Apologies if this has already been discussed, but I’ve been reading about Nantucket’s Caio Correa periodically in the local papers and have just read a short article about him in this week’s SI (dated 11/6/06 with the Cardinals’ David Eckstein on the front). For those that don’t know, he’s a high school kid that plays for Nantucket HS. He is a native of Brazil. Apparently he is quite skillful and has excelled even against adult players. He plans to go back to Brazil in December for a tryout with a Division I state team, Voltaco, that SI characterizes as a “feeder squad for Brazil’s elite pro teams.” It would be sad to see a promising local player head back to his native Brazil to play instead of getting a look by the local pro team. Anybody know more about this kid?
Nantucket and Marthas Vinyard high schools, both have lots of Brazilian players. (Their fathers are working in the fishing industry). The Vinyard recently won the South Coast Conference title very handily. The teams kind of resemble the park ball style basketball team that travels around the coundry playing the inner city parks, and has been a fixture in ESPN lately. I haven't seen them play, but have talked with South Coast Conference coaches.
I can vouch for this, having seen MV play us (Dighton-Rehoboth) recently. They are easily the class of the conference. CC sounds like someone the Rev scouting staff (cough, gag) should have a look at. Does he play for a club team?
I'm going to have to go out on a limb and say that most of the kids this guy has played against aren't good enough to play college ball. I don't get the hype.
My sons' highschool team played Nantucket and won something like 6 or 8 to nothing. No one was impressed by his play in that game (I did not attend, but the kids usually acknowledge and give credit to opposing players they respect). Most of the teams Nantucket plays have, at most, one or two players of MAPLE caliber. Not to say the kids future isn't bright, but right now he is a big fish in a very tiny pond.
According to a Globe story a week or so ago, Correa is moving back to Brazil to play for a team there.
I played against him last year when i was a senior and he was a freshmen. He scored on us early and then we basically took him out of the game by being very physical. He had great ball skils and could do moves almost effortlessly. His one problem was that he could not shot the ball on net. I didn't think he was anything special but he was only a freshman at the time.
I saw the guy play once for Nantuket, I saw some flashes of skill, but he did not get the ball enough to show what he has....at least that was my impression... I guess I was right: Sao Paulo youth system has the best infrastructure in Brazil, this is a big accomplishment already for this kid. Too bad there are no proffessional training options for kids in the U.S., until this changes, talent will leave the country for free... Article: http://www.boston.com/sports/soccer/articles/2008/04/12/nantucket_star_joins_sao_paulo/
Well, there's this. That's an academy for kids from around the country that comprise the US youth team pool. At the risk of sounding like a dick, he may have not qualified for that due to nationality concerns. So there is something, but yeah, there's a long way to go in the US.
According to his brother in the other thread, his parents never even had Green Cards, so he wouldn't be eligible for US YNT's. Add this kid to Sheanon Williams, Charlie Davies as local kids signing professional deals abroad. It'll be nice to get that academy up and running soon.
Did Sheanon sign a pro contract ? Last I heard he trialed in Holland but is going to UNC in the Fall. As for the Academy making a difference in where players like Davies sign...I remain skeptical. For the foreseeable future, Europe will offer more money, more prestige and, in many of the leagues, a higher level of play. The presence of the Academy system may help all-around development and may entice some to sign with MLS, but I predict the top level players will still look to Europe..
I'm not quite sure you could (or should) be able to claim an illegal alien (or children of) as a homegrown player. I think NY has had similar problems already. Yup.
IMG is a nice concept, but to me it doesn't compare with the youth system used by pro-teams abroad. With the money the U.S. devotes to youth soccer you'd think there is money that could be spent in setting up a local academy.....that would be free!....around the world, teams want to develop players inhouse, move them to the senior team etc...if the guy want to go abroad, fine, but the foreign team will have to negociate with you a transfer fee. FIFA has set up rules that make it a good investment for teams to develop youth players. Well, I don't want to get too much off topic, but with all the respect to Volta Redonda, and without looking at his visa situation, if there was a Pro-Based Youth Academy in Mass kids like Caio would stik around and help turn MLS an even better league.
Hang on, just because there's no green card doesn't mean his family is/was here illegally. You may very well be right about MLS Academy rules though - I'll try getting a question into Ives next time he does a Q&A. Looks like Sheanon did not sign with Club Brugge (of Belgium) and is actually already enrolled at UNC according to their release from March. Somewhat interesting to me they/he lists his hometown as in NC. On the academy front, it's not about signing the next Adu or Altidore (although that would be nice.) It's about getting a guy like Videira into the system so we have that draft pick to spend on someone else. There are 4 kids from my HS alone that have gone D1 the last year or this coming fall, and while none will likely be a star in MLS, at least one could probably provide depth in 4 years. I'm not as up to date on other HS's, but I'm thinking if you can get 5-6 kids every year going d1, at least one hopefully would develop and be willing to take a developmental salary to live in the area after college.
I don't know. I'm sure that it's important to get these guys into the system, but I think that MLS has depended (in a good way) a lot more on the kind of higher level "pro-ready" college guys, like a Jim Curtin (who was a third rounder, but turned out to be far more than serviceable) or Brian Ching (another college/PDL guy in the same draft). Generally speaking, I think that the way the league treated some of the "developmental" players in the past (Generation Adidas/P40 which has been PREDOMINANTLY early exit college players) in terms of giving them scholarships etc is good, but I don't know if that really extends down to these guys like Nyassi who have a significantly less sponsored deal going on. I have to believe that the best of these dev players could have gotten scholarships etc and could have gone to school. Offering them 17.5k to drop out and then not giving them a chance to go back on your dime is cheating them in my book. Just seems really underhanded in a lot of ways.
I don't know, that might be it, but for what it's worth, I'm getting more financial aid money to go to school because I'm from out of state. Maybe it works differently in North Carolina, though.
I believe Sheanon family relocated last year to NC from Boston so that could be why he list his address as being in NC. I'm sure it didn't matter if he lived in NC or not....he probably had a wide range of offers from different colleges
Caio is a Brazilian that used to play football for Nantucket (Mass.) at high school level, in the USA. After 5 years in the USA he returned to Brazil, to join Volta Redonda. He was then loaned to São Paulo (where he didn't make any impact in their youth team) and to Botafogo, where he did great. He was bought by Botafogo and is having a great start of season so far. He is what we call a talismã, whenever he came (normally as a sub), he made the difference so far. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXTutkeJ1-0"]Video[/ame]. thats a video of him last season and some of this season at Volta Redondo. does he have US citizenship.