Youth Yanks Abroad, '01-'04 YOBs (and Younger): 2018/19 Thread

Some names to keep in mind, in no particular order. Most of these have USYNT callups. Asterisk means currently with a foreign YNT.

'01: Konrad de la Fuente (Barca), Owen Otasowie (Wolves), Taylor Booth (Bayern), Will Vint (Man Utd), Folarin Balogun* (Arsenal), Ian Hoffmann (Karlsruher), Indiana Vassilev (Aston Villa), Justin Butler (Bayern), Jalen Hawkins (Ingolstadt), Sal Esposito (Napoli), Nicolas Defreitas-Hansen (Everton), Charlie Kelman (Southend), Stuart Ritchie (Groningen), Aziel Jackson (Toulouse), Luca Lewis (Torino), Dillon Keane (Stoke City), Teun Van Der Donk (Basel), Nicholas Mendonca (CR Vasco da Gama), Matko Miljevic (Argentinos Juniors), Hector Holguin* (Santos Laguna), Sebastian Medina* (Atlas), Michael Carmona (Atleti), Mateja Milasinovic (Partizan Belgrade)

'02: Joshua Pynadath (Ajax), Malik Tillman* (Bayern), Andre Luiz Queiroz (Real Madrid), Michael Barragan (Atlas), Ethan Wady (Chelsea), Max Goeggel (VfB Stuttgart), Joon Kang (Mainz), Noah Jones (RB Leipzig), Timo Bosselman (Kaiserslautern), Maximilian Dietz (Freiburg), Jerry Ayon (Monarcas Morelia)

'03: Sebastian Burke (Bayern), Kevin Bright (AC Milan), Lateef Omidiji* (Go Ahead Eagles), Alec Kennison (Middlesbrough), Vaughn Covil (Southampton), Austen Herring (Southampton), Chitua Hani (Sheffield Wednesday), Rowan Browne (AB Gladsaxe), Dylan Keleman (CD Universidad Catolica)

'04: Federico Oliva (Atleti), Ethan Borges (Sporting CP), Mateo Perez-Nance (Getafe), Aethan Yohannes (AZ Alkmaar)

'05: Robert Deziel (Union Adarve), Kevin Kelley (PSG), Belmar Joseph (PSG), Diego Thompson (Roma)

Otasowie is the lone player so far who has a professional contract.

 

Whoops, I forgot that '01 Nicholas Mendonca is also on a professional contract, with CR Vasco da Gama in the Brazilian Serie A.

 

Some other very young YAAs:
'03 Tyron Leon Haake, Werder Bremen
'05 Brooklyn Schwarz, Stuttgarter Kickers
'05 Troy McKee, Benfica(?)
'06 Kristian Kelley, Espanyol(?)
'06 Cheick Mohamed Kone, Inter
'06 or '07 Adrian Simons Gill, Barca
'07 Giorgio de Marzi, Roma
'08 Rasheed Omidiji, Lateef's brother, also at GAE in the Netherlands.

 

Which of these are new names? I'm assuming the two bolded are? Or am I just not up to date on that?

 

Yeah, I think they're both pretty new. Here's our thread on Simons Gill: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/adrian-simons-gill-at-barcelona.2083760/

And we don't have a thread on de Marzi but he's listed on Roma's official site: http://www.asroma.com/en/teams/youth-teams

 

'01 US U18 forward Charlie Kelman scored 61 goals last season in Southend United's academy and is currently with their U23s in preseason. He scored for the US U18s against Swope Park Rangers in June. Not out of the question we could see a League One debut from him this season.

Charlie Kelman scored 61 goals for Blues last season and is keen to kick on after impressing with USA's under 18 side this summer https://t.co/4kEiMqj3ZK

— Chris Phillips (@CJPhillips1982) July 3, 2018

 

Wonder what Bayern’s telling these kids is the plan for a plan to first team football. Perhaps it’s something similar to the Chelsea/Man City sales pitch of loans to smaller teams and constant feedback about play style? Tillman’s loan fits that mold.

If that’s it, I’m perfectly ok with youth players signing with Bayern. They can get a year of U19 in before getting loaned out, which is something that England can’t offer due to work permit restrictions. However, I’m not sure that Bayern has the loan system as developed as English teams do, which is pivotal.

 

This kid is the real deal, have seen him play quite a bit. It's interesting he was in the FCD system for awhile but never in their academy. I heard he wanted to be in the academy but they passed on him and he played on their premiere team. He then guess played in a tournament for a local DFW team against the FCD pre-academy group and destroyed them in a game to qualify for Dallas Cup. he singled handedly beat that FCD U15 Pre-Academy team with the FCD Academy director looking on.( scored a hat trick and it could have been more) Must have been thinking he made a mistake on this kid.

Great to see him get to England( I think his parents are English) and get some real development. Look to see him go places in the future.

 

I doubt they lay out a detailed plan. They just say we’re Bayern f’n Munich.

 

Sporting KC academy player Cameron Duke also training with Bayern Munich this week

— keith costigan (@KeithCostigan) July 17, 2018

Bayern Murica?

God I hate portmanteaus.

 

I’m wondering if Araujo ends up as a CB or RB. I’m betting RB because I don’t think he’s going to grow much more and I think he likes going forward too much to play CB

 

I think he's a central mid before a right back. There's no reason to move him off CB yet. If he grows some, he's a Sergio Ramos type of CB with that level of actual upside. He could easily play for a top team in Europe.

In my opinion, he's the most talented CB we've produced. A guy like EPB might end up a better player, but that'll likely be because he's taller. I think Araujo has more soccer talent. The issue will be whether Araujo has the height to play CB. I think Araujo is like a CB Carleton. If Carleton had great pace, he'd be going for the type of transfer fee that Brazilian guy went for to Real Madrid. Araujo is the same level of football talent at his position, but like Carleton's average pace, Araujo has average height. Both could still be great players because their skills at the different parts of the position are incredibly good.

 

I think what we're seeing is clubs starting to acknowledge the quality coming out of MLS academies. Bayern and a few others want to be on that leading edge, and exploit this market. Clubs are always looking for a competitive advantage. The quality of players like Pulisic and McKennie speaks for itself. That's what the FCD collaboration is all about, but Bayern's ambitions are bigger than that. This is a long-term play in the US market.

I think we're going to start seeing more Euro clubs, particularly those with less severe foreign player signing rules, do this. Just offer trials and training sessions to a whole bunch of kids, and sign the cream of the crop.

Ironically, as far the Bundesliga goes, Bayern is not one of the teams I'd want our youngsters to go to. There are quite a number of Bundesliga clubs that provide a better pathway to the first team than Bayern. Don't get me wrong at all. There's quality that comes out of that academy (Muller, Alaba, Kroos, Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Emre Can, the list goes on etc.). I just see Bayern as one of those clubs that can go out and sign whatever player they want. Kinda like the big premier league teams. There really is no point being an academy player at Chelsea or Man City. Same with Bayern.

I'd much prefer that our kids were going to Schalke, Gladbach, Mainz, Koln, etc.

Maybe I'm not viewing it right, but that's how I feel.

 

I think at the Academy level, you go with the best facilities, trainers, support. The competition at Bayern must be intense even at that level. U19 in Germany is an excellent development league. If at that point, you can't break in the first team (and probably 99% won't, even more these days than in Muller's time) you can get a loan to a lesser BL team. Green went to Hamburg and Tillman has gone to Nurnberg. That is pretty impressive that BL teams will take Bayern youth/reserve players on loan. Usually, players drop a league for a loan like Wright, Antonee Robinson, CCV, Miazga, EPB, etc. have done.

 

'01 Otasowie played w/ the U-23s -

The match report as Wolves U23s were beaten 1-0 by @FCLeicesterRoad in the John Perkins Memorial Trophy over the weekend before travelling to Holland for a pre-season training camp. #WolvesAcademy

📰👇https://t.co/tX5GcjGxvq

— Wolves Academy (@WolvesAcademy) July 17, 2018

Excerpt: "Wolves’ first half highlights were built around powerful midfielder Owen Otasowie, who fired just centimetres wide early on and on 14 mins put Boubacar Hanne clean through, only for his shot to be expertly smothered by LRFC keeper Will Highland.

Wolves winger Ben Stevenson’s was also thwarted on 23 mins, but 10 mins later a pinpoint cross from the right by LRFC’s Jordan Burrows saw Sandhu ghost in behind right back Carlos Heredia and power his header into the top corner.

Wolves rallied immediately and forward Taylor Perry glanced a header that Highland did well to get hands on, but although Otasowie went close again after a mazy run down the left it was the home team who went in 1-0 up and full of confidence."

One of our more underrated prospects imo. Even though they were in the 2nd division for awhile, Wolves have had one of the best academy in England. The fact that he's signed a pro deal speaks highly of him

 

Otasowie was not a part of the latest US U18 camp in Kansas City -- hopefully that doesn't mean he's trying to hold out for England youth teams. (Not saying I would blame him or anything if so; it's where he grew up.) I don't profess to know about the individual players, but one can imagine he would likely have a very difficult time breaking into the England '01s, good thing for us:
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/england-u17/startseite/verein/23260

 

4 hyphens. nice.

 

So one of the starters in the Wolves U23 lineup is an England U17 international, '01 Taylor Perry. 4 caps for England, although he didn't make the cut for their 2018 U17 Euro final squad. The third and final '01 is a Scotland U17 player. According to Wolves' website, Otasowie is on a professional contract but the other two are just academy scholars. FWIW.

 

Check out @USAprospects’s Tweet:

Per @AnimaPura3 ‘02 De Anza Force winger & #usynt Jack Imperato is off to CF Villarreal pic.twitter.com/YP9RlT3n9q

— Joey (@USAprospects) July 19, 2018

 

Better than Pope?