Generally the kids who are able to jump right to Europe and actually be successful are dominant and playing up a year or two at their clubs. Exceptions are the kids at clubs who traditionally get Europe exposure and have good pro pathways (Barca AZ). Will Recupero fits the criteria, he’s been playing up 1-2 years at least ever since I’ve been tracking him and his production stats generally are among the top of all kids playing up as well while being a midfielder and the others are usually forwards
Can I ask when you started tracking him? The whole process of MLS Academy scouting is either shrouded in mystery (trade secrets?) or maybe I just haven't come across the right place where it was discussed/outlined.
You raise some interesting questions. One of the reasons that it's hard for a non-MLS player to break through is that it's generally acknowledged that the MLS academies consistently play with and against stronger players. A non-MLS player has to really stand out from the pack in order to overcome this bias. As far as knowing if their Euro passport can get them to legit destinations in Europe so much depends on what they're hearing and who they're hearing it from. So if a player learns that a scout from a very good Euro club believes he's got what it takes to play in Europe and he's told by others that this scout does not easily give praise if it's not warranted that's a sign that he's gotten a very honest appraisal that he can run with. Obviously there are many people who flatter players easily and they can't be trusted to give a brutally honest assessment of a player's ability.
When I data mine mod 11 and see he’s one of two 2010’s dominating at the 08 level (the other one was Da’vian Kimbrough). Especially impressive for Will Recupero who was performing against older players while being very average physically for a 2010, very similar to Maximo Carrizo although Maximo was a more precise and technically gifted player at the same age
I don't know what mod 11 is, but I guess I get the gist of what you're saying. It opens up additional questions, but I suppose this isn't the place for them. Anywhere you can point me on some of the more nuts and bolts stuff?
He's too young and also that seems... crass? Not cool? I get thinking that's what this is, but I really am just curious about the process (i.e. where are stats generated from on non-MLS Academy teams).
Same here. How does a non-MLS Academy player, let alone one playing up an age group, get on the USYNT radar?
Alexito Gomez provided a link to watch the UEFA development league tournament matches.Tomorrow Nov 30th we kick off with our first match vs Portugal. You will be able to view the matches via the following YouTube link: https://t.co/TRNuI576D9 (https://t.co/TRNuI576D9)The matchups will be available in the live section.6am ET11am Portugal time pic.twitter.com/KliMRuzKif— Alexito Gomez (@alexito_gomez12) November 29, 2023
I'd imagine the best way is to play on an MLS Next club or perhaps an ECNL club. There's 590 teams across 133 clubs in MLS Next -- so there's over 100 non-MLS affiliated youth clubs there. MLSNext Clubs by State: https://www.mlssoccer.com/mlsnext/about/members List of MLSN and ECNL Clubs by state with links: https://realsoccerblog.com/mls-next-vs-ecnl-boys-clubs-2023-2024/ US Soccer still runs regional ODP camps as well but I have no idea how many kids come out there anymore. Here's US Soccer's page with more info, an email, and a link to a list of contacts: https://www.usyouthsoccer.org/olympic-development-program-boys/
Thanks for the info. The vast majority of USYNT players seem to come from MLS Academies. So I find it interesting when someone outside the usual pathway is able to break through.
I personally think this alittle backward, don't ask how to get on a National Team Radar, ask how to get on the radar of a top team in your area. Go trial, then trial again. Being a top player on a top 100 team will begin the process to expose yourself to the top coaches who have access to the game at it's top levels. Be better in a game than someone they like or are looking at. My point is that 'being seen' is an active choice and not something passive. Go be seen, and don't just make someone come see you.
Most youth team callups will have 3-5 players from outside MLS academies. The majority come from MLS academies, but that's also in large part because the top talent tends to flow there. Pro facilities, pro coaches, a pro pathway and free to boot? @SUDano is right, though. The most important thing is being really good, but then continuing to move up the club hierarchy will increase the chances of being noticed. Get on the best team you can, be better than others, get recruited for the next team and so on. It sucks that this often requires so much transit time and money and all that, there's definitely kids left behind because of that. It does stink that players like Ricardo Pepi need to make the choice to literally move away from their family to Dallas. But that's where the talent was. But US Soccer has a massive country to scout and youth national team scouting is not exactly the top priority in terms of spend. Those two leagues I mentioned have literally hundreds of teams; prospecting outside of it is not going to be ROI positive in any sense for US Soccer. Hopefully as more USL clubs get quality academies that creates a better geographic presence.
Generally by u13 a good chunk of the top players in the country have been scooped up by MLS academies. At u13 and u14 there’s still a good number of players with pro potential still at non MLS academies with the majority playing in MLS Next or ECNL whose levels have really separated from the rest. It’s extremely difficult to find a player with MLS academy level talent that isn’t being pursued by at least 2-3 MLS academy players unless they’re playing in USYS or a lower level. A YNT level talent even more so if they’re still available at u13 or older ages is getting swarmed by MLS scouts and one of them either scouts for ussoccer or has tipped ussoccer off as well. At u15 is when MLS academies usually begin housing out of market players and clubs all around the country are usually raided of their top players. At u15 (currently 09’s) and older it is very rare for a player not at an MLS academy, USL academy, or in MLS Next to be performing at the YNT level and off the radar of clubs. The gap in quality at u15 is huge between MLS academies and everyone else with exception of 2-3 clubs (usually Barca, Strikers, and TFA) so to be YNT level outside of an MLS academy you have to be almost unfairly dominant at your level. But when we ask how does the YNT’s scout non MLS academy players in my experiences it appears to mostly be referrals by MLS academy directors/scouts or MLS Next clubs. It is not really the YNT’s job to scout the country below the MLS academy/MLS Next level as the YNT’s do not scout and develop pro’s, they just field the best players available by the clubs that do develop and produce pro’s. This is how it is done in every country around the world that we aspire to compete with. At the u20 and older levels it will only be professionals getting called in so it makes sense that the YNT call ups come from the pro clubs. It is the club’s with pro pathways job to scout the country identify and sign the best available talents and the YNT’s should be selecting the standout from those pro pathway clubs. If we want better YNT scouting, the solution really is that the MLS/USL academies need better scouting infrastructure and there needs to be more MLS/USL academies that offer professional pathways. Especially in the last 5 years there has been tremendous strides in MLS academies ramping up their scouting infrastructure as most clubs now have 20+ scout networks in addition to multiple full time scouts when compared to 5 years ago clubs were lucky to have someone scouting full time. Now we need more professional clubs and more places with scouting infrastructure and fully funded academies that can transition players from top talents into professionals which will directly aid the YNT/MNT pipeline
How do you data mine Modular 11? I didn't realize they had individual player stats or were even covering MLS next post 2022.
@David Kerr - just wanted to suggest that if you ever get bored on an airport layover or whatever, those AMA type Twitter threads tend to be really interesting, IMO.
Pretty fluid process. Can be finding players by live scouting (generally MLS Next, ECNL, USYS or wherever there’s an acceptable level platform), video scouting (just MLS Next and ECNL is really worth video scouting), or referrals. We only get birth date data in MLS Next so if we know someone is playing up at a lower level it means someone referred the player or MLS scouts have been talking about the player to each other which happens often. I’d go into further detail but don’t think putting it in writing is going to be allowed
Essentially, you have to be a true standout. A good barometer is whether a player is the most highly rated prospect (at any age level) within an academy. Most likely a non-MLS academy (except Barca) is not going to have multiple players in their academy getting USYNT call ups. Occasionally some of the other better ones might have 2-3, but really it’s not going to be many. A player from a non-MLS academy that gets called in is usually playing up age groups at their current club. Its true that not all clubs will promote their best players when they deserve it, so it’s not a guarantee, but if they will, that player has probably earned that promotion by showing themself to be beyond playing on a team with kids their own age at a lesser club. In addition to that, it helps to perform well at the big events. The scouts attend those and put a lot on those events. It’s usually against better competition and scouts probably aren’t watching as many games of the non-MLS clubs anyway. It doesn’t hurt either to have a lot of interest from the MLS and high level European academies.
Full time 🇺🇲2-1🇵🇹. Own goal and Omar Hassan scored. Great USA game. They controlled the game with very good timing, intelligence and discipline. In a few moments Portugal generated danger.— Lucas Aguirre (@luksarus) November 30, 2023
Since these games are apparently watchable, I started a tournament thread. https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/u15s-in-uefa-development-tournament-nov-dec-2023-r.2128573/
'09 Caleb Simmons joins NYRB and is on radar of US Soccer, U15 callup potentially coming per here: 🚨 MLS Academy NewsThe New York Red Bulls have signed another top player to their 2009 academy class. DM/CB, Caleb SimmonsCaleb spent last season at Hertha Berlin 🇩🇪 where he split time between their International Academy and Hertha's U16s (playing a year up) as an… pic.twitter.com/CqqxagR5ti— Marcus Chairez (@chai_asc) February 3, 2024
Time for a 2024 U-15 player pool thread. The USYNT squad being called-in for the upcoming U-15 camp 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/xBjo3hA8R7— Footy Access (@footy_access) April 9, 2024
New US/SC Article 📜USYNT U15 Roster AnalysisMy thoughts on the 🇺🇸 U15 (2009) player selections for this domestic camp. These players are competing for a chance to play in a tournament in Croatia next month. https://t.co/5XdJxKVRfm— Marcus Chairez (@chai_asc) April 9, 2024
What a cowardly move to tweet this nonsense and not offer up a single name What message does this send to the tens of thousands of players not playing for MLS academies? https://t.co/hTL7fFTOhX— John Pranjić (@ThatCroatianGuy) April 9, 2024
Its silly. He's a disciple of the disgraced Kleibans, so he has an agenda. Always has. At least what we're seeing in the comments sections of his tweets is a lot of people saying "what the hell are you talking about?" When people look at the YNTs of Spain or Argentina or England or whomever....................what clubs do the kids play for? So what about the thousands of kids in Spain that don't play for La Liga academies? Hell, their last U17 camp is mostly players from two clubs. If the USYNT staff sees a kid from outside of MLS academies worthy of selection, they choose him. We can all probably think of 10 names off the top of our heads. All this is saying is that for this camp, these are the chosen players. It's not some lifetime verdict of other players. Jeesh.