Huh? Where did I say he will never be worthy of being a professional starter. Re-read my post and point that out to me.
I guess I do not know what a 'full sized professional' looks like, and being broken if he plays against them. Lucky for him you will never be his coach.
What is your problem. He is freakin 5-4 120. He's tiny. He seems like a great prospect. He is too small, too frail right now to play against adults. He's a kid. I was responding to a post. I would love to be his coach to prepare him for the day everything comes together and he's ready to play professionally.
I don't have a problem with 5-4 120 players provided they are skilled and intelligent. I thought you were the one that had a problem.
How many players of that size do you see playing anywhere really? Even the Barca munchkins are all around 5'7" and of course they're out of this world skilled. He just turned 18, so he should obviously fill out, and hopefully has a couple inches left of growth.
Who pissed in your cornflakes. Are you his father? I have no problem with 5-4 120 youth players who are as good as Akele. I just realize young players no matter what their size is needs time to develop mentally and physically. There are very few 5-4 120 lb players who are successful. I wonder why.
It is real simple, look at his father and you will see pretty much what you will get in the next 5 years.
te="ielag, post: 29950843, member: 175561"]Didn't realize it's so simple for all of us to watch Minnesota Thunder DA games.[/quote] It is when you live in Minnesota the center of all Soccer. That is how easy it is no sense in wondering how big he is going to be . Lol
Your thesis makes for a good generalization, but doesn't really hold water, on closer examination: At 18, I was 2 inches taller than my father. I ended up 4 inches taller than him. I have two sons now. At 18, the older one was 1 inch shorter than me (and still is), and at 18, the younger one was equal in height to me. Now he is 4 inches taller than me. Everyone grows at a different rate, and at their own pace. Some kids continue growing after 18, some don't.
Are we even positive that he is 5-4 120? It's not like the USSF is known for being on the ball and routinely updating heights and weights.
I was looking at Giovinco's measurables for a comparison, and according to ESPN he's 5'5 and 137 kg. He really carries around those 300 pounds well. As far as Akale goes, he's obviously small but by all accounts very talented. He'll need to find the right situation, and if he does his frame shouldn't be too much of a hinderance. I would guess he's been on the small side his whole life so he's probably learned how to mitigate his weaknesses and excel in areas he can control.
When I see a kid this small I don't wonder how we can get him bigger and stronger, I wonder about how we can get him thinking faster and faster. That is going to have to be his strength if he is going to play at a top level and he is going to have to be great at it. Everybody fills out in the end - some more than others, but what needs to be done is the player needs to be prepared to play at the highest level. Bulking kids up does not prepare them to play at the highest levels of the game. Big players at the highest levels of the game are that way naturally. They spend their soccer education becoming quicker, smarter players - not bigger. The key is to become as fast of a problem solver as your natural frame will allow.
So a 5-2 105 player would just have to think really, really fast to keep him out of any physical contact and succeed at soccer. In theory sounds great but in practicality the physics of proximity take over.
Who's talking about a 5-2 105 lb player? My post is about him preparing for when he is fully grown, which will probably still be smallish. He will need to be a really, really fast decision maker if he hopes to make in impact on a professional game.
Very true. I just cringe every time someone (not you) implies that soccer has virtually no physical aspect to the success of its players. While height is virtually irrelevent to the success it is correlative to much more important aspects of strength of the body core, quickness along with ball skill and decision making that you mention.
Or the 5'5 French winger/attacking midfielder Giuly. http://www4.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/Ludovic+Giuly+Inter+Milan+v+Roma+Serie+Ze3UEkkSF8al.jpg
Or Nate Robinson or Michael Chang or Darren Sproles. The lesson seems to be that in sports, if you are awesome, you can be awesome.
Very true. The most important thing for shorter and smaller players (once trainers and coaches stop worrying about their height and growth or lack of) is making sure their technical ability keeps developing, their speed of thought keeps getting better and probably just as important if not most important is making sure they get stronger. Not by bulking up necessarily but as I figure most of us on here know, one can get stronger w/o necessarily getting significantly bigger. As long as Kwelle keeps developing as a player and works on getting stronger with club and national team trainers then he will be fine in the next few years as he gets to 20 and 21.
Plata isn't 4'3, he's 5'2. He's also 135 lbs, a strong build for his height. At 5'4 Akale should work to develop his core strength like Plata.