Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:clubs in other countries still pay their coaches, who are professionals.
Bottom line is that a professional league needs to spring up and offer kids who are U15 and older contracts (below that, it is illegal for the kids to work). The contracts would guarantee schooling, soccer training, and housing. The quid pro quo would be that the school would "own" the kid for a certain length of time. Maybe until they were 21. Clauses to get out. Then the schools would "sell" the contracts to teams for a certain price. That sale of contracts would allow good schools to continue and bad schools would fail.
I am surprised that someone hasn't done this in America yet. Perhaps Socialism is more conducive to this structure?
In America, we want our kids to be great at everything. In Europe, if you don't know math by the time you are 10, you won't ever learn Calculus. I'm pretty sure that in Scotland, they don't even teach English (kidding, kidding). But seriously, Until this happens or until the NFL burns every bridge it can, American Soccer will never be a driving force in the world.