I also think it's a mistake for people to correlate athleticism with height. We look at it in other sports like basketball and football where players like lebron james, jimmy graham and calvin johnson have a great combination of height AND athleticism that causes matchup problems for their opposition. But look at someone like DeAnthony Thomas. The guy is 5'10 (i'd say more like 5'7, 5'8 but whatever) 175 and lighting fast. He surely isn't too tall to be a soccer player and still an elite athlete.
Yep played for Ajax's youth Baseball team until he was 15. Cruyff''s teammate for Ajax, Barca and the Dutch national team Johan Neeskens was also a baseball player in his youth. There is the assumption that players who are considered "geniuses" of their sport got that way because they devoted all their time to it but not always true. The previously mentioned Cruyff played Baseball, Wayne Gretsky also played Lacrosse and Baseball growing up, John McEnroe played Soccer and Basketball in high school and did not focus on Tennis full time until he was at Stanford and I think we all know Steve Nash's Soccer prowess and he also played Ice Hockey and Rugby . Playing multiple sports could give you a better athletic base and a better understanding of your chosen sport. That leads me into one of the issues I think we are having in our youth development. We still see these travel teams that play year round, forces kids and parents to devote a tremendous amount in terms of time and often starts at 8 years old and sometimes younger. I think since we are far behind some think we will only catch up to the elite if we get kids playing soccer 24/7/365. But, overall our kids are probably playing more games that our European and South American counterparts. And there is this idea that the great players in Soccer got that way because they focused on Soccer full time when they were young. But Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey played Rugby and were successful in Track and Field, Chris Smalling and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain played Rugby into their teens, Diego Forlan and Hugo Lloris were highly rated young Tennis players, Wayne Rooney was a Boxer, Gerard Pique played Basketball and Handball Rio Ferdinand was offered scholarships in Ballet and So on and so on. To be a great Soccer player you obviously need skill first but, you also helps to be a great all around athlete. When it comes to getting the best athletes to play the sport in this country we need more athleticism but a different type of athleticism. Because Football and Basketball are our biggest sports we look at athleticism in a different way then they probably do elsewhere. Often we just look at as a size speed ratio. You know Jadveon Clowney is 6'6 270 and runs a 4.53 so he is a freak athlete. Soccer takes a different type of athleticism while speed and leaping ability is very important and strength could also help the most important athletic attributes in Soccer is agility, balance and coordination. I think we do just fine in the first 3 but, I think we lag in the second 3. Maybe if we have more division 1 point guard, middle infielder, cornerback type athletes in our player pool we would do a better job.
I don't really agree. In fact I thought about this just yesterday. I was at a park with my dog kicking a ball around when a couple of kids showed up with their own ball and started playing. As I watched them I thought to myself, "ya know if I was out doing that when I was their age instead of playing football with my friends then soccer with my club who knows how far I could have gone." Shortly after I realized that the answer is not very far at all. In basketball and football the likelihood of going pro increases tremendously when you are outside doing it everyday. However in soccer that isn't enough. If you want to be world class you have to not only show tremendous skill, but you have to develop that skill with proper coaching which is generally found within academies. The US will win a world cup once we develop the proper academies and coaching. I don't feel we are too far off though. I believe the shift toward soccer in this country is a generational shift. I can carry on a conversation about soccer with most people my age (I'm 23). When those people start to have children we will then see soccer grow tremendously.
Where do you live where you see kids playing pickup baseball? That was a staple of my childhood (I'm 40), but I can't remember the last time I saw kids playing a game like that in a field/street.
The OP lives in Cuba. We really just need to get the best kids into the best academies. It's pretty simple. There is no reason to even worry about the 2000th monkey, a team gets picked picked from a pool of a few hundred of the best every year. The reality is when our 500 best and brightest each year go to something like Barca, Ajax, Lille academy and get weeded out by an aggressive, cut-throat competitive process, we will inch our way forward.
I thought this was a joke. That's pretty cool, actually. Turning the tables on the argument..... If the Cubs could get the great athletes like Cruyf, they would win the world series. But they are always playing soccer instead.
I've seen a couple of people speak about LeBron James not necessarily being a good soccer player simply because he's athletic enough to be one of the best basketball players in the world. To be clear, I don't think people are saying if LeBron quit basketball tomorrow he'd be a great soccer player in no time. What people (including me) who say LeBron would have been a great CB mean is, if LeBron had picked up a soccer ball instead of a basketball as a child, he would have no doubt developed the skills to go along with his athleticism. He would have been a very good soccer player. Now, I happen to think LeBron is mentally weak (for a sports superstar), and thus probably would have not performed on the big stage but I wholeheartedly believe he would have developed all the required footballing skills to make him a very in demand commodity.
If LeBron grew up in Spain, Italy, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, etc he would more than likely still end up being a Basketball player. Don't you think there is a reason why there is no soccer player his height anywhere in the highest levels of the sport? LeBron's body type and athleticism is perfectly suited for basketball.
Again, you (and I mean you in the general sense) are being to literal with the example. No one is disputing that LeBron shouldn't be a basketball player, and place of birth has nothing to do with the example. The main point being if a guy with LeBron's athleticism and physical traits, grew up with a soccer ball and a passion for soccer instead of a basketball then he would have been a damn fine soccer player. Also Peter Crouch and Lacina Traore play in the EPL and are both the same height as LeBron.
If Lebron grew up playing soccer he wouldn't look the same as he does now and people would be saying he's not one of our most athletic players. And athleticism and physical traits alone don't guarantee a damn fine soccer player. This is a cerebral game, much more so than basketball, football, or baseball IMO. I'd much rather the focus be on the cerebral players than the best athletes. Of course the ideal is both in one package.
And they are both pretty meh. Imagine how good they would have been in basketball if they grew up with a basketball.
things have changed...MLB has been recruiting from latin america now so that should tell you something. Baseball players are not the best athletes...they are usually slow, out of shape, and the game requires very little intelligence.
NFL has top athletes, but they use performance enhancing narcotics from a young age and throughout their careers to maintain their stamina and body. In addition, besides quarterbacks and linebackers, the game again requires very little intelligence to play. Soccer players need to be athletes, stay clean, and have to be intelligent in order to adapt to field situations and field decisions. NBA guards and point guards are similar to soccer players. Yeah its just an opinion folks!
Yup, when you see more pick up games on the street, and kids are trying tricks. I see more than I did when I was a kid. I think today, there's so much pressure to fit into a club system when you play club ball, that you never really have a chance to grow into the game. The coaching and scouting will have to get better too.
I wish I had a reference for this stat, but I read recently that the USA has 20 million kids now playing youth soccer. Could this possibly be correct? If so, that is more than the entire population of the Netherlands. I doubt think we had a third that many a generation ago. I am sure that all the things mentioned here are part of the solution, but if nothing else, having that many kids coming through the system has to produce some freakishly talented players soon. We only need 23! Maybe we won't be a World Cup champion nation that soon, but being a staple in the quarterfinals with an occasional semifinal would be a great step in the next 3 world cups.