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[quote=Anonymous]Some advice from my move to Europe (not Netherlands) a few years ago:

1) Unlike the US, where every club (and in some cases every coach) is an entrepreneur peddling their own brand of football education, expect to see a nation-wide style of both playing and coaching. Unless by sheer luck, that won't be the primary style your kid(s) have learned.

2) I would back off of the assumption that you need to find a club before you get there. Definitely send a few emails asking for trials (and the trial may simply be, "Okay, we have a control match (scrimmage) on such-and-such day, have your kid show up"). Sure, reach out to Hartog or Fuller, but the best they can do is help you get a trial.

3) Don't worry about the level. I'll say that again...DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE LEVEL. Saying this for a couple of reasons. First, you have no way to compare levels. U13. ECNL. means. nothing. Probably any team in their competitive pyramid will have players better than your kid. They're almost all going to be more technical and, more importantly, they have lived and breathed the national style of football that I mentioned above since they were able to walk. Simply put, they know what to do, what the coach expects of them, etc, and your kid at the beginning will not. At the higher levels, the difference will be night and day--every kid will be vastly better technically and bigger/faster/stronger (unless you're Axel Kei's parent).

4) The good news: It's **not** like the United States where teams playing at lower levels have less field access, possibly lower-quality coaching, and little opportunity for advancement. No matter what club, you'll have quality facilities, quality coaches, and there's little of the petty bullsh!t league snobbery (ECNL! MLS-next!) that dominates youth soccer in the US. You win, you go up. You lose, you go down. If you start (and even continue) at a lower-level club, don't worry--the coaches will send your kid where he needs to be when he needs to be there. There's a kid who played U8-U16 at my younger son's lower-level club and could have probably moved to an "academy" at any time. But he waited until U17, when the club helped him move to a GREAT situation where he plays for a senior team as a U17 and immediately was put onto the U17 national team.

My bottom line advice: Try to find a team that is close to home (so your kid can make friends), where your kid can get ALL THE PLAYING TIME, especially in the first year while he's still learning the system, and **most importantly** where the coaches are comfortable with English (not applicable if your kid understands Dutch well, obviously). [/quote]

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