There is a time minimum that the player has to be in the academy to qualify for homegrown status. Salcedo was like barely the limit it’s a good thing, imo, for the players. Let them find the right environment to grow
I don't disagree, but how does it work if one player qualifies as a HG for one team but then leaves for another before they are 18 or are offered a contract as a pro?
https://theathletic.com/3532524/2022/08/23/mls-homegrown-player-territory-rules/ New HG/territory rules. This info shouldn't be behind a paywall. I hope each team publishes something for their fans. I wonder if RSL will start a U-19 academy team in order to protect more players. Worth reading if you can.
Tl;dr: Elimination of sweeping territories (good) MLS teams will be allowed to place up to 54 players on their youth player protected lists: 45 who play in their academy and nine who aren’t in their academy but who live in their “homegrown territory.” (Wait what) Within each club’s 54-player protected list, teams must protect a minimum of 10 and maximum of 20 players from their respective under-15 and under-17 MLS Next academy teams. Teams also must protect a minimum of five and a maximum of 15 players from the under-19 age group
I'd describe the shifts as "incremental" more than "sweeping" but a step in the right direction. Apparently some clubs voted against this cause they wanted this proposal to go further - and I wouldn't be surprised if we were one of those clubs. It's flown a little under the radar but in the last couple years RSL has emerged as one of the most aggressive and successful recruiters into our academy, especially in areas that aren't in anyone's HG territory. For instance, our first team has Orozco and Garcia (El Paso), Wellings (Michigan), Beavers (Nevada), etc. Our incoming U15 class had 7 players from San Diego, 4 from Nevada, 2 more from El Paso, and a GK from Alaska. If we were allowed to poach in markets like Denver, Dallas, and LA I'm sure we'd do it.
As someone connected to youth soccer in this state I’ve found the clubs direction of scouting so heavily to be a bit wrong. Don’t get me wrong, I think the club should go out and scout, but it’s come to almost completely ignoring local talent. There is a lot of local talent, too. I also don’t like that this still starts at u15 and not younger. The club needs to do a lot more in identifying those young kids locally
Chasing a Cup did a series ranking every MLS team's youth academy talent, and RSL ranks second. The "Always promote from within at all costs" strategy has generally not served us well IMO, but truthfully I've been extremely impressed by what Tony Beltran has done with the academy ever since he's been brought in. His stamp is really felt on our '06 and '07 cohorts who are still a couple years away from making an impact on the first-team, but those cohorts each look like they could be as big as our '97 were. If Fall were to be let go I'd be pretty happy with Beltran replacing him, truth be told.
To clarify the rankings are of current talent only, '03 to '07. Historical rankings would surely rank Dallas first. As is, Dallas is close but FWIW we recruited a bunch of top kids away from them and our current talent is close. I have a lot more confidence in Dallas to integrate them into the first team than the current RSL leadership but if you're only looking at current talent in the system, ranking RSL second is more understandable.
Our key prospects as per that list: AM, Diego Luna, 2003 / WING, Chris Garcia, 2003 / GK, Jeff Dewsnup, 2004 / CB, Jaziel Orozco, 2004 / GK, Gavin Beavers, 2005 / CM, Julio Benitez, 2005 / WING, Terron Williams, 2005 / AM, Jude Wellings, 2006 / WING, Izahi Amparo, 2006 / GK, Blake Kelly, 2006 / CB, Gershon Henry, 2006 / CF, Axel Kei, 2007 / WING, Zavier Gozo, 2007 / LB, Luis Rivera, 2007 / CB Nicholas Nobles, 2007 / CM, Dominic Berrios, 2007 / CB, Jahmani Stapleton, 2007 / GK, Ty Rinker, 2007 / CM, Owen Anderson, 2007 / AM, Brice Miller, 2007 NYRB has only nine guys in its list.
I wasn’t sure where to put this, but the Academy thread seems to be appropriate. As one pretty unfamiliar with the history of USA youth soccer development as it relates to the USMNT from the 1990s to the present, I found this article to be educational. Based on comments from foreign observers near the end of the article it all sounds very hopeful. https://sports.yahoo.com/usmnt-soccer-development-academy-mls-world-cup-150011102.html
RSL academy-turned-Monarchs midfielder Christian Nydegger has announced on Instagram he's going to serve an LDS mission. https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck7BccXOS9n/ I think this is a first for RSL and possibly for all of professional soccer. But as RSL's academy continues to produce high-quality players from Utah I doubt Nydegger will be the last to serve a mission. Good for Christian.
https://theathletic.com/4375028/2023/04/03/mls-homegrown-tampering-bernardeschi-apple-tv/ Anyone have any details on the Academy tampering part of this story, specifically stuff from RSL that isn't in the story? It'll be interesting to find out if RSL was fined or not.
In the middle of the GA cup (I'm not sure if RSL finished as high as they hoped), one player in particular was called away to fill in for the Monarchs. https://www.mlssoccer.com/mlsnext/n...holas-nobles-shines-in-mls-next-pro-matchday- I'm pretty sure this is how the Monarchs are supposed to function for player development. Hope we see more stories like this over the season and for years to come.