Reply to what happened to Ben Lederman- article

Forum Index » Soccer

Reply to "what happened to Ben Lederman- article"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]One point stood out to me, because people on this forum have time and again dismissed the importance of game time, saying it's all about the training.  This kid trained with Barcelona for a whole year while the club fought FIFA's ruling, but he got little game experience because he could only play in friendlies.

"It was then that the toll taken from a lack of game action revealed itself.". Kids need to play.

For the record, I think FIFA's rule does more to disenfranchise young players than it does to protect them from being exploited.  It prevents them from finding opportunities at some of the best clubs in the world, and by the time they are 18, it will be too late. [/quote]

Game time is extremely important, but you have to take that statement from the article with a big grain of salt given the source.  I do really feel for this family, but it seems clear that a large part of why he doesn't seem to be making it is related to his physical abilities, which from various reports lag well behind his skill level.  Also, while the FIFA rule hurts kids like this and John Hilton, it was put in place to prevent the horrifying exploitation of poor kids from African and elsewhere, who were brought to Europe in large numbers and then left to fend for themselves with no financial support when they didn't immediately pan out.  It would be great if the rule were amended so it more narrowly targeted the population it aims to help.

Also, there are scores of US kids there now (esp. Germany) who had to wait until they were 18, but are now doing very well.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics