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

PROSPECT | With the 🇵🇹 passport in hand, could a club for @Gioreyna10 be announced shortly? ✈️

Last rumored destination - Borussia Dortmund! 🐝 pic.twitter.com/A6X5txHw1X

— Football Wonderkids (@fbwonderkids) April 10, 2019

 

Pynadath was a late sub and scored the insurance goal as the Ajax u17s beat bottom of the table AZ, 3-1. https://t.co/SwNziWcfd6

— Daniel (@DanielSmith1022) April 9, 2019

 

Unpopular opinion: Pynadath is the next Ben Lederman. We know his name because he's been at big clubs, but what has he actually ever...………….done? When I see him, I don't see a player that's better than kids the same age that I see at the top MLS academies.

Maybe Ajax will work their magic and I'll think differently in 2-3 years. We'll see.

 

I think it has to be worrying that he’s a bench player at the academy level.

 

I do think it's very important to start at the youth level. Hasn't Pynadath had some injury issues though? Also, Lederman was always low on the depth chart and didn't score or assist even when he made appearances.

I think his ceiling is limited due to athleticism but Ajax is Ajax, and no matter what happens he should be able to make a living at some level.

 

How many players in a given Ajax U-17 squad do you think become professional footballers?

 

Quick glance at the 2011/12 Ajax U17 team, it looks like out of 18 players:

4 are out of football
5 are playing very low division
2 are playing 2nd division in Holland
6 are first division (Holland and France)

I don't think Ajax in 2012 is as good as the reborn UCL semi-finalist Ajax we have now. I do think they have serious quality throughout the club. Pynadath will be pushed to become the best he could be. He is eligible for India too correct?

 

Was talking to the U15 Coach of Entracht Frankfurt a few years back at Dallas Cup and he had a stacked team. The best youth team I have ever seen as a group and they walked through DC and won without breaking a sweat. Had at least 4 to 5 Youth German National team players. (sponsored kids) I asked him how many off that team would go pro and he said Entracht might sign one to two of them and three or four more might go pro with other clubs. So a total of 6 off an incredible team, stacked at every position. At least that is one example.

Funny thing was I asked if the rest would go to college and he looked at me like I was a unicorn. He then said, "no, they will get jobs" It's make it or break it over there.

I figure more from Ajax as they are known to be a factory for players but at best maybe 10 or so make it pro. (Looks like was off by a few with Patrick's post)

 

Same. Talked with a Barca youth coach of the u15 a few years ago and asked same question. How many of these kids will make the highest level?
2/3 highest level.
4/5 pro at some level.
Rest out.
And that was the best youth team I had ever seen. 15 deep. Everyone could play.

He said it’s a horrible system if you’re a parent or a kid but a great system if you’re a pro soccer fan. Just brutal and destroys kids but produces great senior teams.

 

After seeing some of the Academy working up close I would agree its a bad place for a kid to be. The atmosphere is not one you would wish on your enemy but it is what the clubs have to do.

 

He is.

 

IIRC, India is similar to Japan in that holding dual citizenship after age 18 is tricky.

 

Would be interested to get more on how it absolutely destroys kids.
Most go out of the sport in their late teens and 20's and can go to college then. Or is the education at such a low level its basically rudimentary without any value. Just seems a little outdated view of the whole life ends if you get cut by a professional team. Just the first day of the rest of your life.

 

It differs from club to club. Feyenoord and Ajax are known for being hard in their academies and the kids themselves arenot going to play nice guy to their competitors in the academy either. PSV on the other hand has an academy known for the warmer family type of style. However it still is a place where performance comes first , second and third.

 

All of this is why I think a more pessimistic stance on most of these players is needed. Whenever someone criticizes a player, there's often people who will object.

Most of these players that fans talk about won't make it. Is it good to be wrong about almost every one of these players so you can say you weren't critical? We are all guilty of it. We should all be more pessimistic. We should use the statistical data available about this to tell us that we need to adjust our expectations because they are out of proportion.

Lets take the FC Dallas U-17 age group as an example. That seems to be the most talented age group right now in the DA.

These are the players in the Dallas age group I'd regard as real prospects.

'02: Wilson, Letayf, Escribano, Carrera, Garcia, Rodriguez, Redzic
'03: Che, Fragle, Gomez, Sealy, Pepi

I named 12 players, but statistically its unlikely that more than half of those 12 will be MLS-level or better at age 25. If I said that I don't think Dante Sealy will be an MLS level player or better at age 25, it would be considered by some as a ridiculous thing to say, but whats actually ridiculous is that fans are totally overestimating the likelihood that players will turn into good professional players. We are all guilty of it.

 

Just as an illustration the Orange U21 that became European champions were very talented and yet not one of them made it into the top. Not one of them was later a Orange player.
It takes alot to become a star or even a good player.

 

Obviously I know that the odds of being in a 1st division somewhere are extremely long. There are opportunities to be had, though. Even USL or further afield.

 

this is the correct opinion. xuxuh is in this as well.

 

Mason Judge is now starting regularly in the U-19's for Frankfurt. He's moved up from his regular U-17 age group towards the end of this season. Thats good news for his development.

 

But what are we generally talking about here? We are talking about the best players at these age groups. So, while 12 of 18 players on a U17 team won't be pro players, we are not really discussing those 12. Or at least we hope not to be.

I wonder if you ask a U17 coach to guess one player on a U17 team that will make it, what their batting average would be.

I think we are probably over optimistic at the U17 level but probably overly pessimistic at the U23 level. Look at what you hear about Sargent compared to what you heard 12 months ago. You would think Sargent was heading for cashier job at a 7-11 back in Missouri for how he is discussed lately. Meanwhile, what he has done to date at his age is unprecendented for an American striker.

Kellyn Acosta is done as far as most are concerned. But look at Joe Corona getting scouted by GB after years of meh. Players are given up on very quickly.

 

Some teams you can name it easily, other teams you can't.

If someone wants to look this up, they should try to see how many players on the Brazilian or German U-20 World Cup teams from 10-15 years ago ended up being NT players for those countries.

I don't know what the number is going to be, but lets say its five.

You would get 15 different names if you asked 10 people to name which five from the current U-20 age group would end up as NT players.

That is to say that there are a lot of different opinions, and its not that often that there is unanimous agreement about any one player.

 

I recall an article awhile back about players in EPL academies that made this point. It followed the all the players that signed pro papers at age 17 and of 20 of them, there were only 5 left playing in the EPL at age 23.

with regard to the 12 players you listed from FCD, I think maybe 3 of them will be playing by the time they are 25.

 

I would be careful of the first data point. The EPL might be, at this moment, the most competitive league in the world. How many of the 20 were at MLS level or higher?

MLS is expanding every year for awhile isn't it? The USL is probably not a career now. But hanging on in MLS/Liga MX/Denmark/2.Bund, and all the other places Americans can have a career is still something.

 

Out of 21 on the USA U20 WC Squad, 7 I think are still in pro ball. But that depends what you think of where Mix and Dily Duka are now. One is an NFL player!

Quite a few are playing in USL, quite a few switched NT teams.

On Germany's 2009 squad, 8-9 players are playing in very low level leagues or retired. But the other 12-13 are mostly first division with some 2.Bund players.

Brazil is harder because I'm not familiar with the clubs in the Brazilian league and they also seem to export themselves to the middle east and China.