I'm a fan of his game. In the rankings I put out in December, I had him 14th among the 05's. Here's what I wrote after watching him play in a game last year. I thought Ceja was the best LAFC player in a team that didn't look to have that many good prospects. I haven't been all too impressed with the talent in either the U-15 or U-14 age groups for LAFC. Ceja's game is very reminiscent of Marcelo Palomino. He shows a very creative ability to advance the ball from a #10 position without high level athleticism. I also thought he showed some of the better passing vision in this tournament. There might be enough offense in his game to play as a #10, and avoid the obvious issues of defense and athleticism that would crop up if he was played as a #8.
I would think that most clubs would work out a deal if a player wanted to go to another team. I know it's happened a few times and I also know some teams ...cough, cough.. Houston.. cough.. have blocked kids from moving. I think if a team is acting vindictively the MLS commissioner should step in and force a compromise.
You would think that, but I know of a couple of instances where FCD would not release the player and they kid has never even been in the FCD program.
I agree, but the Commissioner won’t step in because the team isn’t breaking any rules - the very rules that the MLSPA agreed to. I can’t ever see a situation where a club would willingly help out their competition. It’s a shame.
The Athletic: Parchman: The 20 most exciting Development Academy prospects right now Antonio Leone — Defender, LAFC Moses Nyeman — Midfielder, D.C. United Kobe Hernandez-Foster — Defender, LA Galaxy Tayvon Gray — Defender, NYCFC Jonathan Perez — Midfielder, LA Galaxy Gabriel Slonina — Goalkeeper, Chicago Fire Ethan Dobbelaere — Midfielder, Seattle Sounders John Tolkin — Defender, RBNY Nico Carrera — Defender, FC Dallas Patrick Bohui — Forward, Philadelphia Union Rokas Pukstas — Midfielder, Sporting KC Nathan Saliba — Midfielder, Montreal Impact Austin Brummett — Forward, Seattle Sounders Mauricio Cuevas — Defender, LA Galaxy Osvaldo Cisneros — Forward, Sporting KC Casey Walls — Defender, San Jose Earthquakes Kenan Hot — Midfielder, RBNY Dante Sealy — Forward, FC Dallas Jacen Russell-Rowe — Forward, Toronto FC Tyler Wolff — Forward, Atlanta United
I don’t think Will Parchman follows the DA closely. I’m nearly sure he got a full time job outside of journalism, and is only a casual follower. I think it’s insulting to readers who pay for a subscription to advertise him as an expert on the YNT system. I don’t suspect many subscribe due to his work, but I think they do their website a disservice having someone like him write for them.
Poor Will. For the record, the article is pretty interesting and is not just his ranking -- he gathered input from people in the league as well. There were a couple of names I hadn't seen before, so it was nice to get some video and description there. And I do think the list is mostly rightfully focused on players who are very young playing an age group up. It was limited to players who haven't played a first team competitive match -- given that, I'm curious who you don't think deserves to be on this list and who should replace them (even allowing for the label of "exciting" not "best").
It is a pretty decent list but I think it should not include kids who are guarentees to not sign with their clubs (Carerra, Perez) or a kid who isnt even playing in the DA currently (Kobe). Nati Clarke, Axel Perez, and Elton Chifamba are who I'd add in. There are others I'd debate shouldn't be in this list but others could also debate that it is fair to put them in here and I'd agree with it.
It doesn't matter how I view each of those players, and I've give my opinions on all the American ones already on this website. I noticed a few main problems with his analysis that's incredibly easy to pick apart as not having sufficient knowledge on the topic. He has a few basic errors (Perez fast, Carrera great defense) that I don't think someone who watched these players extensively would make. He also makes the mistake that you often see where players with high goal-totals on good teams, who are not top-level talents (Wolff, Brummett) are listed. Between the two of them, I think he described one facet of the game between the two players, so I suspect he's looking more at the goal totals. He even mentioned that Rokas Pukstas was a huge goal-scorer, likely because of his DA stats. He also left out any type of description, at all, for a few players that might be a little harder for him to see play. There's entirely filler for some of those players. I see nowhere in the article that he uses any quotes from any scouts or talent evaluators. The Athletic is a very good website for sports. It's probably the best out there right now, but I think they do their soccer coverage a disservice when they hire someone part-time for this role to miseducate the readers who pay for it. They have full time writers in the youth/amateur market for sports such as baseball, football, basketball, hockey. Those writers spend their day watching the youth/amateur market of their sports, talking to scouts/executives, traveling to watch these games. That doesn't guarantee their opinions will be right, but you can't complain that they are doing uninformed work that is of a very poor quality. For soccer, they've decided to solicit someone who has a full-time job in another profession. I don't think it's beneficial for people who don't know any better to be misinformed by this guy, but I'm only giving my opinion on this website that its a poorly written article by someone who shouldn't be in that type of role. I think a number of people on this website probably have a better grasp of the DA than this guy. It doesn't matter that much though. I'm not trying to criticize this guy that much. He's probably a good guy, but I don't think he has adequate knowledge for that job compared to The Athletic's writers who cover the same market in other sports.
I'll apply to take over as The Athletic's youth soccer reporter if you'll agree to ghost write my columns. Deal?
I particularly agree with this quote: "....high goal-totals on good teams, who are not top-level talents (Wolff, Brummett) are listed." Not saying that the top goal scorers don't have talent. Several do, but I have seen too often, first hand, DA players who were top 10 goalscorers in their age group, and had below average technical skills. The game always catches up to those players. People can get a little lazy copying and pasting the top 10 goal scorers on a ranking sheet.
I'd never bet against sons of pro players or coaches. They all are overachievers. Pulisic, Reyna, Ferreira, Sealy, Weah, Bradley. You look on our top hopes and all of a sudden realize how important knowledgeable parents are. If Carleton had a parent like that he wouldn't be in Atlanta, or Sargent at Bremen. I believe unlike many super duper kids Wolff will be on the NT eventually .
coaches kids tend to do well but it does usually seem like it’s the kids of the coaches who themselves came close but never quite made it as players
We aren't talking about rec league coaches like me. I've never seen Wolff's kid, but pretty sure that he is above average to great athlete who will also have all possible advantages. Michael Bradley wasn't among top 10 players on U-17 team or top 5 players on U-20 team and the only one who is even close to him career wise is Jozy, who was a phenomenal talent and had great coaching at Shultz academy. Hyndman who is athletically limited at age of 11 and height of 4'0" or something was practicing with Dallas first team.
Having the advantage of watching a player like you describe over the last four years, I would disagree that they are all driven overachievers because of who their parents are. A few are coddled, primadonnas who have had all the doors opened for them their whole career. Gotta have talent for sure but those opportunities and advantages that come with who your parents are sure give a big leg up.
Ok. I wasn't actually defending the writer nor was I challenging your comment. I was actually wondering you would put on the list amongst those who haven't had a first team call up. I know it's rare for BS, but an actual honest question. I also haven't seen anyone comment on Osvaldo Cisneros, so if anyone has an opinion on him, I'd love to hear it. I do agree the list is weird mix of a few, older, high stat guys and then a bunch of interesting, very young players playing up (which caught my eye).
Wolff, Brummett, Cisneros definitely don't belong, IMO. I don't think any of the three will be names you'll remember in a few years. Perez, Slonina, Dobbelaere, Tolkin, Carrera, Bohui, Pukstas, Sealy are all relevant prospects to some extent (some better than others), but I don't think they belong on a list like this. The other American players I could see arguments for. A few of them might not be on a list, if I made it, but they wouldn't be that far off. I don't know about the Canadian players.
Justin Che (FC Dallas U-19 /2003) vs Leon FC#DTID pic.twitter.com/nD1AMeQGyO— FC_Dallas FR 🇫🇷 (@FCDallasFR1) February 8, 2020
Canadian youth national team midfielder Gabriel Pellegrino has been training at Porto, FC Barcelona and in Germany. Between Pellegrino and Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty (to name just two 04s), lots of talent in the #CanMNT pipeline.— Travis Clark (@travismclark) February 13, 2020
I watched a tournament the Union U-17's played recently in Brazil. I'm not going to mention every player from the team or even most. I've mentioned a lot of them before. These are the main things I think like are worth mentioning from what I saw. Anton Sorenson is really under the radar. Does so much well. A lot better defensively than you'd think, and he's pretty good going forward with dribbling ability and speed. The '03 age group has a lot of good players, so I don't know how much higher I'd rank him, but he's really good. Paxten Aaronson isn't anywhere near as good as his brother, and I'm not a huge fan of his brother to begin with. Good DA player. I doubt he'll have a good pro career, but hopefully he proves me wrong. Samuel Jones looked pretty good. I had only seen him briefly before, but I had no problems with how he looked in this tournament. Very generic athletic CB who can defend. Ryan Lau stock up. Defense and reading of the game looks better.
I love Sorenson. I thought he popped off the screen the first time I saw him for the U16s. I'm really glad he's at Philly and glad to hear he's developing.