| Arlington coaches calling BRYC players when they were on the practice field last year.... |
He should go steal those SYA teams that dislike their coaches. That would be a good score. |
Barcelona definitely recruits players, but the training is free. European club academies don't charge families thousands of euros for training; they make money by developing players for professional teams. In contrast, local clubs in metro DC area have zero incentive to develop individual players, because they make money by charging big $$$$ to the parents. Most big clubs recruit hard to field strong teams to tout their winning record and, thus, get more paying customers. |
Barcelona is worth billions with a B. |
| What age does recruiting other players start? DS isn't full field yet, but haven't seen that yet. |
| I'm a coach at one of the clubs. I give out xboxs to all players that deflect and join my club. Once they do, I put them on the 2nd and 3rd team. That's how we win the league every year! |
Or "defect" |
Starts around U12 and gets heavy every year up. Take a look at the ECNL and DA rosters from the pre stage U12 and see how different they look at U13 when the enter the ECNL schedule. |
| Is it stealing players or recruiting when an entire team leaves.? |
This. Soccer isn't a money sport in the US. In the money sports, being able to steer players you develop is currency. You can make a very good living as a youth football, baseball or basketball coach who can reliably steer quality prospects to their next stop. Nothing comparable exists in soccer, the only source of money is the parents of the players. Probably the only thing that comes close is being a youth coach who can connect players with college recruiters, but again, the money comes from the parents. |
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in other countries, youth players have economic value. Here, they only have as much value as their parents are willing to pay since there is barely any demand.
Baseball is another story... we have minor league systems and players are assigned a $ value once they are in the minor league system, prospects are bought and sold all the time. Soccer - eh, maybe when MLS turns 50 we will have something like that. |
And in money sports the money flows down from the pro levels. The Nationals pay for fields and uniforms for Little League kids in DC for example. In soccer, the money flows up -- or at least everyone is trying to make it flow up. Rec players are expected to subsidize travel programs, travel players are expected to subsidize higher level programs. When DC United comes to talk about a "partnership" with a youth soccer club, they're talking about the club buying overpriced season tickets and little else. Even part of the annual registration fees that referees pay go to subsidize referees for MLS. |