MLS youth development – “Homegrown” players to join local clubs…
According to Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney, 2007 will be the first year of mandatory MLS youth squads. A few months back I got extremely excited about an announcement league Commissioner Don Garber made at his annual All*Star break address. The words vertical player development rolled off his tongue and a bright halo appeared over his head as he winked at the crowd. Ok, I didn’t see the announcement but that is what I was picturing while listening over the Internet here at FCTP headquarters.
Vertical player development was the only detail at that point. Now Soccer America is giving us some more details. This is the start of something great so long as the league executes well on their vision. Let’s go over the rules we learned today:
HOMEGROWN PLAYER RULES
Homegrown players are eligible to be added to a team's regular MLS roster without being subject to the league's drafts or other distribution procedures.
Me: So, players who play for the club are going to be able to join the senior team without being put through the draft. Excellent. Johnny X, you can be a Red Bull.
Players must have lived in the area (with their parents, if appropriate) for one year prior to their placement on a list as a homegrown player.
Me: Players can’t be scouted in one part of the country, moved to another and immediately join the MLS club. A one year limit doesn’t seem like a lot, but it seems like enough so that teams don’t do this all the time. Believe me, if there is another Freddy Adu spotted, some team will try to move his family.
Each team can list up to 18 homegrown players on each of its developmental teams.
Me: Here is the first mistake by the league in my opinion, only 18 youth players per team! So the U-15’s can have 18 kids, the U-17’s can have 18 kids, etc. Eventually each team will be able to have six youth teams, so that is 108 kids in each club and 1,296 across the league. That is a decent number, but I would have liked to see two teams per age group, or something to cast a larger net at younger ages. However, I’m not going to look this horse in the mouth.
A player is eligible for an MLS roster two years after his name is submitted to MLS on a team's homegrown list.
Me: The homegrown players can’t play for the senior club until two years after starting with the youth team. I imagine this is another rule to keep clubs from trying to move kids around or circumvent the SuperDraft. A college kid can’t drop out of school and join an MLS youth team and then join the senior team six months later. This is probably meant to protect the draft in the short term.
Players in U.S. youth national team pools cannot be included on a team's homegrown list unless they joined the MLS team prior to being summoned for a national camp.
Me: This seems like a big generation adidas and draft protector. If a kid has been identified by the national set up as a prospect by being called into a camp, they can’t join a home club. MLS must want to hold on to the ability to sign the cream of the crop and distribute them how they see fit. In the long run I hope most of the young national team players are identified through their play with their MLS club, however for now the current youth stars are off limits.
Now let’s jump into the analysis. As I said when The Don first spoke of vertical youth development, I think this is a huge step forward for MLS. Up to this point the youth clubs run by Red Bull New York, DC United and Chivas USA could not be assured their young players would join the senior club. This gave the clubs little incentive to spend money on youth clubs. Some did because they saw the value in building a soccer community but others did not because they were more worried about paying other bills. Now, each club will see their player development as a competitive advantage. The clubs that can develop more youngsters will have a cheap player pool to pull from where the talent is a known quantity as opposed to a shot at the SuperDraft dart board.
MLS made the right decision by making this a mandatory part of running a club. In 2007 clubs will have two youth teams and sometime down the road they’ll have six, training kids ranging in age from 14 to 25. As I said earlier, when each club has all six youth teams we’re looking at 108 players training in a professional environment. If the league makes their goal of 16 clubs by 2010, that is 1,728 youth kids getting professional training. That will help the American soccer gene pool grow.
There is one huge question still out there, will this be a pay to play system? Right now talented soccer players don’t get the best training and exposure because their families can’t afford to pay thousands of dollars a year to join the best club team. This cuts youth development off at the knees. MLS needs to make this system entirely club sponsored so that the kids with the best talent are not left on the sidelines. All I’m saying is that I want every kid to have the same chance of making it to the pros. MLS should take some of their new found TV wealth and divvy it up amongst the clubs to run their youth systems. John Harkes says Nottingham Forrest in England spends roughly $3 million a year on youth development. I don’t see MLS clubs spending that much since the salary cap to this point has been hovering around $2 million, but $500,000/club out of the league kity would go along way to making sure these kids don’t have to pay to join their local club.
We’re still waiting for the official league announcement where I’m sure more rules will be spelled out and some will remain murky, that’s MLS’ style. But right now, I know this is a huge plus for the league and will someday be seen as one of the watershed moments for soccer in the USA.
Vertical player development was the only detail at that point. Now Soccer America is giving us some more details. This is the start of something great so long as the league executes well on their vision. Let’s go over the rules we learned today:
HOMEGROWN PLAYER RULES
Homegrown players are eligible to be added to a team's regular MLS roster without being subject to the league's drafts or other distribution procedures.
Me: So, players who play for the club are going to be able to join the senior team without being put through the draft. Excellent. Johnny X, you can be a Red Bull.
Players must have lived in the area (with their parents, if appropriate) for one year prior to their placement on a list as a homegrown player.
Me: Players can’t be scouted in one part of the country, moved to another and immediately join the MLS club. A one year limit doesn’t seem like a lot, but it seems like enough so that teams don’t do this all the time. Believe me, if there is another Freddy Adu spotted, some team will try to move his family.
Each team can list up to 18 homegrown players on each of its developmental teams.
Me: Here is the first mistake by the league in my opinion, only 18 youth players per team! So the U-15’s can have 18 kids, the U-17’s can have 18 kids, etc. Eventually each team will be able to have six youth teams, so that is 108 kids in each club and 1,296 across the league. That is a decent number, but I would have liked to see two teams per age group, or something to cast a larger net at younger ages. However, I’m not going to look this horse in the mouth.
A player is eligible for an MLS roster two years after his name is submitted to MLS on a team's homegrown list.
Me: The homegrown players can’t play for the senior club until two years after starting with the youth team. I imagine this is another rule to keep clubs from trying to move kids around or circumvent the SuperDraft. A college kid can’t drop out of school and join an MLS youth team and then join the senior team six months later. This is probably meant to protect the draft in the short term.
Players in U.S. youth national team pools cannot be included on a team's homegrown list unless they joined the MLS team prior to being summoned for a national camp.
Me: This seems like a big generation adidas and draft protector. If a kid has been identified by the national set up as a prospect by being called into a camp, they can’t join a home club. MLS must want to hold on to the ability to sign the cream of the crop and distribute them how they see fit. In the long run I hope most of the young national team players are identified through their play with their MLS club, however for now the current youth stars are off limits.
Now let’s jump into the analysis. As I said when The Don first spoke of vertical youth development, I think this is a huge step forward for MLS. Up to this point the youth clubs run by Red Bull New York, DC United and Chivas USA could not be assured their young players would join the senior club. This gave the clubs little incentive to spend money on youth clubs. Some did because they saw the value in building a soccer community but others did not because they were more worried about paying other bills. Now, each club will see their player development as a competitive advantage. The clubs that can develop more youngsters will have a cheap player pool to pull from where the talent is a known quantity as opposed to a shot at the SuperDraft dart board.
MLS made the right decision by making this a mandatory part of running a club. In 2007 clubs will have two youth teams and sometime down the road they’ll have six, training kids ranging in age from 14 to 25. As I said earlier, when each club has all six youth teams we’re looking at 108 players training in a professional environment. If the league makes their goal of 16 clubs by 2010, that is 1,728 youth kids getting professional training. That will help the American soccer gene pool grow.
There is one huge question still out there, will this be a pay to play system? Right now talented soccer players don’t get the best training and exposure because their families can’t afford to pay thousands of dollars a year to join the best club team. This cuts youth development off at the knees. MLS needs to make this system entirely club sponsored so that the kids with the best talent are not left on the sidelines. All I’m saying is that I want every kid to have the same chance of making it to the pros. MLS should take some of their new found TV wealth and divvy it up amongst the clubs to run their youth systems. John Harkes says Nottingham Forrest in England spends roughly $3 million a year on youth development. I don’t see MLS clubs spending that much since the salary cap to this point has been hovering around $2 million, but $500,000/club out of the league kity would go along way to making sure these kids don’t have to pay to join their local club.
We’re still waiting for the official league announcement where I’m sure more rules will be spelled out and some will remain murky, that’s MLS’ style. But right now, I know this is a huge plus for the league and will someday be seen as one of the watershed moments for soccer in the USA.
posted by Bonji at
8:56 AM
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