If your kid makes it to play D1 soccer, which statistically is a low chance and with as much as you whine about clubs it leads me to believe your kid is maybe average at best, tell them not to attend class because that's how it works for "big time athletes" and see how it works out for them. Also, you do realize not every kid is at a European academy? I ask this because some people here don't seem to understand this fact. As far as they know, every kid gets to sign up Chelsea, Bayern, Real Madid and etc train and play for free. |
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Meh. It's not really p2p for the elite players. Once they're id'd, the clubs will cover the fees. Trainers will train them for free bc they can use them for social media posts to bring in younger players.
Top girl players are training for free with NWSL teams, sometimes fulltime, up until they head to college (with a few of them choosing to go pro instead). |
Because this is an anonymous forum, I have no idea who I am responding to...anyway, this discussion has really gone off the rails. I don't even know where that happened, but it began with folks talking about how different the US P2P landscape is versus Europe, in particular with soccer. And then someone mentioned how high school sports and college sports are pretty much non-existent in Europe. I agree and that's all true. There's cricket clubs and rugby union clubs and soccer clubs etc, that all have youth teams. And then there are the top level academies run by their A level teams. And no kidding, every kid isn't playing for free at these A level academies. As far as my kids, I had one that played soccer and never traveled overnight out of town. Loved the game, playing with friends, playing for their High School. Worked great for them. Now enjoys playing pickup and low level adult leagues. Perfect for them. I have another that will play soccer in college at a D1 P4 level in 2027 and they have put in the time and effort to get to that point. Have that same love of the game but made the commitment to themselves to be the best player that they could possibly be. All the stuff that goes along with the level of play. Why on earth would I tell either of my kids, the non-athlete and athlete, not to attend class? WTH? That's the whole point of college, isn't it? Sports is a vehicle to get there and help lower costs to us as parents, but the education is the priority. I was making a point or at least trying to that the US college athletic system is damn near broken. The NIL business has gotten out of hand and allowed all of that BS to continue to grow from happening behind the scenes (wink, wink) in big football and basketball and is now making it's way into pretty much everything. Heck, the grocery bags of cash were happening back in the day of John Wooden's UCLA basketball teams and led to the death sentence for SMU football in the 80s. Today the flow of $$ is all supposedly above board. So, how about that USWNT? |
Hahaha you sound as if US men team has ever won anything. Meanwhile you have Europe dominating World Cup for decades on end until the last one with Argentina getting that Masonic treatment for the win (cue that black Saturn symbolism they had Messi lift the trophy with). Note: it’s Cristiano’s turn this summer (Simpson already “predicted” it) |
If you don’t know anything on the subject, please do us all a favor and don’t comment on it. Theirs is no such thing as playing for your local team in Europe at minimal cost without subsidy. All European academies and teams are heavily subsidized by their governments and UEFA. All local clubs are heavily subsidized by their municipalities who pay for coaches and fields. I don’t know what you do for a living but I get the feeling you just collect a bi-weekly check and don’t think about these things very much. Do the work, educate yourself, travel a bit, talk to people, learn, then talk. And until then, listen. Everyone is Europe envies the college system in the US because it provides an opportunity for players who are not going pro to get some return on the years of investment in their sport. And I’m not talking about basketball or baseball because this isn’t that kind of party and nobody here cares. Soccer in the US is the stepchild of pro sports and simply doesn’t have the same level of support on the professional level, men or women. Being a D1 soccer player still comes with more financial benefits and perks than the average pro player. Many of the girls that US soccer is investing in bringing to IDs and camps over and over again have no intention of pursuing soccer as a career. They’re merely using the exposure to get to the best college with the best financial deal. They will not be pursuing soccer beyond those four years. Their peers in Europe are in soccer academies, with the sole goal of becoming pros. The large US pool is only an advantage in the young age groups, their competitiveness on the senior level will continue to decline if they don’t take it seriously and treat it as all other professional sports and the way it is treated abroad. |
I can guarantee it’s the exact opposite. Absolutely nobody gives a crap about the US as a whole, let alone the athletics in university. LMAO |
You have no clue. Go ahead and guarantee it, would love to see it. Everyone on the girls side aboard wishes they have the athletic college scholarships. More foreign players will keep coming to the US college programs, everyone who’s not in an academy abroad already. Talked to players, coaches, club and national directors in three countries in Europe this summer. I know what they told me and what the realities there are. It wasn’t much of a subject a few years ago but now that they are also developing a large pool of players, they’re looking for opportunities. |
This is a bad take. Costa Rica didn’t even qualify for this WC. They didn’t get out of group in 2022…every country is pay2play… |
D1 is not a low-probability outcome. That idea is a tired American trope. If your kid is playing in MLSN or ECNL, they have a very legitimate path to Division I soccer. The exposure, competition, and recruiting access are real. If your kid is playing on a local, classic, “brown” team… yeah, the odds aren’t great. And here’s the part people conveniently ignore: most kids are playing classic, and most of those kids are not trying to play Division I soccer in the first place. The problem isn’t that D1 is unrealistic. The problem is pretending all pathways and all intentions are the same |
GA is legit, too. Yes, not currently as big as ECNL with recruits, but a pathway. |
D1 as a low probability is when all kids playing soccer are considered meaning players in rec, high school teams, travel, and national league travel (ECNL/GA/MLSN). If your kid is already in the 5% who are in those national leagues the probability is better maybe 20-30% of players in those leagues play D1. But those odds only hold if you are willing to send your kid to any D1 school for college, many of which you have never heard of and neither has any employer. Most parents on this board are not including those schools and so the probability gets much smaller again. |
And this is why we have no global partners anymore that arent autocrats. You know nothing |
If you say three times in a row your kid becomes Alex Morgan |
Huh!? Dumb as bricks |
If any of this is true why you slumming it on here with these Aspire parents? Go write your own blog |