Youth Yanks Abroad, ‘01-‘04 YOBs (and younger): 2020/21 thread

Yunus Musah is one of the 5 most valuable youngsters in La Liga 💰

5. Yeremi Pino (18, Villareal, $16.5M)
4. Yunus Musah (18, Valencia, $16.5M)
3. Ilaix Moriba (18, Barcelona, $27.5M)
2. Ansu Fati (18, Barcelona, $66M)
1. Pedri (18, Barcelona, $77M)

[via TransferMarkt] pic.twitter.com/joPafEnhOL

— USMNT Only (@usmntonly) June 17, 2021

 

They will bring 20 U18 Americans. The acedmy will be based in Germany.

— USMNT Universe (@UsmntU) June 20, 2021

Thanks to @BostonRedSoccer for spotting US U20 and Porto B striker Johan Gomez on trial with German 3. Liga side FSV Zwickau. https://t.co/Bv775Y2huJ

— ChuckMe92 Soccer (@ChuckMe92Soccer) June 19, 2021

 

Those talented 2003s are just eagerly waiting for a place on BL2 Academy.

 

The club that has produced a bunch of good players for us in recent years.

 

That was a different club; they collected the cream of the crop; and didn't produce anyone except for Wes, whose development they stagnated if anything, playing him all over the field, forunately he was able to get out of there.

 

Can’t link the tweet but Romano who is as solid as they come on transfer info tweeted Konrad is off to OM on a permanent deal

 

Konrad de la Fuente will join OM from Barcelona this week, done deal. The agreement has been reached and also personal terms are completed. Paperworks and medicals this week. Barça are also working to sell Jean Clair Todibo to OGC Nice for €8.5m + add ons. ⌛️🔵 #OM #FCB

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 21, 2021

 

Matthew Leal ‘03 🇺🇸 at the first team’s preseason opening practice in Lisbon. Matthew is one of two U19 players invited to train up for the summer (the other is a goalie.) @MatthewLeal_ @Stellar_Soccer @USMNT pic.twitter.com/Mkj4zFixkW

— Lisa Ganley-Leal (@LisaGPhD) June 21, 2021

 

And a chance to pay thousands of dollars to prove it.
If you're a good prospect you can easily find a real place in a quality US or EU academy for free.

 

Yup. All pay for play.
We've seen all this before. We all discussed Roma's ambitions in this space. People with good memories will remember what Ajax said they were going to do here, and never were able to accomplish it. Its fine. The difference of course is its much easier to move to a Bundesliga academy or club at 18 than Italy, Spain, or England (if you don't have a passport). So they can set up a little train of talent. It would seem to me that Bayern Munich and RBL will get more out of their collaborations than what these other clubs will get going their own way. Just a gut feeling that their ability to get elite, difference-making talent will be superior.

Schalke in particular needs Plan B. Based on their financial situation, they need to be looking for cheap talent to acquire. They're not making big money transfers any time soon. A club like them sees a 1 for 5 success rate (McKennie) on these low-risk moves as a great success story. I really think Taitague would have panned out if not for injury, but that's part of this game too.......................

 

Add Eintracht Frankfurt to the list. This can’t be bad. Worst case scenario, none of these players are good and their parents wasted some money. Best case scenario, some of these kids are signed by these teams when they otherwise wouldn’t have gotten pro contracts elsewhere.

I looked through the website for this. It sounds like Schalke will be for 03’s and 04’s, while Frankfurt is for 05’s and 06’s.

News: #Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt and 2. Bundesliga club Schalke will invite teams made up exclusively of young American players for trials in Germany, the two clubs confirmed Monday. A great opportunity for the next group of young players. #USMNT

— Larry Henry Jr (@lhenry019) June 21, 2021

 

Pay for play in America = Bad.

Pay for Play by Europeans = Good.

Good to know.

 

It looks like Barca Arizona with an actual pathway to playing for the academy of the pro team. These Barca academy players aren’t able to play at La Masia due to the restrictions in place for a young American playing in Spain.

While some of the same restrictions are in place in Germany, those restrictions are gone once a player turns 18. The players who the club wants to keep might already be 18 or they can work around it for a few years until the player is eligible for the club.

Barca AZ has also been very successful at producing players. Players such as Araujo, Hoppe, Clark, Bryce Duke, LaCava, Gaines, Raines have all come from that academy, and there’s probably a few players I’m forgetting.

People don’t like Barca AZ because it’s pay to play, but there are workarounds for families that can’t afford it. Araujo is a player who has publicized some of his upbringing. Do you think he comes from a family that can afford to spend crazy amounts of money on his career?

 

No, it looks far more like a money-making operation than that. It's a parallel pay for play academy that claims to be basically the academy, but it is second class citizenry.

If the point is to develop and find players, why not simply have them in the academy but not actually play them except in intra-squad or unofficial situations? It's not uncommon for a player to go over for a while and simply train.

The answer is easy: this is to bilk wealthier, second level prospects of cash.

I just find it ridiculous that there was a massive cow about the lowest age group of DC United having a minor fee to play but people are like "this is great!"

This is two clubs monetizing the Europhile nature of the American soccer scene, and some middle man making a fortune off of it. They mention a deposit, but they don't mention the actual tuition. That's a pretty good sign.

It doesn't mean they couldn't have good coaching, like Barca AZ, but it doesn't mean that they are going to have good coaching or even be seriously looked at. Schalke is desperate for money, and I bet they are in the 3. Bundi sooner than they are back in the 1. Bundesliga.

Cash grabs can possibly be productive, but this is a cash grab.

 

This is a complete distortion.

I don’t think we want a pay to play system in the USA. This is not a system. This is one or two individual academies. Barca AZ is also very successful at developing players, and those players have less of a pathway to an affiliated pro club than these players would have.

Why should any of us care if ISA gets rich off of the parents (or others financing) the development of these players? I care to see American soccer improve. Americans waste money on all kinds of things. If ISA makes 1-2 million per year from this (I picked a number), but a Hoppe emerges from this every year, it’s successful for American soccer.

I agree that we don’t want this at every academy in this country. That is irrelevant to this though, so I’m not sure what your point is.

 

My point is I think these kind of things -- and the absurd love for it -- hurts the actual development of a real, sustainable system in this country. There's going to be kids that go there -- and their parents are going to shell out massive amounts -- and at the end, they very well may not be anywhere because I don't think either club really gives a shit if it produces a player. They aren't invested in that.

But other clubs may see it and do it, and use the Europhile nature we have here to again grab cash and players -- who might have been good with some attention -- but instead go to a second string academy where no one is invested in their success.

We'll see if any of them take it seriously, but it screams of exploitation. And it diverts time, energy and resources from actual development. And diverts kids from an actual sustainable path for the US.

This country needs to continue development in this country. Continuing to outsource will permanently handicap our upside.

And I think it's absurd that if an American-based academy does something, it's horrific and evil, but any European based team can do no wrong. There's a ridiculous level of self-loathing hypocrisy amongst the fanbase.

 

It sounds like these German clubs just want a new revenue stream and if they stumble across a worthwhile player, all the better.

Time will tell how the club treats this pay to play youth team in relation to the main academy.

I would be skeptical of joining this operation not just because of the money, but because I think it’s always a big risk to be at a club where you are an afterthought. Schalke signed plenty of Americans to normal youth contracts and if they really liked you they’d do the same. That they are not offering you a normal place in a normal academy should give a player pause.

I guess there’s the argument that Schalke’s academy coaches will offer such a superior experience that you will be better off even if you are not in the first team plans. I am skeptical that kids will get what they couldn’t have gotten for free elsewhere, but we’ll see. I’m curious to see who turns up on these rosters.

 

River Plate in contact with Matko Miljevic, who apparently becomes a free agent on 6/30. #USMNT
Se sacude el mundo River: Aston Villa viene por una figura y prepara una oferta millonaria https://t.co/Cekel9aTHa

— David Clark (@Ruprect7) June 22, 2021

 

Why would you assume that? Have you met crazy sports parents? There are absolutely going to be people who assume paying is better and that simply being affiliated with a European club is better.

I don't really want to hear anyone complaining about profit motivations in sport ever again, then. I think it's absurd that everything American gets blasted for this but the supposedly pure Germans who do it for the love of the game ... let's just be consistent, okay?

What here offers "zero chance of a meaningful opportunity in Europe?" See, this is the assumption that I am talking about.

We still have players who go to college ending up in Europe. We have tons of places scouted here. But we are going to see good players pay to go to European ... and that pulls benefit and resources away from American developmental paths.

How does our youth development get better in this country if this becomes a thing? And I'm talking about younger ages as well.

This seems the polar opposite. This seems like a program providing education with a professional atmosphere.

This is taking advantage of an American obsession with Europe where they will charge a player solely for the cash.

But hey, we'll give them a pass because they are German.

 

I think you are underestimating Schalke and Frankfurt. How much opportunity has Schalke given to young American players? We now have young American players who choose Schalke over big academies due to their record with American players. It's clear the positives they've had on American soccer over the last 5 years. Frankfurt is a competitor in Germany that probably sees the success of McKennie, Pulisic, Reyna, Hoppe, etc, and wants to add quality players for no transfer fee. They are a very successful club in Germany that has found other ways of acquiring good players without spending large amounts of money.

This is not Barcelona or Real Madrid setting up a pay for play academy in the US that has their name on it to help their brand. In fact, we've seen how successful the Barcelona academy has been at producing players. When it was set out, I don't think you could have expected a better outcome than we've seen so far. They have one of the best academies in the US right now, especially for non-MLS clubs.

These are clubs who are trying to find quality players. With all the success of American players who came for free to the Bundesliga, why wouldn't clubs try to find more quality American players? These clubs can still sign American players who don't participate in this and they can still bring in American players for short trials who don't participate in this. They obviously can't add 20 American kids to their academy, or even 5. They only have so many spots. There would absolutely be an uproar by locals if a team imported a full team of American players. That would not go over well. Thats why they bring them in for what amounts to a yearlong tryout without being official players of the club. They will take the 1-2 good players, if there are any.

Also, I would not expect this to be the absolute top your Americans players in these age groups. Those players already have other options. They don't need to take part in something like this. Look at Barca Arizona though. How many of those kids were big names before they went there? The biggest name at the time was probably Araujo, and even he wasn't as big of a name as he is now. I would argue that all of them improved their reputation.

If this academy is a competitor for Barca Arizona to bring in some quality secondary players who can afford pay to play, what's bad about that? There are plenty of players at MLS NEXT academies who would like to move to Barca Arizona that the academy doesn't select. If we had another full team of those players and they instead went to the ISA, there would likely be some good players to improve.

Thats where I disagree with @Dave Marino-Nachison. I agreed with most of his post, but I don't think this is a competitor for IMG. IMG produces very few good players. I believe this is a competitor for Barca Arizona. I believe there are a lot of players around the country at these MLS academies or bigger non-MLS academies who can afford the pay for play fee, and would like to be affiliated with a club like Frankfurt or Schalke. It says they'll be playing 30 games per season, mostly against Bundesliga academies. Even if you don't get signed by Frankfurt or Schalke, there are plenty of European scouts that will watch these games. They will be heavily scouted. If you are a good player that one of these teams doesn't select, you might instead sign with Mainz or Hertha Berlin.

 

One thing I want to add to my post above is that I think we need to realize that we currently have a system where plenty of good players don't have a pro pathway in this country. They end up going to college, which hurts their development. They can't reach their full potential once they enter college soccer.

This obviously is not for the best players in the system that are going to sign MLS contracts or with top European teams. This is for these secondary players at the MLS clubs or for players at non-MLS academies that don't have a current viable MLS pathway.

Until we have a system where every player with pro potential can have a sustainable path at a pro club at 16, 17, 18 years old, something like this, if its not only a money-grab by these clubs, can be successful. It can help. It obviously isn't a long-term solution. The system in this country has to build itself, and provide a sustainable path within the country for our players. I absolutely agree that we cannot rely on outsourcing the development of our players to Europe, but the system in this country currently doesn't provide that pathway for all our players. I don't see why we should be against an alternative path, if it's provided. It's better than no alternative path, and college soccer once a player hits 18.

 

I have no problem with either club bringing in American players into their academy.

This isn't their academy. This is pretending it's an academy to get people to pay large sums of money to pretend it is their academy.

If they were interested in American players, they'd bring them over and train them until they were 18. They wouldn't charge cash and do it through a for profit middleman.

Barcelona has a ton of US "academies". Barcelona AZ is the only one that isn't a complete rip-off, but it is still $70k a year.

No, they know Americans will pay large sums of money; that's why this exists. Teams used to bring over a ton of African kids into their academies in a wildly exploitative practice until it was banned.

This is getting wealthy Americans to pay. Sure, they may get a player or two out of it, but that's not the goal.

What's bad about it? One, it's exploitative, and if I am right, there's going to be a lot of deceptive advertising around it.

But your point of view seems to be as long as there is more players, great! But the problem is, the more and more we outsource the development of our players, the less and less resources we have to develop them internally. At the end of the day, this doesn't improve local reach. It doesn't improve youth development here.

It takes money out of the US system and feeds the German system, and while 1 or 2 won't matter, if this becomes a big thing ... it's going to create a massive suck of resourcing.

We will never be truly elite outsourcing our development. Because development starts far younger and far broader than Europe can EVER provide.

A player that goes to Germany is a player who doesn't pay their local club, or a player who doesn't sign with USL or MLS, and that reduces those leagues' incentive to invest in this space.

I will GLADLY take Barca AZ over this because at least Barcelona is training American coaches, American staff and hopefully providing competition and cascade that knowledge in America.

That's my fear. Because you are making a lot of assumptions here, but I'm willing to bet the signing rate out of these will be TERRIBLE.

Because that's not the point. The point is cash. But people are going to pretend that when Schalke is in the 3. Bundesliga that it's better to be signed by them than the NYRB?

Schalke isn't sitting there thinking, "I wish I had room for more Americans." They are sitting there thinking, I can charge these suckers $70k and with 300 players, I can churn a big time profit.