16-year-old Christopher Cupps in his first MLS start:◉ 7.3 FotMob rating ✅◉ Clean sheet kept (while being down to 10 men for 50+ minutes) 🛡️◉ 38/39 (97%) accurate passes 🎯◉ 3 passes into final third 💎◉ 2/3 (67%) accurate long balls ⚡️◉ 12 clearances 🦾#usmnt pic.twitter.com/jFtpRd1WDK— USMNT Report 🇺🇸🇹🇷 (@USMNTReport) May 4, 2025 I don't know how anyone who really follows this league can say "In MLS they don't give opportunities to domestic players". The only people that will say that are people who don't follow MLS at all. Every week in MLS we see young players playing in MLS. Some deserved, others because team has no other options but they play nonetheless.
People should really do the homegrown on young players in MLS versus leagues around the world. 50 players under the age of 20 have appeared in MLS this season. The oldest of that group is Noel Buck who has now just recently turned 20. How many players under the age of 20 appeared in the Eredivisie or Belgian Jupuler League this season? Or any other league you want to look up. Easy enough to see on transfermarkt.............................. Is 50 out of the realm of what happens in other leagues known for player development? No. And 16 year old CBs definitely isn't a thing. Kudos to Chris Cupps for that debut.
I've come to the conclusion that those that complain that domestic players aren't given the opportunity don't even watch MLS at all. I've seen several people complain about that on this forum and on social media but reality is they don't even bother to follow MLS. If they did they would know kids are played on a weekly basis.
MLS teams have fielded 38 players who were 18 or under at the start of the season. That's likely to rise with injuries and suspensions. Not only that but they've created an entire league focused on providing playing time to academy products, which costs at least $1 million per team to run.
We might have to pivot to “there’s too much playing time for young players in MLS, this proves there’s no competition for roster spots.”
Oh yes, that's now the track. The same people who whine about lack of player development will say "playing a 16 year old CB shows how much MLS sucks." The MLSNP reserve team system is relatively new. What I'm seeing is kids that are MORE READY for MLS first team play than they were 10 years ago. I'm convinced MLSNP is part of that. It'll keep building............................... A kid like Jonathan Shore in NYCFC is ready to step into an opportunity and not look out of place at all. Anyway, we've had threads like this on BS for 20 years. And yet the popularity of the sport keeps increasing. The quality of MLS keeps increasing. The whole debate is a little silly. Soccer is already popular in America.
I feel like the MLS territory rules need to change to overcompensate MLS teams who are not doing youth development
It has improved a lot. If you're not in an academy or one of 9 academy prospects you can sign for anyone.
The MLS territory rules are a lot less stringent than they were 10 years ago. Clubs can only "protect" a very small number of players within their territories. There's a lot more movement of kids. There's also been A LOT of movement of young players in MLS this year. I don't really know what led to that. Probably different reasons in each case. Josh Atencio from Seattle to Colorado. Jalen Neal from LAG to Montreal. Jack McGlynn from Philly to Houston. Noel Buck from the Revs to San Jose. There's a bunch of other examples like that. The level of that movement seems new to me. On the youth forums folks used to talk endlessly about how homegrown territories were a big hurdle to player development. We knew why they existed. [MLS players themselves didn't have free agency.] But there's rarely discussion of that even on the youth forums. Its kind of a non-story.
45 academy and 9 non-academy players can be protected. That's to stop CFG or Red Bull from sweeping up every promising kid in the country.
MLS sponsorships spike as U.S. soccer gains popularity https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/05/mls-sponsorships-spike-as-us-soccer-gains-popularity.html ......but we've been told soccer will NEVER be popular in America.......
I understand the academy protection list because teams spend money to develop them What I don't understand is the non-MLS protection list. Imagine you were a good player and your nearest MLS team is LAFC, which isn't known for youth development. Why should an MLS team have the right to not allow you to join a different team when you were never in their academy in the first place? I have heard of a lot of players who have experienced this. Players never sign the protection list. It's a lawsuit waiting to happen. Non-MLS academy needs to tell their players when they received USYNT call-up and when they received a MLS trial. Also, Not US-related, but why the hell can Mexicans use "corruption" as a reason why they have never won a World Cup when there's corruption everywhere?
Huh? That makes no sense. Hear me out. It's been claimed that Soccer is not popular in the US. It's also claimed that MLS is NOT popular in the US, and is invisible as well now that it is on Apple TV. If that is all true, why would any company pay millions of dollars to sponsor MLS? The whole point of sponsorships is to get more eyes on your company/product.
Did you read the article? "The approaching 2026 World Cup — which will take place next summer in the U.S., Canada and Mexico —coupled with “the sport’s rising cultural relevance” has helped fuel sponsorship growth, said Jen Cramer, executive vice president of partnership marketing at MLS". I just personally think that MLS isn't ready when Messi leaves.
I heard a few weeks ago that X player, who wasn't a non-MLS protection list player at that time, wanted to go try out for X MLS team, and that local MLS team then added that X player to the non-MLS protection list. Now that X player can't join that team unless the other team buys him out. There have been times when non-MLS academy teams don't tell their players that they have received a USYNT call-up. From U15 to U17. Or they don't tell X players that they received an MLS tryout. Those staff don't tell players those things.
That's all due to single entity. To protect one of the clubs from just hoovering up the talent from around the country. Of the 9 players on the non-academy protected list, only 5 can be from one age group. A reminder that those players can still go to another academy even if they're on a homegrown protected list. They can't sign a PROFESSIONAL CONTRACT, however, without the new club negotiating a fee with the club that has him on its protected list. Which happens quite a lot, actually. You'll often see this tucked into the transaction details about a young player signing. That team X had to acquire the homegrown territorial rights from team Y. We hear of very few instances of a club BLOCKING a kid from signing with another club. Like in the past when Houston blocked Chris Cappis from signing for Dallas. When one thinks of it. 9 players for 30 MLS clubs means...............MAXIMUM there are 270 players in this position. MAXIMUM. In a nation the size of ours.
There's no such team as X. It sounds made up. Name names. That's not the way it's done. The player would be contacted directly by US Soccer. They don't need to tell the club but will out of courtesy. It's also announced in the media.
Same thing was said when Beckham was in MLS. Messi only plays in one team. If MLS only gets interest because of Messi then the rest of the teams would've closed shop years ago as no one is supposedly interested. Messi will come and go and MLS will continue. Another super star will come to MLS in the coming years and the "MLS won't survive when this super star leaves" comments will show up again.
Add to that the fact that MLS has added 5 teams since 2020 and considering how long that process takes, it would be impossible to say that Messi was responsible for any of that growth. MLS is growing and, at least for the foreseeable future, MLS will continue to grow...as you say, with or without Messi.