John, an interesting question. Some possibilities (most of which you probably can shoot down) The kid you know *projects* to big and fast. Wynne already is. You would know better than I, but perhaps the kid you know has grown early and won't be any taller than 5'6". Is the kid playing right back? If so, he may be suffering from the anti-defender bias. If he isn't, perhaps he's in a position which doesn't show his skills so well. Wynne speed mostly showed when he quickly transitioned between attack and defense. That also takes stamina and workrate. How's the kid at those?
I think it is also important to realize (I think I got this right) that Wynne wasn't the eye-catching prospect at 12 that he is now--at least he didn't seem to catch anyone's eye. He was a walk on at UCLA. He had to earn a spot there--then from there get noticed by Sigi who then brought him into tryouts for the national team. I think this shows more than anything how much work we have to do at noticing and nurturing talented youngsters as they come up the pike.
Um, the walk on at UCLA was Benny Feilhaber, not Wynne. Wynne wasn't heavily recruited, perhaps, but he didn get an offer from UCLA prior to going there.
He needs a lot of improvement in reading the tactical aspects of the game too. Having said that, I have a "Manute Bol/Yao Ming" approach toward this. If I were a scout for a decent Euro squad, all I'd look for is that he is a very very good athlete, has some aptitute toward soccer, has basic intelligence and an ability/desire to learn more. That's enough to take him on. (EPL's Bolton seems to have similar ideas). As I've said before, looking at an American player at this rough age - and this applies to Dempsey, Beasley, Barrett, Gaven, et al. - and comparing him to an Italian or a Dutch player of the same age is just not fair. A Euro who's not responded to a thousands of hours of skill training will likely never improve and, if Marvin was a Euro, he'd still be enough for a Colaship type team. But what training has Marvin gotten? And so, his potential has not even been broached. That's a(nother) good reason to take him on as well. BTW, most Euro squads would get into a bidding war over a 12-year old with a top notch speed too.
That's about the dumbest thing I've heard. Play for money if you can, then finish school and you will have done both. If you turn down the opportunity to play professional so you can stay in school, you may age yourself out of being attractive to a European side. Play soccer and you go to school later for sure. Go to school and you may not be able to play soccer later.
And, he's probably better off playing then finishing school so he can hook into on-campus recruiting opportunities. That would be a nice plus on the new college grad resume - played pro soccer in Europe, came home, went back to school.
It'd be more like, "So how much is that mansion in La Jolla? $6M? Motzkin will cut you a check. I have the Lazio money coming out of wazoo."