Yup. I don't think there's any question. The players he's going to be competing with for playing time in the coming years are already in Europe (McKennie, Adams, Mendez, Ledesma, Cappis, etc. Kids like Taylor Booth of Bayern and Blaine Ferri of Greuther Furth are the next batch.) Its awesome that Pomykal has broken thru with FCD and the U20s/USMNT this season. He hasn't just become an average MLS player, but is a "difference making" MLS player. But to grow from there, he's going to need to jump to Europe. I'm not saying anything folks dont' already know. And from an FCD perspective, they're now working to become a "developmental club." If you're going to be that, then you need to keep the assembly line moving. Lots more talent on the way. You've got two central midfielders playing with the U23s and two with the U20s during this window. Its a difficult decision, but they need to sell Pomykal. I'm guessing it won't be this window, but in the winter.
Haha...no, Paxton's a little rugged guy with an eye for the killer ball who can navigate in tight spaces. He hasn't brought his offensive prowess with him from the youth program into MLS, but I have a suspicion that that will develop a little more over time as well. But should Paxton grow out those blonde locks, he may be a ringer for Nedved.
Not sure where this came from and I don't really blame them because there are so many but I know they missed at least one. Anyone else figure out who also came from the FC Academy that got a callup that's not listed here?
I wish it was mandated that every team in MLS take notes from FC Dallas. On that note, I think of Real Salt Lake. A market that has nowhere near the potential that is still punching above its weight class. In other words, Dallas needs to be the goal and RSL needs to be the minimum. Anything below that line is not cutting it.
There are a lot of clubs investing and making great progress (SKC and Seattle for instance are charging hard). There were a couple of clubs that got a head start (RSL, NYRB, etc.), and FCD is the poster child. They got started in 2007 when they brought in Oscar Pareja to build the academy. More than half of current MLS teams haven't even existed since 2011. Thers's just also a long-standing, historical youth soccer culture in DFW that doesn't exist in other Texas cities like Houston and San Antonio. Lots of great youth clubs there other than FCD. Reggie Cannon moved to FCD from Solar. Paxton Pomykal moved to FCD from the Dallas Texans. There's a reason that Clint Dempsey drove hours to play in Dallas. Its sort of the youth soccer mecca in that part of the world. Chris Richards and Brandon Servania come from Alabama. Thomas Roberts comes from Arkansas. Edwin Cerrillo comes from Waco. Ricardo Pepi comes from El Paso (which is closer to California than to Texas). I mean, there has long been an influence from North Texas on the USMNT as well. This isn't new. Way back to the 70s. Kyle Rote, Jr. comes from Dallas. We can go on and on. If you're thinking about Niko Hamalainen….………...then you missed one Charlie Kelman on the U20s also trained at FCD. So that's 15. Take note that FCD drafted and developed Walker Zimmerman as a teenager. I think he can be credited to FCD too as he was called up to the USMNT before he was traded to LAFC. So that's 16.
Teams should be allowed decide whether it's in their interest to have academies. What I'd like to see is the removal of exclusive geographical zones of recruitment allocated to MLS teams. Combine that with the addition of real-money mechanism for internal transfer of homegrown players. Let teams that care about and are good at youth development make money through internal transfers, as well as international transfers. Let players from around the country go to the best MLS academies. Let the big eat the small.
I’d love it though if there was a total exemption of the salary cap for homegrown players with no time/age limit. So, if Dallas wants to become a powerhouse they can. Also, they should be able to sell and profit somehow by sending their players to other teams in the league. More needs to be done to reward these clubs.
Yup. One thing that's true. In European leagues, not every club uses player development as a primary means of player acquisition. In fact, its usually not the sexy clubs that have the most impact in terms of player development. Southampton, Everton, and West Ham (historically at least) in England for instance. Man City spends a fortune on their academy. They have what...……...one academy player that gets regular minutes? Phil Foden? The truth is you can win MLS Cup, SS, whatever with no academy influence whatsoever. LAFC are showing that yet again with their dominance. Clubs have to WANT to do it. I think the US academy system is going to chance a ton over the next 5 years. It started this year with a sneaky re-alignment of "haves" and "have nots.". There's been a lot of talk behind the scenes that the MLS clubs are going to break away from the development academy and start their own U20 league. Similar to what they have in Liga MX.
I'm not so much disagreeing as wondering about the reasoning. Garber bucks are more valuable than real money and we don't see much of a Garber bucks market for homegrown players (I think in large part because once it's clear that a player is good, they're either ready to be sold, part of the senior team or close to leaving on a free)
the issue with this that I see is it takes away some of the incentive to move players and actually becomes a disincentive to move the player. A homegrown player that stays takes a spot on the roster that a young player could be taking. If the player is good enough and valuable enough for the team to keep, they should be willing to pay a price (count toward salary cap). Something like a total salary cap exemption until age 20 and a gradual exemption over a period of 2-4ish years sounds reasonable to me.
Yep. IMO, an interesting league is one that has a lot of ways to win, each team finding their niche according to their budget and capabilities. I don't want it ever stratified as much as Europe, but a league where everyone only develops actually is less beneficial overall than one that both develops and still brings in outside talent.
Yup. Depends on whether the player is homegrown or not. The example of Dom Dwyer's sale is an important example. They got a multimillion dollar offer from Olympiacos. As it turned out the "Garber bucks" deal they got from Orlando actually was better for them even though it was less money. That's of course because they got to retain ALL of the Garber bucks, but only a certain percentage of the overseas transfer fee. As we know, homegrowm player sales go 100% to the MLS clubs. Chris Richards' transfer from FCD to Bayern is a perfect example of that. THey kept all of that transfer fee and have a sell-on transfer clause as well. Also worth noting that MLS becoming part of the solidary payment/training compensation system is of huge importance. RSL didn't get anything for developing U20 national team players Sebastian Soto, Richie Ledesma, and Taylor Booth. LAG didn't get anything for developing Alex Mendez, Uly Llanez, etc. But now that we're part of the system, FCD got money in return for their development of Johan Gomez...……………...who signed for Porto this morning. New Signing 🚨: Congrats to @USYNT U20 player @JohanG73 on signing his first pro contract with @FCPorto ! #OctagonFamily #USYNT #FCPorto #Futureisbright pic.twitter.com/oJYGdsdJSq— Octagon Soccer (@octagonsoccer) August 31, 2019
Do you know that for sure? I thought there was some element of how MLS was doing it legally that some of the guys in the academy had to opt in or something? I only ask because it's an interesting data point if Porto still signed him even with the added cost. Portugal seems like the kiss of death, though. Good luck to him, but has any young player made it up through there?
Greg Garza started his club career at Estoril. That's the one that springs to mind. Greg Garza...………………...also from Dallas Played for the Dallas Texans. I actually don't know that FCD is receiving compensation for Gomez. I was assuming that, and you know what happens when you assume. By the way, just because we've gone all FCD in general on this thread. Result from this morning...……………………..…. FC Dallas U19s 9 Houston Dynamo U19s 1.
I see your point but I don’t agree... What’s the incentive to build this monster academy if it really gives me no competitive edge? Why not just go out and buy the players instead of investing in guys to develop? Whereas, if I knew that I could make my club a dynasty by investing through youth. I’m going that route. Ultimately, one thing the league has done is made it impossible to win the league without top level DPs... in this regard, I want to see the league make the pathway that teams can pull away from the pack if they invest in their youth.
One option would be to allow not only HGP to be cap exempt, but allow that club to sell percentages of that player’s cap exemption. For instance, let’s say Atlanta United is at its cap. But they want to still build a better team, and their academy is struggling. They can go to FC Dallas (or whoever) and spend say $1.5 million (or whatever number) on youth player from FCD academy. Thereafter, that would give Atlanta an extra player that exceeds their cap size. And FC Dallas receives compensation for the player they developed.
There are multiple goals of a sports franchise, of which, making money is only one. I would think that most teams that are interested in winning would willingly purchase Garber bucks with real money if they could. After all, the purpose of all these different monies is to constrain spending by teams. Maybe Dallas just sees this as a way to make money and they don't really care about being competitive, but these are still young, rich owners and my guess is that they want to have some fun too.
Gotta make real money to stay afloat. Gotta make real money to be able spend real money on those Garber bucks. FCD, by MLS standards, is a modest financial player. Being able to transfer players within the league, and for real money, would allow the team to spend more. Right now, development-wise, FCD are too good for MLS. The league needs to catch up.
He is in competition with McKennie. He is already better than McKennie except he has to grow into an athletic body. (What this means is that I would start Pom over McKennie). He can develop in MLS but only if he moves clubs. Imagine Pom in LA playing in Lletget's spot with Pavon and Ibra and JOhnny2. He'd be fantastic. MLS is one of the worst marketed products I've ever seen. They just refuse to get out of their own way.
He can switch if he was eligible for the passport at the time he got the youth cap. But Diego Fagundez can never switch to the US because he was still on a green card when Uruguay gave him a youth cap.