Which European country?

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for the advice and insights to the different countries and playing in Europe in general as a youth player.

If anyone is interested in the complexities of transferring a minor to Europe or outside of the US, FIFA issued this guide:

https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/2130eb84c31cf4e4/original/lb2t6bqgmi2a1x1pr5xs-pdf.pdf

As PP mentioned, it’s no joke. Even with an EU passport!

[Anonymous]

Before everyone is looking to run to a European country for the magic potion, ask yourself, is your kid exceptional here?

[Anonymous]

At a minimum, there are benefits of doing extended training sessions in foreign countries. We had a 14year old girl go live and train in Brazil for 6 months as an exchange student with a family member, she returned as a much better player. She was placed on our top team almost immediately upon her return.

TBH, she was a little better -not a lot better-, but the coaching staff was eager to get her placed on a top team because of it.

And we had another player, who did a month in Spain, who was offered a spot on the top team without the coaching staff watching him play. He didn't join our club, but the message we got was our coaches highly valued overseas training.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your child had the opportunity to try out at a football academy in Europe, which country or countries would you focus on?

I realize that is a broad question but assume child is not a generational talent and has an EU passport but no close ties to any particular country.

I heard Spain, Netherlands, and Belgium do a good job. France is pretty good but they are smart. They build urban soccer fields in the poor areas and the kids just grow up playing free style and the the clubs come in a scoop them up and round them out.

Yes, that's exactly the France recruitment model 🤣
They setup gladiators in colosseums and pick the winners

I can’t speak for other countries but in France the youth academies (associated with pro clubs) are heavily subsidized by the French government and there are serious residency rules until about U17 and I’m not talking about your kid being French already or has a French passport; I mean a club will have a geographic territory in which they only pull academy residents so you actually just have lived in that territory prior to being selected. It’s a residential program so a boarding school, even if a kid lives super close. Even then a parent must live within 100km of the club while the kid is in residential.

So if you wanted your kid to play U15 at an academy, you would already need to be living there for a year and continue living there in the territory in question. I believe at U17 a club can get a waiver to get kids from outside the territory.

We went through this with our son who is a dual citizen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your child had the opportunity to try out at a football academy in Europe, which country or countries would you focus on?

I realize that is a broad question but assume child is not a generational talent and has an EU passport but no close ties to any particular country.

I heard Spain, Netherlands, and Belgium do a good job. France is pretty good but they are smart. They build urban soccer fields in the poor areas and the kids just grow up playing free style and the the clubs come in a scoop them up and round them out.

Yes, that's exactly the France recruitment model 🤣
They setup gladiators in colosseums and pick the winners

I can’t speak for other countries but in France the youth academies (associated with pro clubs) are heavily subsidized by the French government and there are serious residency rules until about U17 and I’m not talking about your kid being French already or has a French passport; I mean a club will have a geographic territory in which they only pull academy residents so you actually just have lived in that territory prior to being selected. It’s a residential program so a boarding school, even if a kid lives super close. Even then a parent must live within 100km of the club while the kid is in residential.

So if you wanted your kid to play U15 at an academy, you would already need to be living there for a year and continue living there in the territory in question. I believe at U17 a club can get a waiver to get kids from outside the territory.

We went through this with our son who is a dual citizen.

Interesting, I’m familiar with FIFA restrictions U17 and under even between eu countries. But had not even thought of local residential restrictions which makes sense bc of the heavy public investments.

Anyone know whether any of other EU countries have similar restrictions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your child had the opportunity to try out at a football academy in Europe, which country or countries would you focus on?

I realize that is a broad question but assume child is not a generational talent and has an EU passport but no close ties to any particular country.

I heard Spain, Netherlands, and Belgium do a good job. France is pretty good but they are smart. They build urban soccer fields in the poor areas and the kids just grow up playing free style and the the clubs come in a scoop them up and round them out.

Yes, that's exactly the France recruitment model 🤣
They setup gladiators in colosseums and pick the winners

I can’t speak for other countries but in France the youth academies (associated with pro clubs) are heavily subsidized by the French government and there are serious residency rules until about U17 and I’m not talking about your kid being French already or has a French passport; I mean a club will have a geographic territory in which they only pull academy residents so you actually just have lived in that territory prior to being selected. It’s a residential program so a boarding school, even if a kid lives super close. Even then a parent must live within 100km of the club while the kid is in residential.

So if you wanted your kid to play U15 at an academy, you would already need to be living there for a year and continue living there in the territory in question. I believe at U17 a club can get a waiver to get kids from outside the territory.

We went through this with our son who is a dual citizen.

Interesting, I’m familiar with FIFA restrictions U17 and under even between eu countries. But had not even thought of local residential restrictions which makes sense bc of the heavy public investments.

Anyone know whether any of other EU countries have similar restrictions?

Where can we find information that shows a rich club like PSG in France is subsidized by the government?