Interesting. Any chance you can share names? I wasn’t aware of Portugal being a terrible place for young Americans, but I guess it could be.
But just off the top of my head. Adu EPB Agbussomande (or whatever) Taylor A couple of top youth keepers Everybody who signed with Traffic etc.
Now this has me wondering if this explains why FCD usually doesn't have very many players in US youth camps at the younger ages but at the older ages players you've never heard of start getting called up.
Pulisic and now reyna had an advantage that a lot of fellow Americans don't and thats a Euro passport where they can go at 16 instead of waiting until 17. I would throw out the Tyler Adams path as a pretty close comparison to where they end up. He didn't have the Euro advantage so went to RBNY's academy, second team and then full MLS team. He then went to the Budesliga and started almost immediately. He, Pulisic and McKennie are the big three backbone of the US team and Adams didn't suffer at all playing in MLS until 19. Sure if they stay until 25 or older it's very unlikely to work but going to a team with high level training that actually plays you lots of minutes is key. A few MLS teams are now in the conversation and hopefully others improve enough to become part of the solution.
tyler adams also played for what could be characterized as a feeder club for the bundesliga parent. rbny for adams was basically playing on the leipzig b team
i dont know if thats true. he was the perfect fit for that system right out of the gate because he was basically raised in it. great players struggle to translate expectations all the time
This guy is a good player, although not the best performance in this game from this video. He's the top alternative in CM to Chifamba and Leyva in '03. 1169831184253087745 is not a valid tweet id
Uhm, purged isnot a correct observation. He just moved across the river to Sparta Rotterdam, that has an equally good academy and to the anger of Feyenoord has a collaboration since a few months with Ajax.
'06 Bajung Darboe started for Minnesota United U17. He has both the Gambian and American flags in his Instagram bio, which might or might not mean he has US citizenship.
That is good news to hear on Dunning. Hopefully he gets into Ajax at some point and works his way up the ladder.
Reyna was at a MLS DA NYCFC and Taitague was at a non-MLS DA Richmond, but signed an amateur contract with USL team like Haji Wright did to bide time before he turned 18.
You're, of course, correct. I got a little sloppy with the examples in that post (though I think the general pathways are still accurate). Btw I think Haji Wright was technically not in USL for that gap year but rather in NASL (Cosmos), right?
Yes, but he didn't actually play much for the Cosmos. According to wikipedia he played a total of 80 minutes with the first team (Don't know if that's true). Basically a wasted year. He played a few games for Cosmos B in the NPSL.
This kid is the real deal. Minnesota some how beat out both Chicago Fire and SKC for this kid. Maybe they promised to play him at the U17 age and the others were hesitant. This is the level he should be at. If he does not receive a call up this year, there is something wrong with the system.
He was rostered with the Fire u15s last year but only played a couple games with them. Never really attended any trainings. Fire doesn’t really have any sort of residential program so maybe that was the issue.
I have seen match video of this kid against FCD at the U13 level that took place in Chicago last year. There were players on both teams I was looking at. He is big and athletic but was terrible with the ball. FCD won that game 5 or 6 to 0 and he wasn’t a factor at all - I think this was the only match he played in his age group. I’m hoping he’s improved over the past 10 months, because he sure has the physical tools. I struggle to get too excited about kids that are that far ahead of their peers physically. Edit: it’s possible I am speaking about another kid. Did Chicago have a big African kid other than this one last year?
For Dallas area folks, we refer to this as the "Alfred Koroma conundrum." There was an example of a kid who was just so much bigger and strong then all of the opposition, that he just went thru them like a knife thru butter. I was at a game in the Dallas Cup at which he just dribbled and pushed his way thru an entire opposing team for a goal. This is when he was at Solar. Amazing. He even got a bunch of USYNT callups. Scored multiple goals at the 2011 U17 World Cup. But when the rest of the kids caught up physically, he was slowly and surely pushed down and down and down until he disappeared.
Which I think is probably the case with many of the African kids that make their way to the US. This is in no way to say some aren't extremely talented, because they do exist. It is simply to say, it isn't very difficult to tell the ones who are questionable at the age of 12/13/14. This kid being mentioned may very well be the real deal, especially if he competes and does well with the U17s. I only added insight that was solely based on what I saw against a quality U13 side last year.
Craig and Sullivan are the two most talented kids in recent generations to come through their academy, IMO. If they could get them signed, that would be a real coup. I also like Pariano's game. Four Philadelphia Union Academy players were part of the group for first team training today: Brandan Craig, Quinn Sullivan, Nick Pariano and Ben Martino (not pictured) pic.twitter.com/fmtifU2Wws— Philadelphia Soccer Now (@phlsoccernow) September 10, 2019
I noticed that '05 US U14 Miles Mukherjea-Gehrig made his debut for Barça Residency Academy U15s today. He was recruited from San Diego Surf where he was one of the DA's leading scorers (for whatever that's worth at this young age) with 75 goals in 50 matches over the last two seasons.