Here's an actual breakout candidate. Jonathan Tomkinson has been starting most of preseason for Norwich at centerback. Another kid from....................Dallas. Had a cup of coffee with FCD, but spent most of his time at Solar. ⚽ Youth experience👕 Competition for each position📚 Lessons from pre-season🎥 Watch Jonathan's full post-match interview over on Canaries TV now 👇#NCFC | #CityOnTour 🏴— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) July 24, 2022
Tomkinson starting for Norwich today. We'll probably have a breakout in a more prestigious Euro league. Barring that, Jonathan may be in the mix. 🏴Carabao Cup🧐🇺🇸🇺🇸vs🇺🇸Tomkinson starting for NorwichSarge on the benchTrusty starting for Birmingham pic.twitter.com/zZgIy54hNb— 🇺🇸 ⚽ east (@eastdeflection) August 9, 2022
A good argument could be made for Tillman. TOTW in the SPL and the aggregate winner in Cl quailes. Great athletic header. Other potentials, as have been mentioned, seem to be clustered around Philly.
Joe Scally was a nominee for last year and lost to Pepi. I think Pepi winning last year over Richards and Scally was a real "slave to the moment" kind of result. He had just come off of an impact USMNT window, and the ensuing transfer excitement, when folks were voting. My personal opinion is that you only "break out" once. Worth noting that his performances in the first half of last club season, which was 2021, were better than his performances in the 2022 second half. He faded down the stretch, which often happens to kids in their first full seasons (see Reyna and Musah the year before). TIllman is a really good 2022 nominee for some folks and not for others. I use my definition of a youngster as being eligible for USYNTs. Tillman isn't anymore as he's a 2002. Others don't use that definition, which is fine. 2022 is a weird one. If we did the voting now we'd be all over the frickin' place. Not really an obvious set of front runners. There are some good MLS candidates. Not as many obvious Euro candidates. Most years there's an obvious Euro winner (Pulisic, McKennie, Reyna). I'll give an obvious MLS candidate. Gabriel Slonina. Full time MLS starter in 2022, parlayed that into USMNT callups in the calendar year, and has now completed a transfer to Chelsea. THAT's what a breakout looks like.
My personal viewpoint is that we stay with the definition of the thread which focuses on number of full NT caps. Aaronson was also a candidate in 2021 and my personal vote. Looks like I was right on his trajectory.
Tomkinson starting for Norwich! 🏴 Carabao Cup🧐🇺🇸 Jonathan Tomkinson starting for Norwich pic.twitter.com/p25iXyI4SH— 🇺🇸 ⚽ east (@eastdeflection) August 23, 2022
I regret my vote for Pepi last year. With hindsight, it should've been Musah or Richards. I was definitely on the hype train after some great WCQ performances and an $18 million transfer fee. 2016 Christian Pulisic 2017 Weston McKennie 2018 Tyler Adams 2019 Sergino Dest 2020 Giovanni Reyna Up to 2021, every winner was pretty much unanimous and went on to become a major component of the senior team. It's looking like 2022 might be another difficult year to choose. Think I have Scally and Richards high on the list if they're still considered eligible. Also keeping an eye on the Philly kids...
We were all slaves to the moment. Pepi had twice as many votes as the 2nd place finisher. The top four were Pepi, Musah..........and then Scally/Richards tied. I personally think it was Richards that got the raw deal. He was better at his position for the entirety of calendar year 2021 than the others. If I had to vote right now in 2022, I'd probably vote for Slonina. There is no obvious landslide winner. The voting is going to be all over the place. I'm totally with you on the Philly kids. Jack McGlynn in particular has really broken out, after a great U20 CONCACAF Championships. In the absence of a unifying Euro-based winner, an MLS kid has a shot.
Pepi was the right choice last year He did well for FC Dallas and the National Team. Things have faded in 2022. If you look at Augsburg's leading scorers, they had 9, 5, 5, and 4 goals among them for the whole season. It's not a club where players score a lot of goals. Pepi played 522 minutes or less than 6 games. 4 starts and 7 substitute appearances. The best we could have hoped for with those minutes and being at a new club was 1-2 goals. He didn't get that, but he was close on a few occasions. He's far from done. I predict he will get a few goals this season and next season he will break out. We can have a good laugh about this, but this is interesting. A German guy ran a FIFA simulation for seasons 1 and 2 for Pepi and he had 0 goals in the first season and 12 in the second season. So there!
Two MLS youngsters that have thrust themselves into the conversation (with the Philly kids and others) Daniel Edelman of NYRB and Noah Buck of the Revs. Edelman in particular seems to have nailed down a starting job with NYRB! Primer gol de Daniel Edelman (19) con los New York Red Bulls. #RBNY #USMNT pic.twitter.com/y3KNVCGlIz— Jaime Ojeda (@jaimeor96) August 28, 2022 Red Bull NY manager Gerhard Struber on Daniel Edelman's improvement in his distribution this season & why he's been so successful for Red Bull when given game time (4 starts in last 7 games)Looks like Daniel Edelman has thrust himself into the XI going forward 👀🔥 #RBNY pic.twitter.com/LmbRcTmnrI— Daniel Rebain 🇺🇲🇵🇱 (@pvtmcbain) August 28, 2022 17-year-old Noel Buck has come on and changed this game for the Revs.And obviously that's a pretty nice goal from Gil! pic.twitter.com/L0qADDDNdJ— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) August 29, 2022
This next generation of players has a much improved passing game. I'm hoping that the U20 world cup will be fun.
Pepi scored 3 goals in his first TWO games in 2021 (HON, JAM). He did not score again for the next 9 USA games, and of his club games going forward. Yeah, we though he was the chosen one, the stats don't support that.
A guy that has consistently performed well but gets little praise, John Tolkin. Ends the season as FotMob’s 22nd rated player and highest on RBNY’s squad. He’s surely leaving in the winter transfer window. Honestly I think he’s already the US’s 2nd best LB. Such an intelligent player.
Based on the criteria defined at the start of the thread it looks like we have two firm front runners. Scally and Ferreira. I don't think there is anyone else close. What is unique about this year is that we have World Cup games to finish it off.
Na, I think you were right. He made a questionable move, and it didn't work out. Now he's seemingly back on track. He's motivated to have a strong WC. If he does, maybe you could vote for him in back-to-back years even, when you didn't think he broke out last year, and the WC would be that next level. Steve Striker won comeback golfer of the year twice in a row.
That's a pretty sad pairing. I also think Scally already broke out, and he likely won't have a chance to re-break out at the WC. Don't think Gregg brings him. The World Cup is going to shift narratives. Whoever is a young starlet there will have the best case for breakout player. Like I said, it could be Pepi again. It could even be Sargent, if he gets an opportunity, and runs with it. I don't think he ever broke out in the 1st place. He's never been a good player at the senior level for club & country until this season. I don't think Ferreira is a legit CF against better teams because of his lack of size, and that's where he'll play. So color me a skeptic. But he may get his shots to prove me wrong.
There are young players who step into these high pressure moments and seize them. Its usually not who is expected. I think that Scally goes, and Scally has a moment. There’s just something about him. Has Musah ever won this award? Musah, at age 19, has earned a slew of minutes at Valencia and at times looks like their best player.
I'll make a nomination that we can argue is close. I personally don't see any players in Europe that fit my particular ballot. Gabriel Slonina just had the best season EVER for an American teenage goalkeeper. Howard, Hamid, etc. didn't do what Slonina just did as teenagers. He's still only 18, and was a full time starter in the league. Started 32 games. Finished 3rd in clean sheets after only Blake (who won goalkeeper of the year) and Petrovic. Received USMNT callups and earned a big money move to Chelsea He just doesn't play a sexy position for which stats like goals/assists are easy selling points.
I believe Musah had too many caps when the year started to be eligible for the award in 2022. According to the stated rules anyway. I also can't in good conscience vote for Jesus Ferreira. I mean, he STARTED the last two January USMNT camps before this MLS season. If it weren't for COVID, he'd 100% have been at the 10 cap mark. He was a full-time starter four MLS seasons ago. Calling him a "breakout youngster" is a little silly to me. But hey, to each his own.
Musah was eligible last year and came out second in voting behind Pepi. In retrospect a mistake. https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/2021-breakout-youngster-poll.2119063/
Musah also had 11 caps prior to the 2022 calendar year. So he's inelgible according to the rules stated in the first post. One of the weirdities of this award is that we base it on the calendar year. That's for historical reasons due to the breakout players more than likely coming from MLS when the award started. So Scally, for instance. His performances during the 1st half of last club season were better than those in the second half. He faded pretty badly down the stretch (As happens with young players in their first full season. Happened to both Reyna and Musah in their first club seasons.). So folks should keep that in mind if they think Scally should win in 2022. His 2021 performance was better. Hence why he ended up tied for 4th in the 2021 voting. But anway, I personally think that if you finish that high in the voting one year................you've already broken out. Scally won't be on my ballot.
Arbitrary rules that don’t serve their purpose are superfluous. I’d vote for 1 Musah, 2 Scally, and 3 Paredes