ICYMI, Olivia Moultrie just signed a professional contract at the age of 13. I wanted to use this as a jumping off point of discussion with this group on youth sports (with soccer likely to be discussed most, given the forum) and what they are becoming in this country. To start, please give your reactions to this story. I'll post mine later on in the thread but wanted a genuine reaction from the group here.
I think it's a little crazy offering someone that young a pro contract. I think of Nick Besagno and how great he was going to be but he didn't grow and mature the way that was expected. Maybe it's important to get in early so as not to lose a prospect to another team but I think it's getting out of hand as younger and younger kids are being offered. Just my 2 cents.
Lots of thoughts, mostly ill-informed, but if she has the ability and drive to be the greatest, seems she shouldn’t have to do it for free. How exactly that should look is the real tricky part. Maybe someone with more insight into that will post and I can then give it a like. (Generally, if agents and sponsors and leagues can manage not to view her [and other phenoms] only as a cash cow but take into account humanity and healthy development, that’s the starting point.)
Title is a bit misleading. Sounds like she's not actually signed to a pro team. She signed with a sports agency and got a deal with Nike. Good for her, especially if she saves the Nike money just in case she doesn't develope in the next 5 years and ends up needing it to pay for college. The biggest risk really is if she ends up being good enough to play college but not good enough to go pro, she's given up college eligibility already. But it seems like thats a pretty small risk to pay for the potential reward. Even if she doesn't make it she's most likely better off financially.
She might be everything that the article says, but I think going pro is a mistake. Although there is lots of money involved, etc., she is just one ACL injury away from never being able to play soccer again. She should have never given up her college eligibility and should have at least gone on to play one season at college. I don't think her parents are focusing on the long-term and I'm afraid that she will turn out to be another Freddy Adu.
eh, with the cash she can now afford to go to college on her own just fine, I would assume. Sure, the scholarship would have made that a $0 but this is essentially a scholarship, in a way. Further, I bet it wouldn't take much to get into Oregon for essentially free with the Nike setup. That reminds me - one thing that jumped out to me in the article wasn't related to Olivia at all. It was that the NWSL doesn't allow contracts to players under the age of 18. I didn't realize this was a hard no - I admittedly didn't follow the Mallory Pugh situation. This seems like a strange rule to me given MLS doesn't have that standard. Yes, there are vast differences in opportunity for men and women in the game, even here in the states, but that seems like an unnecessary limitation.
We don't know the terms of the contract, but these companies don't just offer these contracts on a whim. I'm sure there are parameters that she has to meet to take advantage of the contract. Hopefully she'll be able to do that and won't run into an injury or other problem that would void or decrease the contract. I just think it's too much of a gamble at such a young age.
If it's this simple, it looks like she's getting paid to develop skills as a teenager. Like you and others have said, financially, at worst this is a college scholarship. Psychologically...I'm not so sure it's a great idea. I have a 13-year-old who's intelligent, capable, and responsible, but who would totally fall apart if he felt the kind of expectation this kind of contract could create for a kid. Like, I'm pretty sure he literally wouldn't leave the house anymore. But he's anxious about stuff; Ms. Moultrie is probably not wired that way mentally. Still, though, I would guess that she will need to have a strong support network, an advocate for her own personal well-being to help her navigate being a professional athlete, and someone who regularly reminds her that she hasn't actually accomplished anything yet and still has lots to do to mature into a successful pro. Without making her feel like a failure as a person if she doesn't develop. Man, I'd be bad at this if she were my kid.
Yes, this is a scholarship, but, unless I'm missing something here, she can't play soccer in college, if that's what she wants to do. From what I understand, she can't take money to play a sport and later play that sport in college as an amateur. So, if the idea is to make a butt-load of money while she's young and then retire from soccer and go back to college, yeah, this kind of makes sense. However, we don't know what will happen in the future and I am afraid that in the future, she may not have the ability to go to college and may regret never taking the time to do so. I think we all know someone who thought they would go back to college later in life and then things like family, kids, work, etc., get in the way and college falls by the wayside.
under the current projection she is going to be playing as a pro by the age of 18, at the latest. Pros ask a lot of their bodies, but when you look at their schedule from a time perspective they have a lot of extra/free time. She is already home schooled (something I found comical about the article) so she knows how to make time for the sport and her studies. I don't think she'll forgo college completely. I hope not, at least. I would hope Nike was smart about it and made opportunities to obtain an education with the contract. If not them, her parents (who seem to be mostly ok in this) should have made a stipulation that it happen or be paid for.
To be fair, if she's been able to go train in Europe, I have to think that her parents are well off enough that college wouldn't be an issue anyway. Take the money, invest it, try and get as much quality training in while you can. Seems like a smart move to me. I'm not real knowledgeable about the youth game in Europe, but don't they already buy/sell talent at a pretty young age? I'd have to assume those kids are making some kind of money, plus the better training opportunities when some clubs come knocking.
Her agent will have looked after her interests in the contract. College, injury insurance, etc... will all be covered in the contract. On the bright side of things she won’t be playing for the Tarheels’ women’s soccer team, which is great for my alma mater...the reigning national champion Florida State Seminoles.
thanks to you all for your input. I knew this forum would have some good points. Here are mine Offering a college scholarship to an 11 year old is just flat out dumb. I don't care what level s/he is playing at, that's just not a healthy thing. Two years ago when this happened it likely had publicity (though not as much) and I'm sad I didn't start tracking it from then Signing a "pro contract" at 13 is also a really weird thing to me. This actually feels more like an endorsement than a contract, but with NCAA it means they aren't getting all of your value so she is disqualified from playing in their athletics (side rant) The part about "a shift in women's sports" is refreshing. Though I'm a bit confused how this shift affects a 13 year old but not the actual pros that play in New Jersey, for instance. A lot of the videos I've seen of Moultrie are on her technical work. It's insane. It's also against cones. Her notoriety came from there. To be fair, she's shown in a game situation that it translates. But it's never AS flashy as the technical videos (as should be expected) and something I wanted to point out. Her dad makes the right comment about school. For 90+% of womens soccer players in this country, that is still the best route. I'm not a fan of the dad's comments in the video, however, about her wanting to be the best player in the world. That's a dangerous mindset for a young mind. Olivia seems to be handling it alright, but the pressure, anxiety, and depression that kind of goal can easily induce is scary. The natural comparison here is Freddy Adu. I don't think we have a case of lying about age, though, so it's not apples to apples. Pulisic might be a better comparission, but then you look at him and no pomp and circumstance was really made until he was playing with Dortmund and much (in terms of % of life) older than Olivia. This is a really interesting case study A point I really want to get to here is the insane specialization of youth athletes. Unless I've missed it, Moultrie has only played soccer since she was seven. No time for baseball/softball, basketball, swimming, etc. It's all soccer. That is how you burn out. She could turn 18 and have played as much soccer as a 28 year old pro. That's not a good thing. Especially since that age, 18, is when she can actually finally play in full blown professional leagues under current rules. At which point, whatever league she decides to go play for is going to have their hands absolutely full in deciding how "allocation" works. If it's a free agency setup, then Europe makes sense, but this feels like a situation where the (hopefully still functioning) NWSL are going to have to be extremely creative and have their Beckham-like defining moment. Home schooling kids to play/have time for sports is ********ing stupid. Also, in watching videos, I think I found that her parents are doTerra pushers and wow