A nice season comes to an end. I predicted the season to be a disaster, so I couldn't have been more wrong. The big question for me now is whether Ferreira and Pomykal will be back. Interesting question of homegrown signings in the off-season. Will they be proactive about signing some U17s this off-season? After all, they signed Ferreira and Pomykal as 16 year olds. We've heard rumors.
I think it’ll only be Norris. Urzua and Eyestone have barely played any for the Next Pro team. Who else could be signed? Maybe Ramirez, but I think he’s looked at as more borderline by the club, based on Next Pro usage. I can’t see them signing any others at this point.
FCD Academy player sues FC Dallas for $40 million #FCDallas #DTID #SomosFCD https://t.co/e9fCgX5LZY— 3rd Degree (@3rdDegreeNet) October 24, 2022
Where would they go? Has there been a lot of interest from overseas for these two? I would think if Jesus has a big WC there will be, but haven't heard of it up to this point. Not sure I have ever heard of much interest overseas in Pomykal but staying healthy this entire season give him more value for sure. I was hoping Jesus would go into the WC riding a goal high but he seems to have fallen off recently and now Pepi is scoring goals.
I read the part of the brief that was posted. Tough, tough luck for the kid and good luck on his folks getting a dime out of FCD, let alone $40M. I'm sure there are some here much closer to the situation who can enlighten us outsiders.
Molomo the only inclusion, and he’s listed as a defender. Back at it in KC! 💪⚽️Head coach @TommyHeinemann & the #U15MYNT's final training camp of 2022 has kicked off at @PinnacleNDC » https://t.co/Xe0sIa1S48 pic.twitter.com/JWJkTCRYLD— U.S. Soccer YNT (@USYNT) October 24, 2022
Predicting #FCDallas contract moves for 2023 We move fast around here. #DTID #SomosFCD https://t.co/uXLuVNdd6y— 3rd Degree (@3rdDegreeNet) October 24, 2022
Yeah, I feel bad that the kid got injured. I just don't understand the argument for compensation. If the argument is that the organization botched his treatment, that would be one thing. They're saying that Hayden played Kelley with a younger age group as punishment for missing a high school class. He got injured in that scrimmage. On twitter they're suggesting that he played with the U16s as opposed to his normal U17s. I mean.............................do high school soccer players across all sports play against kids years younger than them and skill/experience levels beneath them every day? Yes. I suspect this is an extremely common practice across soccer. Hell, ManU had Cristiano Ronaldo training with their U21s this past week as punishment for his behavior in a match. Twitter also suggests that most academy kids have to sign various liability waivers. But anyway. I feel bad for the kid. Ferreira supposedly had interest before this past MLS season. He's only 21. He's been around FOREVER, so we forget that he's still a young player that's been very good in MLS. Somehow Matthew Hoppe (same age as Ferreira) has gotten moves to Germany, Spain, and England. Ferreira has been a better player than Hoppe for 6 years now. Other than a 3 match span in Germany in which Hoppe scored 5 goals. Right now he's getting paid a lot of money. So we'll see. I won't be surprised if they extend Pomykal this off-season in the manner that they did for Ferreira last off-season. Try to make these two guys a long-term core if they can. We'll just have to see what the interest is. The odd one in that contract column above is that Jara's contract doesn't expire this off-season. Weirdly, it expires mid-season in the summer. That would be a DP slot opening up for them. As far as the academy goes, I can see them extending some contract offers to the elite U17s. Will they sign? Who knows? Maybe they can look at Matthew Corcoran and realize the grass isn't necessarily greener on the other side. Of course, Matthew is still only 16. Long way to go in his development. HIs move certainly hasn't worked out like Gomez' so far. Of course, I think Gomez moved to a better organization.
You have to keep in mind that Corcoran came a season earlier. He turned 16 his first season. Gomez turned 17 his first season. I also don’t think it’s that different between the first seasons of Gomez and Corcoran. Gomez played 403 minutes and Corcoran 167, so he did play more, but Gomez played 10 games that season and Corcoran 11. The difference is that Corcoran wasn’t trusted for longer appearances. Gomez had sporadic appearances and they usually we’re to provide squad rotation as the back up LB. Corcoran didn’t have a regular depth chart spot other than he’d make the bench and usually would come into a game when the result became decided. I would like to see Corcoran play more next season. He needs some starts, and given he got there a year before Gomez and that he was born earlier in the year than Gomez you’d probably expect more than 403 minutes. I would also expect more of a gradual progression than Gomez. Gomez went from backup LB to USL Best XI. Corcoran should be able to be knocking on the door of the starting XI next season and playing well in his appearances to one of the best midfielders in USL in 2024.
Interesting story line with the FCD Academy going forward will be do the very top players want to take a contract on NTXSC knowing they will be there probably two years before getting a shot at a HG deal or do they want to go the USL-C route. Didn't another player, not corcoran, also leave recently and score a goal on his USL debut? Talking to some FCD folks, I think the days of signing u16 to u18 for HG deals are over. We won't see anymore Bryan Reynolds or Paxton deals. They all have to go through NTXSC first. Sure Pepi, Bryan, Tanner all played a little at NTXSC but they were first team HG from day one just playing down. Now its you only get the NTXSC deal and then good luck from there. I question if that level is very good for development or if the guys would be better going to USLC and spending those years there, then checking interest from MLS or overseas. If you play at FCD academy until 17 and then leave for USL C, can you then leave USL C at age 18 and be free from FCD control and sign with any MLS team? No idea how that works. Time will tell.
I've read that Dad's a class action lawyer? Just the whole thing reeks of either outsized entitlement or a cynical play at a settlement or both. This is going to sound grumpy old man, but it definitely seems to me that there's a lot of entitlement for kids who really haven't done anything yet in a lot of these academies. A LOT of big fish in a small pond stuff. If I'm reading this correctly, he was disciplined for being late to class by having to play in his actual age group. So dad wrote notes complaining? Even before we get to the sketchy loss of $40M in future wages ... which is just trying to bully an insurance company into a settlement ... my dad would have told me to be on time.
Even if the dad is a tort lawyer, I'd be surprised if this isn't thrown out far before any trial. Dad is probably butt hurt and his time is free. But I wouldn't settle for a dime.
Unfortunately you wouldn't be free, the players rights (within the MLS) would still be with the original club. I believe RSL paid $$ to San Jose for Diego Luna even though he went from San Jose to Barca AZ to El Paso and then RSL.
In the current environment, it's a de facto payment of $50k of Garberbucks. That's a barrier, but it isn't really significant relative the cost of a roster spot, etc. The number of players who are good enough to get signed by MLS but not good enough to justify $50k of xAM is probably pretty small. I suppose if there's bad blood or something, a team could make an issue, but MLS is likely to smooth things over. It's fundamentally a cost control mechanism and you really don't want anyone testing these things in court for dumb reasons.
Never mind the rate of success with that group of kids who signed as 15/16 year olds. Pomykal, Ferreira, Reynolds, Pepi, etc. Roberts is one in the other column. This isn't just an FCD thing. Its a league-wide thing. If you're going to sign one of these top-end prospects, it needs to be an MLS contract. And it needs to be an amount of money to make it worth it. Carrera, Redzic, etc. signed first team contracts and I'm not sure they're that top-end on the talent scale. The MLS Next Pro games should be kids on MLS deals playing down for experience and game time (plus draft picks) and then academy kids playing up. The MLS Next Pro contracts should be for players that the club is taking a flyer on from outside the system. Pablo Torre is a good example. Blaine Ferri. Anyway, that's my thought. The MLS club owns your homegrown rights even after you leave. That's the case years and years later. For instance, FCD still held Emerson Hyndman's rights when he returned from Europe 8 years later. Atlanta had to trade for his rights. Luna's example above is a good one. Brooklyn Raines is another. Houston had to trade for his rights from RSL before signing him. But as others have pointed out, there aren't many examples of clubs holding those rights hostage. One example is Houston refusing to trade Chris Cappis' HG rights to Dallas.................and he never played for Houston. Those were just territorial rights.
What happens if a kid that played in the FCD A and system is not offered a HG or NTXSC deal but goes to play in college for 3 years and then wants to go striaght to USL C instead of MLS? Can FCD interefere in that situation? If not, is the kid then free to go to any MLS team after a year in USLC? I don't think FCD will offer any 16 or 17 year olds contracts going forward. You are right if they did it would have to be for real money but I don't think they will ever do that. In todays day, Carrerra, Smith, Redzic would all be on NTXSC only deals still waiting for the first team deal.
Maybe a more active HG off-season than I thought. I’d guess, if it ends up being two, it’s Norris and Eyestone. Got wind this morning of a 2nd Homegrown possibly in the works at #FCDallas. #DTID— 3rd Degree (@3rdDegreeNet) November 1, 2022
I don't even know who the second would be. Norris will be one of them. Is Eyestone ready and why would he sign one? He's behind Carrera in the pecking order, and it's not clear that Carrera's chance is coming that soon either. It really doesn't make sense to have two HG keepers on the books at the same time, unless they are both players that are must sign players. The only two situations where you have two HG keepers on the books are Chicago and RSL. Three of those four were real elite level prospects that the clubs had little choice, and the fourth one was a really good prospect that RSL was always going to sign. Maybe you can say Carrera is better than Beavers, but the other three were better prospects than Carrera, and a lot better than Eyestone. Very different situations from what it'd be at FC Dallas. I'm not saying it won't be Eyestone. I don't know who the second one is. If they are signing two, I'd probably say Ramirez ends up being the second. Maybe Urzua, although I think it's a little early to be signing him.
Just happy FCD is getting back on the train. Have only technically signed one homegrown in 2022, and only one in 2021. Smith in 2021 and Carrera in 2022. [Technically its two in 2021 with ElMedkhar...................but that's just paperwork.] We know they WANT to do it. They may surprise us. I think Ramirez and Norris is a better guess than Eyestone. I don't see the point in Eyestone signing a contract right now. Hell, I think we can make a serious argument that staying on the Duke path is the way to go. By the way 11 guys that signed MLS HG deals with FCD have full senior international caps. By far and away the most in the league amongst the American clubs. 2nd is RSL and NYRB at 5. That doesn't count the academy players that they didn't sign to contracts (of which there are a bunch). Just the guys on MLS deals. Hernandez, Acosta, Zendejas, Pomykal, Cannon, Ferreira, Reynolds, Richards, Servania, Pepi, Tessmann.
Redzic too. Kamungo's kind of the opposite of ElMedkhar's situation - homegrown in spirit but not in technicality.
Justin Che's two recent goal involvements for Hoffenheim II while playing as a winger. (if the time stamps don't work they're at 3:17 of the Freiberg video and 53:56 of the Frankfurt video) Wild thing to note: Che's still younger than Richards was when he had his breakthrough season with the Bayern reserves. Che's already played 50+ professional games. Really don't think he's grown an inch or gained a pound since he started playing for NTX three years ago. Still young enough to have a growth spurt.
You're right. For some reason the chart I have shows Redzic in late 2020. It was early 2021, though. Both Che and Sealy went to Europe on loan and I don't know what their futures hold. Each has moments in which you can say "AHA! There it is!" It just doesn't seem often enough. I was thinking the other day about what Che would be doing if he'd stayed at FCD in 2022. He wouldn't be playing CB. And Twumasi had a really nice season at RB. He wouldn't be playing on the wing, that's for sure. So...........................I guess he'd be coming off the bench at RB. I guess.