Do all America MLS players have NCAA Div 1 or Div 3 experience ( I would also imagine Div 2) ? Any of them ever been drafted out of a county college or something of the such? Bye Thanx in advance
There are many American MLS players who never played college soccer. Tim Howard, DaMarcus Beasley, Landon Donovan and Bobby Convey, to name a few. A few players have played community college soccer and gone pro without first going to a 4-year school but not many. Edson Buddle spent a year at a JuCo before turning pro, former MLS player Pete Marino played at a California JuCo and Stern John, who is actually Trinidadian, spent a year at a JuCo then went pro. (John and Buddle were in the A-League, however, before joining MLS.)
Exposure Exposure is the big question, a player has to be seen and it's helpful if the exposure comes against good competition. It's hard to project a player to the MLS level when they are playing against Community College competition. I haven't done the research but I'm guessing that 95% of the players taken in the most recent MLS draft came from top 30 D-1 programs if they weren't P-40 players from high school.