Could International Players Become A Permanent Part of the MLS Draft?

Yesterday's announcement of the MLS combine team breakdowns included the addition and subtraction of a few college players. In came Matt Allen of Creighton, Corey Sipos of Akron, Scott Campbell of North Carolina, and the three small-school selections - Ricardo Pierre-Louis of Lee, Kai Kasiguran of Messiah, and Keith Savage of West Florida. Out went Notre Dame's Joe Lapira and Providence's Ryan Maduro, who are presumably trialing overseas, and Andy Wright of West Virginia, who already signed a deal with Scunthorpe United in England. None of these changes were terribly surprising.

But a few new names on the list were very surprising, as MLS added three South American youngsters to the combine and the draft. Internet searches led to possible matches - a Maximiliano Damiano is or was a youth player at Velez Sarsfield in Argentina, a Lucas Fernandez is or was a youth player at Boca Juniors in Argentina, and a Jonathan Sabbatini seems to play or have played for Estudiantil Sanducero F.C. in Paysandú, Uruguay.

This would not be the first time MLS has dabbled in league-wide youth scouting. Back in the 2001 draft, three players from Bolivia's Tahuichi Academy and one player from Joe Public in Trinidad & Tobago were made available to teams. Joselito Vaca was picked fifth by the Dallas Burn and had an up-and-down career in MLS, defender Fernando Ortiz Solis was a fourth-round selection by the New England Revolution but never played, and Kerwyn Jemmott had a very brief time with the MetroStars. At the time, it was thought that MLS might be able to make a long-term agreement with the Tahuichi Academy to get their best graduates into the draft every year, but that obviously never materialized.

So in 2008, MLS appears to be giving the idea another chance. There has been no information as yet as to how these players were identified, or what their contract status will be within MLS. It may be that they are coming to combine without a contract, as sort of a special trial, and will only get signed if a team drafts them. I expect we will know more details soon.

The concept of adding international players to the draft seems to be a sensible one for MLS, and perhaps this time it will be maintained or expanded. The international scouting opportunities for individual MLS clubs are limited by the their budgets and interests. FC Dallas and DC United may have made some hay from their South American contacts in South America, but most teams have shown limited ability to find players, especially young ones, other than those occasionally foisted on them by agents with connections. The combine offers an interesting possibility for young players whose careers have stalled in their native land, as trialing for 14 (and rising) teams at once is probably a more efficient way to find a club in a where their talents can be most properly valued and utilized in a new country. The potential returns to MLS in future transfer funds or simply spreading exotic, interesting young players around the league, seem to make it worth a try. MLS has reportedly been stepping up its centralized international scouting infrastructure, and it has a unique bargaining ability as a league unit.

In addition, MLS no doubt wants to maintain the status of the Superdraft, because it gives the league national and local media presence in the middle of a fairly long off-season. The Superdraft currently faces a slow, terminal decline as more American youth players look to Europe and MLS teams begin to assert signing rights on academy players under the new developmental rules. The inclusion of young international players could give the draft and the combine new life, as teams hustle to evaluate unseen international teens against the late bloomers, serious students, and unpolished gems from the college ranks.