Maxim (Max) Speed Born on January 7, 2006 When seeing this listing of Carl Biboum being named to the “All-European” team for DODEA high schools, I gave some of the other listed players a search and saw that among them is Max Speed, who is also at Elversberg like Biboum. The Elversberg first team is in the 2. Bundesliga after promotion last season. A club listing from last year also cites involvement in the Puerto Rican youth setup, and this CONCACAF.com article additionally notes how he scored six goals against US Virgin Islands in the 2022 CONCACAF U17 Championship Qualifiers. In the description of one of his highlight videos he wrote "I'm an American player that's been in the German soccer system since 2019" - before that seems like was in Hawaii at some point prior and yep, needless to say has an eye-catching name. Highlights:
Is it too early to nominate him to the YA-name hall of fame? Maybe Dontavious Fleming and Max Cream can give induction speeches?
We can see here that he led the 2022 CONCACAF U17 Championship qualifiers in scoring and was mentioned by former player and now Fire scout Andy Herron back in January (source): The other player mentioned by Andy Herron is Maxim Speed, who scored 6 for Puerto Rico U17s against the Virgin Islands in a 16-0 win. Looks like he is in Germany, maybe with SC Elversberg— ۟ (@FireTransfers) January 25, 2023 Has an impressive goal on tape, definitely shows positive traits and comfort on the ball in his highlights: I was there thinking I liked De Leon most then Speed pulls this out pic.twitter.com/IxVANBp6oZ— ۟ (@FireTransfers) January 25, 2023
Not sure on the context but he was hanging out with Mark McKenzie recently per his IG, so that's an interesting Yanks Abroad connection there.
This site isn't always the most straighforward to navogate, but combing through, it shows him featuring in match reports like this one: https://www.fussball.de/spiel/sv-el...r/-/spiel/02O2BT47N8000000VS5489B4VSHV2OPG#!/ Looks like their A-Junioren-Regionalliga Südwest (U19) season resumes on 2/25 against Andre Gitau and Wormatia Worms: https://www.fussball.de/spiel/sv-el...s/-/spiel/02M65SD8C0000000VS5489B4VSAUO6GA#!/
On May 14 Max started as SV Elversberg U19 won the Jugend-Saarlandpokal (Youth Saarland Cup) with a 3-1 win vs 1. FC Saarbrücken https://saar-fv.de/a-junioren-der-sv-elversberg-holen-ikk-jugend-saarlandpokal/
In addition to SV Elversberg he played with Ramstein HS and was named 2024 DODEA European Soccer Athlete of the Year per this article The article also says he'll be back with SV Elversberg's setup next season. The first team finished 11th in the 2. Bundesliga It's a very complimentary article, here are a couple quotes "Ramstein’s Maxim Speed doesn’t fall into that mold, however. In fact, Stars and Stripes’ 2024 DODEA European boys soccer Athlete of the Year was an essential piece in central midfield on a team that kept a tight defensive shape as it reclaimed the Division I European trophy this spring." "(The players) look up to him, they follow his lead and that’s why it was such an important role for him to have this year,” Ludes said. “Whenever sometimes the team was struggling, he kind of takes over by example by winning a tackle, by making a pass, making a shot and then all of the sudden, the whole team responded to that, raised their own game as well.” https://www.stripes.com/sports/europe/2024-06-05/dodea-europe-boys-soccer-athlete-14085669.html
That article also says: He’s not expecting his soccer career to end anytime soon, though. Speed expressed his hope to go professional and will stay in Europe for the foreseeable future, highlighting Germany and Spain as possible destinations to pursue that dream. He also has received international callups from Puerto Rico’s youth program.