YNT-Eligible MLS Players, 2026 In-Season Thread

James is one of the best players in the age group. He’s doing a solid job, all things considered. Playing a ton of minutes on a terrible team at age 17 isn’t easy. He’s not been perfect, but pretty good IMO for his age.

 

Good on RSL. MLS needs to get appropriate value from sales. It's probably not $20M but it sure is near $10M.

 

If we had more MLS coaches that were half as committed as Bradley is to playing young prospects we’d have a lot more prospects. Even after one of his players plays poorly he still has them start the next game.

 

the cupboard is pretty bare at RBNY so that is part of it, i imagine Redbull is also fine with it since they can just funny money any promising players over to Salzberg or Leipzig. Isn't Hall supposed to be on the fast track over there already?

 

Gozo with another goal.

 

Watched a bit of him last night. He is quite good for a 17yr old. His name sounded very English so I had thought he was.

 

Hopefully that secret news someone here has about Berchimas gets announced soon. Chong Qui didn’t look ready for MLS if he’s the guy from Atlanta.

 

He’s from Minnesota. Mom is Latvian. He can also play for Latvia and they’ve shown interest, but that’s a plan B.

 

Aside from Gozo, who do you guys expect will get sold in the summer window?

I could see Hall but hopefully he stays until the end of the season unless he goes to the Eredivisie. I see tons of potential, but would like to see him develop some consistency in his decision making and passing with teammates.

Staying with NYRB, I also hope Mehmeti stays for a full season. He has so much talent already, yet he does make 1-3 errant passes a game that causes a counter attack for the other team. Staying another year allows him to clean that up.

If Tsakaris didn’t get hurt I could see him going even though he just started getting a full season of minutes.

Cooper Sanchez stays. Peyton Miller could go, but he’s coming back from a series of different injuries.

 

Also another start in a friendly for Pierre. We desperately need CBs. I just hope he isn’t too tall for soccer; some of those tall CBs are great in the air, but can have slower reaction speed. Trying to think of any top CBs who are over 6’5”. Maybe Pierre will become the first.

Miller scored for the Revs. I hope he can go the rest of the season without getting hurt again.

 

Wes's old Schalke teammate Naldo

 

There have been several just in this World Cup alone.

Newcastle's Dan Burn, all of 6'7, is getting minutes for England.

Australia's Harry Souttar, who plays for Leicester, is 6-6.

Bosnia's Stjelpan Radeljic is 6'7.

Mexico's Cesar Montes is 6-5, Issa Diop of Morocco's World Cup team and Fulham is 6-5 as is arguably the best CB in the world, Virgil van Dijk.

Outside of the WC, France has a youth international, Isaak Toure, who plays for L'Orient, who is 6-9. Zat Knight, who also got a couple of caps for England and played in about 250 EPL games 20 years ago or so, is 6-6.

I'm not saying Pierre will be world class, but there is precendent for good defenders who are his height.

 

Per Mertesacker

 

Neil Pierre is a top American prospect, and what a return to Philadelphia for the 6’6” central defender. He was great on set pieces for Lyngby last season

It hurts the U-20 team that he’s not with them for WC qualifying now, but this is an important step pic.twitter.com/beEIiZL4NR

— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) July 23, 2026

Goal Pierre

 

Assist to U.S Olympic team right back Frankie Westfield.

great volley from Vassilev

Indiana Vassilev keeps it on frame to regain the Philadelphia lead! 👊 pic.twitter.com/kJiWfsB190

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 23, 2026

 

Ervin Torres with 2 assists to help Austin pull away from Seattle

Ervin Torres ➡️ Myrto Uzuni

Austin gets the go-ahead! pic.twitter.com/L40SEOSwmp

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 23, 2026

Ervin Torres gets his second assist! ✌️

Christian Ramirez extends Austin's lead late. pic.twitter.com/23MGF4eaZX

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 23, 2026

 

Justin Ellis assists to Antoine Griezmann on a bad wpiootbgw mistake from San Jose

GRIZI GETS HIS FIRST IN @MLS 🔥 pic.twitter.com/NfC5mfPZaS

— Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) July 23, 2026

 

His one on one skills are not like Christian's or most wingers. He's got a number of two to three step moves that create space for a shot. He's not going to skin a guy in open space on the dribble (though he might just bully / fly past them) or make a long move to the endline, split mutliple defenders, any of that.

But fake right, cut back left and the ball is off his left foot into the net in a second? Yeah, he's got that.

In basketball parlance, he can create space for his jumpshot but he's not going to kill you getting to the rim.

He's not a complete player, but if he can turn those type of skills into goals 10 times a season and then pick up others with his smart runs and a few headers ... he's super valuable.