Hypothetical optimal path to the pros for boys

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hope to be good enough to get into the FC Dallas system as a youth and be one of their top players at age level.

Philadelphia Union works just fine for people who don’t want to completely uproot their families for minuscule odds of achieving a pro dream. They have a halfway decent residential and school program, plus an excellent training setup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you can't go to Europe, go to Brazil

European clubs start cleaning house at 11 and 12.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/sports/soccer/premier-league-youth-soccer.html

BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, France — The road back to professional soccer begins in the dark.

Two hours before dawn on the first Sunday in September, a group of 11- and 12-year-old boys have piled into a van outside their coach’s house in London to start their 17-hour workday. Some of the boys have been up since 2 a.m. in order to get on the road by 4, and most don’t leave the van until it pulls to a stop in a parking lot in France five hours later.

Only then do the boys emerge bleary eyed at the Complexe de la Waroquerie, a sports facility in this coastal city. Their appearance at the Chti’s Cup, a competitive youth tournament, is the latest stop in what for most will be an unlikely (and in most cases, fruitless) journey toward a professional soccer career.

Several of the boys donning the sky blue shirts of this club, Focus Football, have already suffered massive disappointment in the game. Cut loose by England’s biggest clubs before they reached their teenage years, they now toil with a developmental program based in a high school sports hall that is a world away from the manicured academies of the Premier League.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can't go to Europe, go to Brazil

European clubs start cleaning house at 11 and 12.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/sports/soccer/premier-league-youth-soccer.html

BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, France — The road back to professional soccer begins in the dark.

Two hours before dawn on the first Sunday in September, a group of 11- and 12-year-old boys have piled into a van outside their coach’s house in London to start their 17-hour workday. Some of the boys have been up since 2 a.m. in order to get on the road by 4, and most don’t leave the van until it pulls to a stop in a parking lot in France five hours later.

Only then do the boys emerge bleary eyed at the Complexe de la Waroquerie, a sports facility in this coastal city. Their appearance at the Chti’s Cup, a competitive youth tournament, is the latest stop in what for most will be an unlikely (and in most cases, fruitless) journey toward a professional soccer career.

Several of the boys donning the sky blue shirts of this club, Focus Football, have already suffered massive disappointment in the game. Cut loose by England’s biggest clubs before they reached their teenage years, they now toil with a developmental program based in a high school sports hall that is a world away from the manicured academies of the Premier League.

Meh, "cleaning house" is kind of overstated...
Yes, kids get cut from professional academies. But in Europe, there are always plenty more opportunities for someone to find a new team and continue to improve. A major metropolitan area could have dozens of professional football clubs at different levels. Most small towns have (at least) one too. It's not even comparable to the USA, which is a system of gatekeepers.

[Anonymous]

Play for DC United.

[Anonymous]

GET OUT OF THE USA.

Seriously. Get overseas. There are prep/boarding schools in the UK that focus on football, and you can get your high school degree at the same time as focusing on sport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Assume that you have a super talented 9 or 10 year old boy and you can move anywhere in the US or do anything within reason in the US to maximize his chances of playing pro-soccer. Also assume that this kid doesn't have access to a European passport. What can you do to maximize his chances?

This is a hypothetical question. I know that the chance of a boy playing pro-soccer is miniscule and I don't have a kid with extraordinary talent. I'm just curious about what this path looks like in the US. In Europe, a talented kid as young as 7 or 8 could join an Academy and move up its ranks based on his talent and/or eventually move to a better academy. What is the equivalent path for a young kid with great talent in the US? Would it be to join an MLS academy - how do they compare to European academies? Is it to play the highest level travel until he is 12 or 13 and then join an academy? what would be the optimal development path for such a kid to maximize his soccer potential?

Move to South America.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can't go to Europe, go to Brazil

European clubs start cleaning house at 11 and 12.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/sports/soccer/premier-league-youth-soccer.html

BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, France — The road back to professional soccer begins in the dark.

Two hours before dawn on the first Sunday in September, a group of 11- and 12-year-old boys have piled into a van outside their coach’s house in London to start their 17-hour workday. Some of the boys have been up since 2 a.m. in order to get on the road by 4, and most don’t leave the van until it pulls to a stop in a parking lot in France five hours later.

Only then do the boys emerge bleary eyed at the Complexe de la Waroquerie, a sports facility in this coastal city. Their appearance at the Chti’s Cup, a competitive youth tournament, is the latest stop in what for most will be an unlikely (and in most cases, fruitless) journey toward a professional soccer career.

Several of the boys donning the sky blue shirts of this club, Focus Football, have already suffered massive disappointment in the game. Cut loose by England’s biggest clubs before they reached their teenage years, they now toil with a developmental program based in a high school sports hall that is a world away from the manicured academies of the Premier League.

Meh, "cleaning house" is kind of overstated...
Yes, kids get cut from professional academies. But in Europe, there are always plenty more opportunities for someone to find a new team and continue to improve. A major metropolitan area could have dozens of professional football clubs at different levels. Most small towns have (at least) one too. It's not even comparable to the USA, which is a system of gatekeepers.

Yeah there maybe options but these places are looking for future pros. Look at your kids age group. How many would you retain if you had to pay for each one with the hope of a future pay off at 17-18 years old?