It behooves any country with serious aspirations on the world soccer scene to entrust the development of its young players to the pros. To the country's professional clubs, that is. Like in most endeavors, privatization tends to lead to more efficiency, and Major League Soccer's nascent academies are slowly but very concertedly wresting youth soccer away from the traditional avenues. At the start of the 2011 MLS season, there were 33 MLS academy products on the league's rosters. As with most American sports, a soccer education historically flowed from little leagues to clubs, to high school, to more clubs to colleges and finally to the pros. In other countries, elite players are being scouted from the age of 5, enter the academies of pro clubs from age 6 and stay within the same framework until they either wash out or make it to the senior team.
The U.S. is beginning to see the value of the other approach. MLS academies have become ubiquitous within the league -- all 18 MLS clubs have one; the New York Cosmos, which hasn't even been let into the league yet, has two -- and are increasingly well-funded, with budgets ranging from $500,000 to $1 million a year each. They don't generally accept players younger than 14 or so, but as the league's infrastructure grows, the academies will drastically alter the American soccer structure. And in so doing, they will also create all kinds of issues in the coming decades.
No comments:
Post a Comment