The Official Gilbert Fuentes thread

They absolutely can.

Just last year there were FC Dallas homegrown signings playing academy games.

You can even mix amateurs and pros in the opposite direction, amateur homegrowns can play for a team's USL side before signing their first contract.


Usually in these situations with homegrown signings who are 15-16, they'll stay local as they still have school. They might spend a good amount of time flying around with youth national teams (if you're good enough to be pro at that age you're probably getting YNT call ups), and when they're here they'll be playing academy or USL games, and/or training with the MLS team. Since our USL team is in Reno instead of a local "2" team, I think the high school kids are unlikely to get serious playing time up there as say a Tyler Adams could for NYRB2... but I could be wrong, maybe the team will hire a tutor? In any case I wouldn't have any expectations for 2018, few guys get MLS or even USL minutes at their age... A lot of these recent homegrown signings are less "he's ready to play now" (like an Adams or Diego Fagundez) and more "we don't want to lose him to Europe for nothing", as a response to Weston McKennie's move from Dallas to Schalke (similarly RSL is about to lose Taylor Booth to Bayern Munich).

 

How do you then not void the amateur status as far as the NCAA is concerned for the amateurs involved? Or does the NCAA just throw out their rules on no playing with pros for soccer?

 

NCAA and academy leagues could have different set of rules. College prepares you for professionals, so if you’re a professional, you have no business there. But academy teams have age groups.

 

I think NCAA’s rules on amateurism say to maintain that status for your college eligibility you can’t have an agent, play for more net, sign a contract or play with professionals. So it’s not a problem for the pros to have amateur teammates...the problem is for the amateurs to have pro teammates if they want to play in College...unless soccer has just thrown that rule out.

 

I’ve could be opting to skip college and play with his school and academy teams for the next 2/3 years with the occasional Reno/SJ friendly call ups

 

Lots of NCAA players have played PDL ball over the summers without loss of eligibility. Hell, Wondo did it at Chico State.

 

Exactly, they're not getting paid, so the NCAA doesn't care.

 

Plus, let's face it, colleges don't have all that much to gain by exploiting athletes in NCAA soccer programs the way they do in basketball and football. College soccer is not exactly a money maker.

 

Do PDL teams with college players really have have paid pros on them? I thought there were pro teams and amateur teams with the college players, but not mix and match.

 

College golfers play in professional tournaments. They just can’t accept prize money or gifts.

 

When Jordan Morris played for the USMNT while still at Stanford, he didn't take the money that the rest of his teammates got for the call ups.

 

Current NCAA players cannot play with a pro teammate (except on national teams), but younger amateurs in the academy can play with a pro teammate without losing their future NCAA eligibility. You might recall that Tommy Thompson played a few games with the Earthquakes reserves before his short college stint. This was something negotiated between the USSF and NCAA when the current USSDA system was being formalized. At the time the main motivation was to allow pre-college academy players to play in senior friendlies or pro reserve games, but it also works to allow young pros to play with their U-whatever team.

 

I'm going way out on a limb...I don't think he's concerned about his future NCAA eligibility.

 

No, it's about the eligibility of the other academy players.

 

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

 

Right on, thought we were talking about Gilbert...more of a broader discussion looking back on the thread.

 

Thank you! Since he's what - 15? - he hasn't even taken the SAT yet! A bit premature for conjecture around a putative college career...

 

If "he" is Gilbert Fuentes, what are you talking about? There's been no discussion in this thread of his college soccer career. He signed with a professional team and can't have one.

 

So, essentially what you are saying is that the entire content of this page is irrelevant to the subject of the thread?!

 

The line of discussion started with a question about where Fuentes will get playing time, since he's probably not ready to jump into the MLS lineup. Someone pointed out that he could still play with the academy team, and someone else raised a concern that doing so would jeopardize the NCAA eligibility of his academy teammates, and then the discussion went on to hash out the details.

 

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018...-should-know-after-2018-generation-adidas-cup

Gilbert Fuentes (San Jose Earthquakes)
Fuentes came in as one of the players to watch, as he had already signed a professional contract with San Jose in the winter. Despite playing with a team that was near the bottom during qualifying, Fuentes was able to lead the Quakes to a respectable 1-3-1 record. He scored two superb goals while playing as an attacking midfielder, though he is likely to play in a deeper role as a professional, and his technical ability was second to none.

 

How cool! We only have to wait 10 more years until he is in his prime!

 

I won’t be alive by then....