Anonymous wrote:All international tournaments should be viewed as experiences NOT recruiting or training opportunities. If you can afford it can be a great experience for your child and family. But please please please do not think it’s a stepping stone to professional soccer or magical training that will turn your kid into a different player in a week.
We have been to Mundialito and I agree with the previous posts. You're not going to go there and some La Liga academy is wow'ed by your son. It just won't happen. Not at these ages.
But, Mundialito is a high level tournament with some of the best academies in the world coming to play. At a minimum, you will be able to benchmark your son versus those kids and that alone is valuable. And when you're playing against US only competition at home, seeing what the kids are doing in Europe is very eye opening and it gives you perspective that most parents in the US don't have. This perspective will set you apart from most other soccer parents because you will have actually seen what other high level teams and players look like in countries where soccer is the priority and that perspective will give you a different lens on what you see week in and week out in the US soccer landscape.
What you'll realize very fast is that the US is just very far behind. It isn't necessarily the ball skills, but the soccer IQ and decision making at the younger ages. You could make an argument that the US kids are more creative with the ball at younger ages and sometimes have more ball skills than their European counterparts, but they just don't know when, why, where and how to use them properly. It comes down to...too many touches for no real reason and no passing accuracy. Its the Instagram effect to be honest. Too many cone drills with no pressure and not enough game simulation with aggressive defense in training. But sometimes you need to see it for yourself to really and truly understand.
Other than that, it is another tournament, just in Spain, with higher level competition and as the previous posters have already said, if you can afford it, the experience will be good. It is a very well run tournament, good facilities and of course a great history.