Good for him, let's see if he can do what Boyd couldn't and maybe make the first team. However that is a ways away so hopefully he can just continue to get better.
This is very good news. I remember some folks mentioning during the Nike U-17 tournament last winter that there were concerns about his potential physical development. Presumably a club like Borussia Dortmund has done their due diligence, and they still decided to sink a lot of money into him.
I think they'd take a lack of physical development in a youth with a huge grain of salt...they learned that hard lesson when their youth coach at the time cut Marco Reus because he was perceived as too diminutive to make it with them...long story short hes developed into quite the player and Borussia Dortmund bought him back for 17 million Euros...
I'm glad the speculation is over, now if we can just keep him away from the hype machine for a few years...
Wow- very happy for Junior. This is a great opportunity but, like INKRO says, there's a loooooooong way to go yet. Hopefully he makes it.
I had the opportunity to meet him during Summer break this year and he is a pretty solid looking dude. He has muscular shoulders and its apparent that he's been hitting the gym. Looked to be a bit under 5'7' , but he's only 16 and as far as i can tell he shouldn't have any issues moving up as he gets older. Also, he was extremely polite and is the tpe of person you can't help but root for.
His build will be fine. I think it's safe to say Dortmund isn't signing him so they can convert him to a centerback. I really do think Germany is going to become more and more of a destination for youngsters like Flores. They do have some foreign player quotas in their academies. I forgot what the number was.................but they have a clause that says "X% of players in each academy level have to be Germany-eligible." I'm sure a German fan will correct me.
They require 12 players DFB( National Team) elegible in each team roster for the following age groups U-16 thru U-19.
I would not recommend hiring Terrell Owens' financial adviser ... which, I think, is the guy on the left.
Can somebody explain to me why he can't go into their academy right now or doesn't want to? I remember Gyau went to Germany at 16 or 17 right?
Why do I think he was in Germany prior to his 18th birthday? Charles Renken who is younger than him came with him as well.
... and that was even a steal, due to a buyout-clause. His true value would have been somethng like 30M. They were lucky that he wasn't offended by his earlier dropout, but preferred to go back to his home town club among the probably dozen offers for that prize. I've never heard of anything like that, and I'm 99% sure you're wrong. It doesn't make any sense anyway. German clubs have something like 10 to maybe 30 or whatever residency spots for the 5 age groups from U15 to U19, and the core of the teams still consists of players from within an hour drive distance. You don't need a foreign player quota when you have a natural limit of maybe 4 new residency players every year; including German players from more than 40 miles away. However, Dortmund officials don't really want to talk about a done deal, though they somehow acknowledge that Flores will join them; I think they're still not sure about the details of the "no transfers of kids" FIFA laws. They probably signed some kind of agreement, Dortmund want the kid, he wants to go to Dortmund, but they have to find out how to do it best.
Canouse's dad works for a German software company (and has for many years). His primary reason for being there (probably) isn't for soccer.
Every kid living in Germany can play soccer of course. There's been the term "Fußball-Deutscher" in the past, I'm not sure if it still has any meaning in today's laws; a "Fußball-Deutscher" ("Soccer-German") is/was everybody who played youth soccer in Germany as a resident for at least 2 or 3(?)years. These players are treated like Germans by the DFB. Fighting soccer slavery for African kids is one thing; but local "Africans" and others have to be able to play of course. It doesn't have any meaning in pro soccer anyway; but you can't buy Burkina Faso's national team to play at the Oberliga, because the players won't get a license. A Burkina Faso native who grew up in Germany could play there of course, being "soccer-naturalized" as a Fußballdeutscher.
Players can go to other countries before 18 only if their parents or legal guardians go too, at least that's my understanding. They made this a rule in the last 5 years as I remember.