Since he is only 14, he would be age eligible. Is there a rule that sez you can only play in one of these? If so, does the same rule apply to the U-20 cup, and would it be wise to play him now, when you could play him in two years?
My understanding is that a player can only play in the U-17 tournament once, but can play in the other tournaments (e.g., U-20, Olympics, etc.) as many times as they want while still meeting the age restrictions.
According to this soccernet article: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=279013&cc=5901 "Under FIFA rules, any player is eligible to participate once in each youth World Cup. If Adu makes an appearance in the United Arab Emirates, he may get a look for the final age-eligible competition, the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece."
Nope.... This will be Bobby Convey's second time playing the U-20 WC.. He played in Argentina in 2001.. As far as I can tell, you can only play once at the U-17 level, but can play with the U-20's as many times as you are eligible for..
that is correct...you can only play in one u-17 WYC but you can play as many times as you are eligible for the U-20 and olympic competitions...
Adu only needs one U17 WC With Adu's status now, he has no professional team, only national team duties. So if he needs to grow before making a jump across the atlantic, he needs some maturity under his belt. Many of the Adu detractors all caution kids getting in the high levels too soon. But Adu has shown skill already at the U17s. I studied Learning Psychology, and a great school of psychology says that for learning to procede, one must have a challenging yet not overbearing state of circustances that leads to conditioning. It cannot be so simple that the subject leans nothing and it cannot be so hard that the subject cannot physically and psychologically adapt to the stimulus. Adu has shown a precocious development in that he did well 3 years above his class. Now he will move up the ladder and take on kids roughly 5 to 5 1/2 years his senior. This level of competition might be the level that Adu actually needs to get to that next level of development. I believe Arena has to think about Adu in the 2006 world cup. If he can play like, say a Donovan is playing now at 17, then he is an asset and may even possibly play in the 2006 WC. To do this, Adu is going to have to show he can play at the U20 level. The toughest part will be to convince coaches he can play at a U23 with 3 over 23 tournament in next years olympics at the age of 15. The fact that Adu can play exclusively with the national teams is not such a bad thing when you realise he is not playing club duty. I think Adu should hold off on playing professionally. He is still working on his High School diploma and he needs to take care of that first. Let him play in November with the U20. This might be a good tournament for him to sit the bench and observe as a late sub. He gets experience, and trains at a higher level which is what he needs. Face the facts, this kid doesn't need a youth club coach, but he needs playing time. If he signs with a club now, then all of this Olympic hype should be put behind, because too much training at an young age can be overbearing to development. A good thought we should think is, when will Bruce Arena call him up? Do you think he will play in any qualifiers? I doubt it, but if the USA qualifies for Germany, then I would look to see him 2-4 games before the Cup and Arena will have to use those games as basis for selecting him for the 2006 team. To me, Arena is the main determiner for Adu. If he has Adu in his plans for Adu, then he needs an environment to bring him along. Since he is not playing club ball, the national team environment is the best fit. If Adu signs say in Europe, then he really doesn't need to perform as much internationally since he is getting a good environment to train in Europe. Still, a national team appearance now and then will help to bring him along, but his national team duty should be curtailed to avoid overplaying him and impeding development. I saw not a lot of the U17 world cup, but I did see the South Korea game. Against the weaker teams he did well. Against Brazil and for 25 minutes against Spain, we saw a step back, but that only tells you that you need more oppurtunities like that for Adu to get stronger. He should not languish and wait till he is 17 years old to start playing. He should play, and that is it. But, play for whom?
As said above, only U-17 is currently limited on repeats. Here are the links. U-17 http://images.fifa.com/u17/2003/regulations/U17_2003_EEE.pdf Players who have already taken part in a final competition of the FIFA U-17 World Championship shall not be authorised to compete again in another FIFA U-17 World Championship, even if still eligible from the point of view of age. Players who have only taken part in the preliminary competition of a FIFA U-17 World Championship are exempt from this restriction. U-20 http://images.fifa.com/u20/2003/regulations/U-20_UAE_EEE.pdf Players who have already taken part in a preliminary or final competition of the FIFA World Youth Championship may compete again in this competition, provided they still fulfill the above age requirements. U-23 Olympics http://images.fifa.com/olympics/2004/regulations/OFT_2004_EEE.pdf Only players who were born on or after 1 January 1981 are eligible to take part in the preliminary competition and final competition. [i.e., age is only factor for the non-overage players -- currently no limitation on repeats].