oh, well then disregard my comment. i thought all areas were "owned" by one mls team or another, so if it wasn't ours, it was someone else's.
Thankfully it's not, that's how KC has brought in most of their HomeGrowns that have signed HGP contracts (Busio, Lindsey, both Rad's are from NC, Davis, Pierre from MI, Cisneros from NE, Salloi Hungary, etc). To put a different way, NONE of KC's last 9 HGP signings have actually come from their HGP territory. The last one was Tyler Freeman (though Cam Duke was on the team last season and is from their territory).
It's becoming harder to recruit those players with more MLS teams in locations AND USL becoming a viable path for top rated youth players (and a shorter turn around to get to Europe). But SKC needs to do something. Things like the petty issues with the kid from Oklahoma who wanted to go to St. Louis don't help.
My bad on Omaha. You're right that it was never SKC territory, but they do have players that originate from there, Cisneros being one that went through the full player pathway. Your message above was my point. Homegrown or not, SKC has not developed many players from what is currently there territory. The biggest metro in now KC. KC area has produced Besler, Sinovic, Kempin, Gruenebaum. Those are the only KC players I can remember playing meaningful minutes for the first team. None were developed by the academy. If the territory is now just KC, St. Joe, Topeka, Wichita, Tulsa, OKC, and you get to fight for Columbia and Springfield, well that is not going to produce a lot of MLS quality players under the current development pathway (club teams until 12/13 then the academy if you make it). Again, someone needs to hammer Peter about this. It is his biggest failure.
Technically Kempin was a HGP. You probably also need to add Ellis to the list as he played more games than Kempin or Gruenebaum (Salloi is the only HGP with more appearances) and he qualified as a HGP. You can probably, sort of at least, add Diego Gutierrez, though he was born in Colombia.
Follow up on previous news. https://theathletic.com/5303148/2024/02/27/ramiz-hamouda-birmingham-legion/
If there is a bigger failure in the Vermes era than the academy, I am surely unaware. These stories get sadder and sadder. The Academy was first established in 2007 and you can count the players that have actually impacted the first team on one hand. And have fingers left. The days when these aspirational concepts seemed real are so long gone..... https://www.sportingkc.com/news/spo...-city-search-next-generation-mls-ready-talent The good news is that Europe will never run out of almost 30 year old pros.
The SKC side of the Hamouda situation in this thread for those curious. Argument wise it makes sense. Just combine this with the reports I'd heard about Bunbury before he left and it just feels like the team doesn't prioritize or honestly have any focus on developing players in the academy into first team players. It's just a cheap way to get end of the roster and SKCII players. For #SportingKC folks curious about the Ramiz Hamouda situation, here's some nuggets:Per club source, #SportingKC and Hamouda's camp had differing opinions on whether or not the player was ready for a HG deal. Player's side had a more immediate timeline. (1/?)— Daniel Sperry (@sperrydaniel94) March 6, 2024
Ugg.... worse than I thought. Good enough to get a trial in Germany but "not good enough" to get a run out with SKC II. I'm not sure what the problem is, but they do have issues with talent identification and development. That is for sure. Reading the tread you posted is a parallel for the Tzionis situation. Fast forward a few years in a players development cycle. Player thinks he's ready, club disagrees. Player tries to do something about the situation that goes around the club. Club gets pissey and cuts ties. Except with older players you transfer in from Europe, there is real money involved. One time, its the player. Two times, probably still the player. Three, four, five, six, 27 times.....start looking at the club and who is in charge.
So to prevent Academy players/families from thinking you can "force" HG contracts ... you potentially set a standard/optics that even if you're potentially ready if we say you're not, you have to wait or leave. If we had a long list of HG successes then it's one thing, we don't IMO. That being said, I'm not sure the list of players who have left and found great success is there in numbers either. That Rokus Pukstas was in our Academy and he's doing pretty well, but I'm not sure about many others. They need to have some development success's pretty soon or it will look pretty bad, and Ramiz was one of the prospects that people outside of the organization had high praise for, so this hurts no matter how you look at it.
Yep, and in the past they could say "what's he going to do he can't go to Europe until he's 18." Now that the USL has shown not just that they can sell players to Europe, that they can get 1st team minutes and can help them develop before they are sold you can't just spin it as an "only game in town" type situation.
Right ... USL's willingness to not require a 4 year contract (Has MLS backed of the 2 guarantees plus 2 club option years as a minimum contract length?) means they can basically say we'll sign you to a shorter contract with the thought that we get a little bit of a transfer fee and you go to Europe as soon as you can is a strong sell ... with a track record that's growing.
I don't fully understand the can't go to Europe until 18 thing. Kei Auvrey left KC when he was 15 or 16. He went into an academy in France. Is that the difference? The lack of professional contract?
Auvray could go to France b/c his dad is a French citizen. FIFA says players under 18 can’t sign abroad to play for a team or academy, it’s to stop what happened with France recruiting in African, then discarding the ones that don’t work out in a foreign country, far from home. Now if a parent of the player moves to the country for work (not provided by the club), that player can go into an academy. Presumably Hamouda doesn’t mean either of those requirements and as such is limited to his home country until he’s 18.
It was similar to EPB back in the day, didn't have ancestry to qualify for a passport in a foreign country so couldn't go to Europe until he was 18. Meanwhile Busio holds Italian citizenship through his dad so he coulda gone to Europe whenever.
Can't wait to see how we lose another top youth prospect. Good battle happening between Mathis Albert and Ian James. Albert is a top 2009 and one of the best American prospect in the youth pool. Ian James has emerged as a top 2008 CB.— Marcus Chairez (@chai_asc) April 5, 2024
My in depth knowledge of the Academy ends with the 2005/6 class. I have no insight on this player but I am sure that they can loose him.
Only real think I have on him is he became the youngest player to play for SKCII, topping the record set by Busio.
I was being sarcastic ... ofcourse they can lose him ... that likely is the betting favorite based on the last few high end prospects to leave.
Deserved signing from the academy imo, Tschantret was quite good last year for SKCII. https://www.sportingkc.com/skcii/ne...uct-cielo-tschantret-to-professional-contract