That's demonstrably not true, as its players have played in top-5 leagues. How popular is the sport with elite athletes? How many billion dollar sports industries are in those countries? MLS is probably 7th or 8th among US leagues/sports in terms or revenue. Reyna, Davies, and McKennie have. Adams is a regular on a UCL team. If you're comparing the US soccer market to Brasil, Argentina, or Croatia then you have a tenuous grasp on the reality of the sport in this country.
Developing a player is an outlier or lucky accident. The bulk of Americans brought through MLS development become MLS players and nothing more. That is just fine with the league, so not sure why anyone would have an issue. The vast majority of American players in MLS are there to fill or rosters, on low salaries, to leave cap room for highly paid foreign players.
This statement seems intended to be an indictment of MLS player development, but frankly is something that is just so obviously true that as to hold no meaning. I would venture that the bulk of players developed in pretty much any domestic league stay domestic.
actually probably the bulk of players in any development system amount to nothing at all professionally.
Part of that is the fact that only two or three players per year are star players. Statistically speaking odds are good that FCD isn't going to produce a star player. Now we can make the argument that they should be better but I'm going to come down on the side that either you are a star or you aren't and the margin is such that no matter how good FCD or any MLS DA team is nothing is going to change that. What I do hope is that a kid with the kind of all around talent like Sealy or Tessmann breaks out. Sealy has become much better in the last year and the hope is that promise continues to take another step forward. Unfortunately for every Sealy there's a Reynolds who was physically dominate and yet that leap has not occurred. My problem with this whole debate is that somehow FCD became the villain when the truth is by the very nature of MLS contract numbers and salary cap FCD cannot keep all it's talent. Some are going to make demands FCD can't meet. Some are going to want to test themselves abroad. Some are going to prove themselves to be average or worse and FCD either made the wrong call to sign them or the better options just said no. The numbers game is also going to force players out. FCD believed in Pepi and Ferreira more than J. Gomez. Right or wrong there's not room for all three. It's good that players have options but the constant bashing gets old, especially when it doesn't appear that there have been any concrete offers for Pax or Cannon and that's somehow FCD's fault.
So uh, for lighter reading, pretty cool to see Ian Harkes and Dillon Powers starting in the middle for Dundee United, who are surefire promotion favorites to the Scottish Premier League. Id hope some more of our "MLS rejects" take that route to keep their careers going.
I remember a 4-4-2 article in which they mentioned the "failure rate" of players in English academies is over 90%. [THe article was about what those kids face after being dumped out of the system into the real world.] These clubs are businesses. They invest in players that they think can give them a return either with the first team or in their bank accounts. That's true whether they're Dortmund, Fulham, Boca Juniors, or FC Dallas. And when a player looks like he's not going to contribute in those aspects, they're gone. So Pulisic and Reyna were advanced and invested in with Dortmund. But a prospect like Junior Flores faded to oblivion. There's a huge long list of young USYNT players (theoretically the top of our player pool) that head to Europe and then totally disappear. We just forget about them. They fade to obscurity. The list is endless. Another youngster just came back from Europe with his tail between his legs. Blaine Ferri (former US U17 starter) just signed with Fort Lauderdale of USL League One. He and his sycophants have been going on for years that he was too good for FC Dallas (he's from DFW). Yeah, right. And that's not unexpected. For every Pulisic, we should expect 10 kids to not make it. One can make a cursory glance at Pulisic's U17 World Cup teammates. Matt Olosunde signed for Man United. He's sunk down the English leagues to Rotheram in League One. Haji Wright signed for Schalke and keeps sinking and sinking. Luca de la Torre is still at Fulham all these years later, but never plays. Josh Perez signed for Fiorentina, and he keeps sinking down and down. Now he's on trial in Scotland. Danny Barbir was at a Premier League academy at West Brom. He keeps fading and fading, and he's now at SKC II in the USL. Joe Gallardo was supposed to be a star of that team, but injuries derailed him. He's now in the USL with the Real Monarchs. Pierre da Silva was highly regarded, even going on loan to Atletico Paranaense in Brazil. He now plays for Memphis in the USL. Alex Zendejas had the most appearances for that U17 team. He went to Chivas, and has subsequently disappeared. I can keep going. You know who's playing at the highest level now after Pulisic from that U17WC team? The kids that signed with MLS. Tyler Adams and company.
Villain? It is more like FCD fans are trying to act like victims. Contracts and the salary cap are something that MLS imposes on itself. If it is really a problem, they should fix it. This last sentence is what makes all the complaining about mckennie, mendez and Llainez so ridiculous. They want to keep all the players but cant seem to figure out what to do with the ones that actually do stay. It is a pretty low bar to think that N Texas plus Mississippi, North Carolina, etc can only produce a few top level players.
what a HUGE freaking bummer this thread has become...and im not even talking about the half dozen probable starters for us being perpetually injured. snooze. fest. amon actually played soccer the other day. anyone? anyone?
There's three posters who turned the Youth Forum into an anti-FCD circle-jerk for some unknown reason. The moderators finally told 'em to cut it out, and tried to contain it to one thread there. But it seems like instead of wanking each other off there, they've decided to clog the USMNT threads with completely irrelevant FCD academy bashing. It has no bearing on anything whatsoever in the USMNT forum. Who in the world cares whether FCD non-academy kids have to pay or not? What relevance does it have to anything regarding the USMNT? We don't seem to have moderators any more.
Not so sure about that. I think everybody knows that Brazil, argentina, and Netherlands have a lot of players in the top 5 leagues, but there some pretty high numbers for other countries. Belgium has over 40. In addition to all the players in Ligue 1, France has 93 players in the other top 4 leagues. Denmark has twice as many players in the top 5 leagues vs the US at 28 vs 14. Bundesliga 10 vs 9 Premier League 3 vs 5 Ligue 1 1 vs 3 Serie A 0 vs 8 La Liga 0 vs 3 https://www.transfermarkt.com/premier-league/gastarbeiter/wettbewerb/GB1 https://www.transfermarkt.com/primera-division/gastarbeiter/wettbewerb/ES1 https://www.transfermarkt.com/serie-a/gastarbeiter/wettbewerb/IT1 https://www.transfermarkt.com/1-bundesliga/gastarbeiter/wettbewerb/L1 https://www.transfermarkt.com/ligue-1/gastarbeiter/wettbewerb/FR1
I didn't say that very elegantly and you are right. The difference is that the other leagues are not trying to solely develop players for their domestic league. They are trying to develop players to sell on. The Danish clubs will have most players wash out, or play their career in Denmark. But that isn't what they are trying to do. At least not with the top 20% of talented kids. Same in England, Argentina, Brazil, Ghana, Japan, etc. In MLS, the HG contract structure and roster rules are to develop players that will remain in MLS for their career. Clubs don't need to sell, don't get any benefit from selling, and don't usually try and sell anyone.
I'm not in those forums regularly so I plead innocence. I think FCD ends up taking the brunt of MLS policy criticisms because they're the most successful program and therefore it's there where we're seeing the inherent conflict between player interest and league/team. Who give a f*** about Orlando City from a USMNT youth perspective as they don't have anyone (that I know of). The USMNT is certainly interested in having our youth players having as much freedom of movement as possible so they can find the appropriate level ASAP and MLS rules with homegrown territories and non compliance with FIFA contract length for youths is a major impediment to that. To be clear, these are MLS issues and not FCD. I was excited when I heard that MLS was removing home-grown territories but now it looks like that's not going to happen. I would also like it to become standard operating procedures that MLS teams do not have full control over youth players past ~20 years old, so there's a strong incentive for them to work with players who want to move on while still providing better compensation for clubs above T/SC (they can have some say but nowhere near as much as they do with the 3+2 contracts). As to the point about whether MLS non-academy kids have to pay or not, I think it's directly relevant to the oft-repeated statement that "if MLS teams let players like Weston go for only a T/SC fee, they'll shut down their academies", which I believe is completely false. It's also an argument that DAs should see the benefit in training these players even if they leave without signing a contract. Can one argue the other side as we've seen from MLS teams? Sure, but to say that there isn't a counter-argument isn't fair either IMO.
Just an FYI, Orlando City has imported FCD’s old coach and GM. The academy is going through an overhaul and we hope to vastly improve over the coming years.
FCD had to move Pareja out to get kids into the lineup. FCD is 90% of the way to what every small revenue MLS team should be. They really are just missing that last piece (selling the most developed assets at peak). They've come a long way in the last few years and will probably figure it out eventually. The only thread relevant thing really is that Bundesliga teams continue to act as a catch all for 18 year olds from the USA.
I don't agree. I think he knew it was his last year and he wanted to leave with a title. he put too much trust in the veterans and they let him down. Every other year he would have played more kids. I've seen the guy coach 6 year olds and he has them jumping through walls. Orlando will much improved in a year or two like Colorado was when he went there. It will take some time until he has his guys.
There's no team anywhere that's going to sign and keep three strikers aged 17, 18, and 19 and play them all on their first team. Even with Ferreira playing mostly SS or 10. LigaMX is better than MLS but please go on and tell me all of the star teenagers getting big minutes in that league. Are those clubs with more money than MLS failures at development too? The league is heading in the right direction. MLS is giving more kids chances and teams, plus the kids themselves are beginning to benefit from it but the entire system is a pyramid and the closer to the top the fewer the players are. That's sports. In every league, in every sport around the world. Failure is the norm.
OC is well deserving of any bashing. When they started they had a chance to unite all the local clubs and made a huge mess of it. Their academy has been so frustrating to watch. I can tell you that local fans would be delighted to be anything like FCD. And yes it could be great for FL ( OC or Inter Miami or even Clearwater) to start producing Nats players. There’s tons of young, soccer talent in the state.
The only circle jerk going on in N&A is FCD fans going on and on about how great their club is at player development when they stil havent produced a clear USMNT player. It has been going since they gave Zendejas a few minutes over 4 years ago. If you follow how this tangent started, it came down to someone feeling sorry for the LAG losing another kid they probablyndont know what do with and then an FCD fan commenting on how nobody would wish that on a club and if it continues they would shut down their academy. Of course, a couple of us called BS on that. If people dont want to discuss FCD's youth programs, then stop telling us how great they are for the USMNT in a USMNT forum. Youth programs have a lot to do with the future success of the USMNT so not sure why we wouldnt want to discuss it. Again, the only reason we are talking about the non-academy teams is an FCD fan claiming that the academies would be money losers when in fact the youth program as whole make money. I for one hope that all of our top young players go abroad until MLS shows that they can take kids and turn them into top rate pros on a regular basis. Hopefully, that happens in the next few years, but dont want our top prospects to be Guinea pigs while they try to figure it out.
Many of our best players can’t go abroad until 18 so pissing off the local developmental landscape is cutting off your nose to spite your face. Hopefully all parties will come to a mutually (dis)-agreeable solution that allows our best to leave for better teams as teenager (which is when demand for them is highest) while giving reasonably good compensation to MLS academies.