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

I still consider MLS a subpar league and not the goal post for whether or not a player has made it. I agree that is changing somewhat and folks can carve out a career in the MLS making 200K a year but they are not retiring off that. Point being, if you are good enough to be a journeyman in the MLS is not the level we are thinking when we discuss these youth national team players, or at least that's not my thought.

I would like to see a time when US youth National team players all matriculate to the big five leagues and our national team has zero MLS players. If the US had a National team for baseball, it wouldn't pick guys from the minor leagues to be on the team. That is akin to having MLS players on our National team, at least for now. I agree the league is getting better but when I turn on the TV on Sat and watch the EPL and compare to MLS, there is a stark contrast in player ability. Although it is good to Almiron fitting in and making an impact immediately at Newcastle, that benefits MLS. But he was the best in the entire league.

 

Barriers to entry are slightly lower in MLS than at United, but the point stands.

 

I agree with all that. But if we are discussing how many turn pro and have a career, MLS is in that conversation. Along the lines of should kids try this career path or just go to college. Like you, I hope for the day where MLS is where our players develop and then sold to a Top 4 league. Once they establish themselves at that level, then we start discussing a NT call.

Not just picking on MLS, we have players in our current pool in the EFL Championship, 2.Bund, and Liga MX. We can argue all day the relative strength of those three leagues with MLS, but there needs to come a day when we won't have to.

Getting pro minutes at 17 seems to be a big marker of an elite prospect. I haven't seen any data on whether those minutes have to be at any particular level. I don't have any hard numbers, but the sense I get is that the USA has more pro players that got or are getting minutes at 17 (or younger) than ever before.

 

Check out @bundimericans’s Tweet:

Taylor Booth (@TBLaRoca23) scored his first goal for Bayern’s u19s today in their 5-1 win! https://t.co/WYtN2CZqEO

— Bundimericans (@bundimericans) April 13, 2019

 

Second goal in the video.

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 Fünfmal ließ es die #FCBU19 beim 1. FC Heidenheim krachen! #MiaSanMia #FCBayernCampus pic.twitter.com/qJyPUFhA1X

— FC Bayern Campus (@fcbayerncampus) April 15, 2019

 

An '02 attacker named Ryan Jani is playing at Rayo Vallecano.

 

Ben Heal at West Ham is American. He's playing for West Ham U-17's in the GA Cup.

He's a holding midfielder. I've only seen a little so far of West Ham, but he's made a few hard tackles. I think he's an '04 since the announcers said he's playing up an age group, but I can't find much info about Heal.

 

I saw that he is 15.

 

I heard that. 15 could be an '03 or an '04, so that narrows it down to two age groups.

 

Is he good? Wasn't that impressive today.

 

Substitute Sealy for Carlton and do you still the same way about legitimate criticism of the player?

 

I haven't seen enough to say.

 

Seattle subbed AOC off around 45th minute. And it looked that if they didn't they would have scored 3-4 more goals and Heal would have been red carded at some point.

 

They robbed the Dutch academies silly (supposing their scouts know what they did and took the best from our best academies) luring kids away with high paychecks, but none of them made it into any significant club and none of them got into the Orange squad. The talents that stayed and resisted the epl lures did make it and did get into the Orange squad.
So I'm not very high on what epl academies are doing.

 

Given the player is highly talented (giving much minutes to a mediocre talent isnot going to lift him a level or more), it doesnot matter whether the level he's going to have pro minutes is the highest. Top coaches from England, Germany, Spain and France envy our KNVB system in which the Eredivisie teams Young squads play in our second tier, as they see it as a decisive benefit for our talents to have to play against men, not against boys and against players who're on the pitch for their earnings, unlike playing against other kids without pressur. So these kids will immediately feel it when they're sloppy and they themselves feel the pressure as they're being judged by their club's coaches for how they perform in this rough environment. It's a crash course to professional maturity.
Feyenoord stupidly decided against joining the Pyramid and we suffer as young talents at PSV, Ajax, AZ can easily step in at the first team, while Feyenoord's talents lag behind and clearly show why those foreign coaches, Klopp is one of them, envy the system.

 

MLS will seek compensation for affiliated academy players who sign outside the league

 

I find it interesting that in the rebuttal from the players union, they point out that MLS cherry picks the standards used around the world and only accepts the ones that benefit them.

It’s clear they feel they have a lot of negotiating leverage and are exercising it mercilessly, which is their right. They should be wary if the table turn however.

 

I think FIFA bans unilateral club options. They are SOP for MLS though. I agree with the MLSPA on this one and MLS should conform to every FIFA regulation.

 

Do they "ban" them or "frown" on them? Ban would seem to imply that MLS could be in big trouble with FIFA. There have been a few players who left and then deals behind the scene were worked out and the club options weren't challenged. Makes me wonder if the union should push some test cases if they really believe it's wrong.

 

I don't know if the MLSPA is that competent. I know when Larin signed in Turkey, the Turkish club was confident they could win in the CAS. MLS was not at all confident they would win and were able to work out a settlement at below market value.

They are not outright illegal, but the kind of options that most HGs have probably would not pass muster.

FIFA does prohibit contracts longer than 3 years for players under 18. Most HG contracts, with the options, are 5 years. Pomykal could probably have his contract declared ended after 3 years if he wanted.

 

Any contract with a minor is not enforceable if materially breached by the minor. Or at least my B-law professor told me.

 

Not sure what you mean by breached but there must be contracts for minors in the music and movie business. I've never heard of a minor walking away from a TV show, movie series or record contract because of a breach or really any reason I can think of. They probably need to have a parent or guardian signature. Could be they need a different contract upon reaching 18.

 

According to a photo of his Instagram, Luca Koleosho '04 is with the RCD Espanyol Cadet B. I do not know if he is officially or in trial with them, although this I can not confirm with accuracy. Previously he was with Reus Deportiu.