose the revenue?” Unless a player is very likely to get a homegrown contract and needs higher level competition it makes more financial sense to the club to work the pay to play model for those that can afford it.
They pick the best prospects almost all the time. They also don't worry about filling the spots for those moving from pay to play because that is a step up for another player who wants to move up.