I'm not an immigration attorney -- but I don't think a minor can get a green card on his/her own unless they are 1) getting it for work purposes, 2) asylum seekers or 3) a few other "special situation" subcategories. Assuming that's correct, it's pretty much 100% on the parents unless a player is offered a pro contract.
And USSF could have said 2 yrs earlier 'Hi Mr and Mrs Fagundez your son is very talented and we'd like to invite him to our U14 National Camp is he interested? Hi Diego I guess you are interested in attending our camp and realize you are not yet a citizen. Since you've been here so long and intersted in what USSF and the US can offer we'd like to work with you through the process of obtaining your US citizenship, this way you can attend our camp and possibly many more in the future with the opportunity of USMNT' Or his parents honey don't you think we should do a little research into becoming citizens to make it easier to pursue his life long dream of playing soccer in the US. Wow that was hard. next.
obviously the USSF could have done something too. but NER and the other US based MLS teams are basically the defacto developer of talent for the USSF along with the other USSF-DA academies. as such they have a responsibility to be on the front lines of recruiting and developing players. part of that is doing what they can to help develop talent for the USYNTs and beyond ... and it just so happens that with the rules in MLS getting any and all of their academy kids they deem to have high potential to get green cards also helps them as well. it is a win win situation that should be the standard procedure for MLS academies. could the USSF have stepped in and taken up the slack where the NER dropped the ball with their lackadaisical policies ... probably. but let's not forget who is the President of the NER and the head of USSF? oh, wait ... that would be the very same guy. face it, this sort of scenario should have already been thought about and been addressed with some procedure to be implemented by all of the MLS academies in conjunction with the USSF. but that would take planning and foresight something sorely lacking at USSF.
okay. maybe you aren't understanding. nobody is suggesting the kid sneak behind their parents back and go to the immigration office by themselves. this is a conversation that an MLS club has with a youth prospect AND HIS PARENTS (in case that wasn't a patently obvious given) ... "if you want to avail yourselves of our fine and did we mention free top level professional training and youth academy and possible pathway to professional soccer all we ask is that you take the steps necessary to get the kid a green card. we have an attorney who will help you and do all of the paperwork, we will pay any of the fees, you just have to ... you know sign the documents, go to whatever appointments blah blah blah .... otherwise we cannot take you into our academy set up and you are free to try and find another USSF-DA youth academy that is pay-to-play where they will charge you an arm and at least half of a leg to get what is surely a lesser level of training with no direct pathway to professional soccer" there isn't more than one out of a hundred families that is going to say no to that.
I'm with ya, the Revs have some role but he signed with them a year ago? But his benefit to the NE Revolution has really nothing to do with his citizenship. There is a minor benefit for green card status that can be done almost anytime for the teams benefit. MLS academies want talented youth whether they are from New England or Old England. You are over emphasizing Revs role in this. They wanted him no matter if he was Uruguayan or American. He's talented. USSF knew about him 3-4 yrs ago, they are the true beneficiary and his parents had the predominant role years earlier than that. I think it comes down to his Uruguayan professional soccer playing father wants nothing to do with him even eligible for US. Gains nothing independent of soccer and offers nothing in terms of soccer.
I'm no immigration attorney, but the most common way to be eligible is through a parent's employer. This means the parent needs to be in a long-term, steady job at a company with a relatively sophisticated and employee-friendly HR department. Given how many US workers are in small businesses, it is quite common to have no route towards a Green Card. Getting back to Fagundez, you're right that MLS should've been working on his status as soon as he came under contract. For all we know, they were.
what kid is going to have been here for years without parents who at least have green cards/asylum status themselves? i mean are his parents here illegally? i doubt it. how many parents of "foreign" kids at MLS youth academies are illegally here? not many. so there is not really much of an argument that as children of parents who mostly likely have green cards (at minimum) themselves they can't also get greencards ... especially if the MLS teams are proactive, make it a condition of their free top level academy training, and make all of the help available and fees paid for. i mean that couldn't be easier...as a matter of fact it could be considered another perk of being in an MLS academy vs some other PtP academy (as if there weren't enough already).
uh, they get players for their first team that don't take up a precious international spot while probably not playing much of a role during their first few years of development as newly signed HG signings (najar being an exception). and on top of that incentive the clubs have a responsibility and a debt to USSF because they pony up a lot of money and investment in the USSF-DA that give these kids a place to play top level academy soccer.
He doesn't necessarily have to take an International Roster spot if he is an underage Homegrown and you don't have to become a citizen to be considered a domestic slot. A green card will do the trick. No one has finalized whether he has one and getting one is a year or two process. Clubs have a primary responsibility to sign good players regardless of nationality. A perfect example of that is Diego Fagundez. You are making solid points then overselling them.
A. if you had been reading carefully i never talked about citizenship. i specifically talked about green cards. the NER don't care about citizenship but if they had had foresight and required that DF get a green card with their help as soon as possible (a thing which does help them) then he would have been much closer to citizenship now than he is ... which is all i said B. yes, even on the offbudget roster, where Homegrown and GA players reside, an international player counts against the limit of 8 (or more if you've traded). so team definitely DO have an incentive to get their academy products who do not already have citizenship or greencards to get greencards if they deem them of enough talent to be prospective homegrown signings. because if there is a kid as good as DF you don't want to not sign him but you also would rather not, if you are smart at playing the roster/cap game, have a kid who is still developing, not contributing all that much right now but rather is a prospect for a few years down the line, taking up an international spot that could be used for an impact player now. C. i know the greencard is a process that takes time. which is why, in the case of academy products, i would think it was in the MLS team's best interest to do it as soon as possible (assuming they think the kid has enough talent to be a potential signing down the line). there is no reason to wait. the cost, relative to other mls expenses is probably not that high, and it benefits the clubs and also the USSF who are partners with the MLS clubs in national team development. now obviously this isn't happening every day with hundreds of kids in each MLS team's academy but i am sure it isn't so rare as to not be worthy having a standard operating plan for when it does arise is all i'm saying.
OleGunnar20, everything you're suggesting seems perfectly sensible. There's plenty of reasons for clubs to do all those things. The one exception is the part where you say... If I'm, say, D.C. United, there's no way I'm going to turn away a player I think might be able to help me just because the family has done a lousy job starting the citizenship process. Bottom line, my business is to find players. Of course, once I get him in, I'd certainly support him any way I could.
The goal of MLS clubs is to win matches, not develop players for the USMNT. Of course MLS clubs are going to help their players along in the green card/citizenship process (for reasons mentione), but they're not going to turn any talented academy kids away due to green card status. If the USSF wants to, they could set up a system whereby a certain percentage of kids on the U16 and U18 DA rosters must be US-eligible. People say that's crazy.........but I believe that's done in other nations like Germany. I suspect that if we did an analysis of the citizenship status of U18 DA rosters right now, >80% of the kids are US eligible anyway.
Just want to "ditto" this. Najar has been unstoppable the last couple of months unless double teamed. If he plays at that level for all of 2012, he'll be an MLS best XI player. If I were an average MLS forward, I'd kill to get on DC next season and fill out a "front four" of DeRo, Najar, and Pontius.
I would guess it's >85-90%. However, the few outstanding non-citizens in the DAs that may eventually play for foreign NTs cause a bit of consternation for USMNT fans (we want 'em all!), thus the desire to have a quota of US-eligible players.
Maybe so, but the overall percentage of citizens isn't really relevant. The kids who matter are the ones with the potential to be international difference-makers. I haven't seen many American kids who can play like Fagundez, or Najar (or Mendiola by reputation).
Sure. Freaking out about this is really a waste of time, though. There will always, always, always be talented non-US eligible players in MLS academies. Just like there are talented foreign kids in the academies at Arsenal, Chelsea.......and every major club around the world.
Even though it's true that we will always have some of these problems, it's also worth remembering why kids leave for Mexico. The biggest reason is that they can't receive comparable training here.
Found out today at the LAG U18's. Matt Tilley and Mario are on there way to Sweden. Interesting to see what that is about?