Dallas lost Weston McKennie to Schalke, and they're going to lose CB prospect to Bayern (can't remember his name off the top of my head). He was playing on their US tour and played great, but I don't think a deal is official yet. Are we being compsensated and/or do we retain rights when/if they come back to MLS? Those are the important questions. Hopefully they're signing with the promise of actually getting on the field for at the very least their lower division team. If this is true, then I wish the the best. It'd be awesome if they go on and succeed in the Bundesliga. That'd raise the profile of our academy and hopefully help us bring in more talent into the academy.
Costigan reported that we made offers to them, so I believe we are in the same situation we were with Paul Arriola : we'll retain their rights.
I suppose I'm not surprised, but I'm certainly disappointed. Hopefully training compensation will be part of the new CBA negotiation. However, if this continues, it's going to undermine the entire academy process. The Galaxy could be forced to be in a position where they offer people pro contracts at 16-17 and if they are turned down, they drop them from the academy.
I don't think it will be in the next CBA as the MLS Players Union is one of the biggest opponents of implementing SP and TC.
That's kind of what I'm thinking. To get training comp they either need to get the union to agree through the CBA or get it done through the courts. I'm not sure the union is so against it that they wouldn't be willing to negotiate. They question is if MLS is willing to give up something else to get it. But I have a real concern that the academy system is going to fail without something being done.
It's a bit of a worry but it's worth noting that those mechanisms are relatively new. Clubs did without them for a century. We probably need to be more savvy. Is it possible to have youth prospects sign pre-contracts? If we wanted to be really smart about it, we could reach out to some UEFA big guns and set-up a feeder relationship. That would be a selling point for the academy, we may be able to collaborate with the partner to improve our own knowledge and approach to development, plus the relationship might serve to keep some of our talents in-house for a while. There might also be potential to get some of their prospects on loan, perhaps signing those that are good but not quite good enough for regular top flight UEFA action.
We can sign players to full contracts whenever we like, age has nothing to do with it. Training compensation is a red herring. But if you're a young attacking player in this country and look around the league, who are you pointing to as a success story who came through the MLS academy? Hell, any American attacker. Now try it with someone who entered the league less than 5 years ago. It's basically no one, Fafa Picault (who played in NASL and abroad first) and Corey Baird are the only two American attackers this year who entered recently and have seen significant starting minutes. The time for American attackers to get shots, in any significant numbers at least, in MLS is gone. Green cards come faster and faster, minutes played by American players has been dropping precipitously for years. I don't care how talented you are, you're not going to be able to make a case for the Galaxy to sit Zlatan for you, nor Villa for New York or Giovinco for TFC or Almiron for Atlanta or any of the expensive transfers around the league. Without changes, MLS will never be a significant producer of American talent again. This isn't about MLS not being able to bring youth along, it's about them simply not being interested in doing so. MLS has no obligation to develop American players, some love to espouse. And the people around will crow "that's just because Americans aren't good enough to get minutes, the have to earn them", mouths frothing as the last American is squeezed from a starting spot on their local MLS team, secure in their belief that the perfectly free market for minutes so righteously put an end to the idea that Americans have any right to play in their domestic league.
So disappointing and infuriating. What's the point of the academy then? It shouldn't be to train players to go to Europe. Seriously flawed system.
There are age limits and restrictions on employment. However, now that I've investigated further, it seems we could perhaps have signed them to full contract at 16, so this would appear to be another case of the FO dropping the ball. TC isn't a red herring. It would mean that at the very least we'd have got something for the players and would be an added incentive to develop. Solidarity payments can be worth millions. If these kids succeed in Germany, then get a lucrative transfer before the age of 23, we would get a percentage of that fee under the SP mechanism.
Hopefully we offered them at least a contract. If we have, then like Arriola, we retain their MLS rights.
Freddy Adu was on a full contract at 14, Efrain Alvarez was on a full contract at 15, Tyler Freeman just signed a contract with SKC at age 15. There are a ton of examples in MLS in the past and currently in the league. They may have training restrictions ala how you can have a job before 16 but you are limited in the hours you can work, but you're still under a professional contract with MLS/USL. These kids are amateurs currently playing for G2 because they know they can either go abroad or want to retain college eligibility. Or you could have them under contract in the first place and get all of the transfer fee out and still get training compensation if you develop them, they go overseas and get another big money move. It's not that there isn't money to be gained from training compensation (though honestly the amount is heavily overstated) it's that it doesn't do a damn thing to fix the problem as is.
Don't feel bad - when it comes to the plethora of arcane, convoluted MLS salary cap, payroll and contract rules we are all plebeians next to GalaxyKoa. I'm pretty sure Garber has him on a consulting retainer.
I am sure that if MLS and the Galaxy wanted to, they could address the college situation even if the NCAA didn't want to make any changes. For example the total cost of CSUDH (tution, room and board) for 2018-19 is $23,717. The Galaxy could offer to pay for the cost of college for 4 years for players who signed with either G2 or the Galaxy and pay for additional years (including grad school) as long as the player was still on the roster and the players remained in good standing. Given that most colleges only offer partial scholarships, this is by far a better deal. Combine that with a minimum type salary and that might be not all that different from what a player would get in reserve leagues in Europe. To make it work, MLS could limit each club to perhaps 10 of these "development" player contracts and fund it with $250k.
Isn’t that “covered” under the same category as living expenses? I.e., it’s subject to inclusion in salary cap calculations. The ever-present caveat that MLS rules exist to be followed/broken as best suits MLS.
You may or may not be right about the salary cap. I was looking at the rules for the reserve roster (which is not part of the cap). Currently there are a maximum of 6 spots in the reserve roster that a club can fill of which at least 2 must be Home Grown. I would suggest increasing that to something like 12 or 14 of which 10 must be Homegrown. The rules also state that Home Grown players can be paid more than the Reserve Minimum Salary ($54,500), provided that this extra amount come from the aggregate Home Grown Player Subsidy ($125,000). I am suggesting that $250,000 be added to the subsidy earmarked for college scholarships. I think it could be negotiated with the Union that spots 31-36 be reserved for U-18 players receiving a scholarship and that their salary plus scholarship must at least total the reserve minimum or some higher number subject to negotiation. Personally, I think the Home Grown Player Subsidy (for salary alone) should be more than doubled and split between players on the senior squad (if any) and those on the reserve squad.
The Galaxy has been doing this for years. In addition to Fujii (described in the article below), I know Jamieson used the program to take classes at CSUDH and Zardes did as well to finish his degree. I think Zuback is or did get help from the Galaxy with classes at UCLA https://www.lagconfidential.com/201...-further-details-about-the-ryo-fujii-contract
That's good to know, but the cases you listed seem to be before the last CBA so I wonder how much it's being used especially for 15 - 17 year olds. The article was misleading in that it implied full scholarships were available which is not true. The NCAA has a limit of 9.9 per men's team. That means the average player gets less than a half scholarship. As an example of how this works, North Carolina was/is known for only giving full scholarships to women who were on the USWNT and there are slightly more women's scholarships available then for men.
From a NT perspective, isn't the desire to have these kids make the jump abroad as soon as possible? The other end of the spectrum is MLS clubs start locking kids that have any sort of potential into contracts very early, whether they have first team plans for them or not, rather than hedge. I do think perceptions will change as teams start to get accustomed to good attacking players come through the academies. I sure hope, for example, we're grooming Efra to start as the 10 rather than looking abroad for a replacement for Gio.
Sinceramente nos encantaría jugar en el mejor club de Mèxico @ClubAmerica juntos, pero por ahora tenemos otro sueño de hacer historia en @LAGalaxy . We love you Àguilas! pic.twitter.com/htiFKbwC1C— Jonathan Dos Santos (@jona2santos) October 8, 2018
Very odd. You don't denounce a random rumor on Instagram then add in that you'd still like to play for the club you're being rumored to go to unless you're looking to stir the pot a little.
My Spanish is nonexistent. Could they just be doing the "I am a Galaxy player with a contract and have no interest in moving, though I hold Club America in high regard and would not rule out the opportunity to play for them some day" spiel? I know a lot of players will do this because they don't want to burn a potential bridge.
Hopefully it's the standard: Gio transfers to a club first, then after a few years, Jona finally joins him later.
You worded it so much better than Jona did. He essentially says that they are flattered by the interest from "the best team in Mexico" but they want to make history with the Galaxy first. He ends by saying they love Club America. Definitely seems like they're going to Club America in the future.