It’s not that they don’t have talent, I feel like it’s more about having passion for the sport for those who can afford it. From my experience living in the US, my parents couldn’t afford to have me play club football obviously because it was expensive, so I would only settle for playing football for my school. The quality is much lower of high school soccer ( football , sorry I would’ve confused myself with American football) because more kids play and it is much cheaper. Most kids that play it, don’t play club football. The high school season is only 2 in a half to 3 months (at least in my state, it might be different in others), depending on how far your team goes, and it is usually played during the off season of club football, so those kids who play club football also play the high school season. In my high school team we had a total of 21 players on the Varsity team and I would say probably 14 or 15 out of the 21 played club soccer. Im not kidding when I tell you, most of these guys where lazy during practice, they knew they didn’t really had to fight for their spot (because the coaches would prefer the players that play for a club team) and most of them couldn’t wait for the season to be over so they can go back to play for their club team. So they wouldn’t really try their best. I was friends with some of those players and they also wouldn’t really watch football or care to keep up with it. Personally I love the sport and can talk about it all day, so that was very shocking to me. Playing club football in the US increases your chances of being scouted by a college or university since you are playing at a higher level, against better competition and playing for a longer period of time. For some club football teams you get to travel and play in other states, in tournaments etc. You basically get more exposure. So those players from my high school team that also played club soccer, just played soccer either because it was much safer than American Football, they can afford it, or it’s a way to get into college and get scholarships.
(Canadian who played college soccer in the USA) many American coaches care more about size/strength than technique, I was told by a couple D1 coaches as a 5'9 left back that their teams didn't take any defenders under 6 feet lmao. even though the best left back in the world at the time was 5'7 Jordi Alba
yea it's really annoying. i'm a 5'10 keeper, but I lift heavy and have a 38 inch vertical. 5'10 is short for keepers but not for soccer in general, but still, coaches would rather me be 6'6 skinny twig who doesn't have to jump to punch the ball over the bar.
You can't fault them for wanting a specific type of player to fill a specific position. I had the same problem being a short right back. The school I went to played 3 in the back and they were all tall lol. I would've had to play as a winger, but I just don't have the natural stamina for that :/
David Atkinson yea but u look anywhere else other than the US, you have 5’8 players playing cb and they’re better than the 6’4 guys the us coaches like. Coaches here take size over skill any day of the week. It feels like soccer coaches are really just football coaches in disguise. You look at any D1 team, and they’re all 6’1, 6’2 or taller. Meanwhile you look at some european team and they’re all 5’10.
It goes both ways though, I was a kid with actual technical ability but had to play defense because of my size. I would want a certain height based on position in my team if I was a coach but it wouldn't be the deal breaker on where a player plays. Your ability still has to be on par for what that position requires above all.
Well be real. All the MLS teams are free except for a few. The DA system is broken because most of the teams that are in the development academy don't really make money off their USL teams, they make most of their money through the youth.
@nota troll You dont need to make profits in football. And good players can come from poor teams. Kadji Sport Academy is a team in freaking Cameroon which produced Samuel Eto'o, Stephane Mbia, Carlos Kameni, Jean Il Maloun. If a little academy in cameroon can do it, USA can do it too.
Academies are made to produce talent not profit. In 24 years you can certainly produce some decent players, sell them to make money for the clubs needs (not for profit) and that money goes to the academy. The academy doesnt need too much money anyway. And from what ive read, football is the 3rd most played sport in the USA among the youth
The real problem is that American sports are mostly based around college being the pre-professional stage. For basketball, football, etc. every kid who wants to be professional tries to get into a Division 1 college. After that, they hope to get drafted by the professional league. The problem is that from the age of 18-23 most other football players in other countries are already playing professionally. America hasn't adjusted it's soccer pyramid to account for this reality, instead it tries to follow the model of other American sports.
true Amricans too stubborn to change their way of structure because teams and leagues in all sports are too focused on monopolising the money at the top instead of doing it for purely sporting reasons and because of that at the end of the day most talent/prospects are seen as a number in the system instead of the potential they hold in the long run. the fact that teams tank in order to get a chance to get the next batch of prospects should show how flawed the US model is
Winning cost MONEY. It ain’t FREE. You’re paying BILLS to players, coaches, staff members, workers contracts. etc. You’re paying the land TAX to stadium, facility, academy and maintaining everything. It ain’t FREE. *So, who is going to PAY all that?* Especially when states, city, communities are on lockdown because of this pandemic and we still don’t know why state governors, city mayors WON’T open even though healthy people are still inside and we are wanting to go out because WE have bills to pay too. So, who is going to pay? Our tax dollars? We ain’t paying a private owned club. You pay for your shit so HOW ARE YOU GOING TO get that money? For any small clubs, how are they going to get that money if they don’t have any to sign talents to build a team? There is no competition. This is happening to EVERYWHERE. Small clubs in all top leagues won’t get better. No money = no talents = a club stays small. Big money = loads of talents to buy = rich club stays RICH. All of that is a product of no competition. In the NBA, if a small club can’t get better, you have draft picks. At least you have a chance. When it comes to everywhere else, you can’t get better. There is no chance. No incentive to get better. I repeat: Who is going to pay ALL THAT BILLS? Taxes to maintain this building? Where would you get the money? *It ain’t free.* Our tax dollars WON’T. I’m waiting.
@@robert2690 The way it works in the UK is that the academy how pays for the training sells for player for a fee to the bigger club who wants them. So the smaller club can make a lot of money. Not every player is sold. But the few that are go for millions. I kind of like this system.
This is so true. In the 90s I was chosen to be in the Olympic Development Program (from whence the team for the Olympics is chosen), but then they required a massive fee that my single mom just couldn't afford. The rich kid teams would hire a couple of us poor kids to play with them during international competitions, but then afterward they'd literally say, "We wish you could afford to play with us all the time. Too bad. Bye."
One of my teammates was in ODP. We played together in rec, travel, and varsity, and his dad was our travel coach. That's where the big costs came in. They were not rich at all but his dad was a huge football fanatic and basically their whole family revolved their lives around it. Nice people, not disparaging them, but that was just their thing and they spared no expense. Unfortunately for my friend, though he was probably the best player in our travel league, and was good enough to play varsity with 11th and 12th graders in 8th grade, he was a 5'5" tall striker. He was doomed before he started because he was too small by American standards, and he never got anywhere with it.
The US football/soccer situation can be compared to the Democratic Republic of Congo's mineral situation. So much untapped material that can make them successful, but poor management and greed for money prevents them from becoming a success.
Yea I would say that’s biggest hinder to Southern California soccer we have so much talent but it gets thrown to the side because the kids that can’t pay don’t get scouted and the ones that play highschool don’t get the attention do to American football being a priority to the school
@@frostynuggs339 Is American Football actually the priority in California schools though? I'm not American but I got the feeling that was Basketball these days?
Fran Ohmsford no you see each state has a different schedule for they’re sports so like from Aug to nov it’s American football season from dec to March is basketball season which overlaps with soccer and water polo all the funds end up going to American football and basketball and baseball because they’re “primary sports” and soccer is a secondary sport apparently thus the school’s don’t care about it and American football being the biggest sport here teachers and staff don’t care about sticking up for the soccer program cause they like football and basketball or baseball
Because he don’t realize it ain’t free. Nothing is ever free. You want to own something? you have to pay for it. You make a product, you have to pay for the equipment, items to assemble and workers to assemble the product. A club pays bills (players contracts, workers, staff, etc) and TAXES (Buildings, Land, maintenance, etc) You own a land, you pay a tax. You own a building, you pay a tax. If you own a house, you pay mortgage. If you rent an apartment, you pay the bills. If it’s free, the government CAN take it away and you will have NOTHING. Someone has to build a house, building. That person has bills/taxes to pay too. Someone has to pay and for a small club, how would you get the money? It ain’t free. And I know if a club is funded by the working class tax dollars, it won’t end well. Millions of working class will be affect. It will end bad. Winning cost MONEY. It ain’t FREE. You’re paying BILLS to players, coaches, staff members, workers contracts. etc. You’re paying the land TAX to stadium, facility, academy and maintaining everything. It ain’t FREE. *So, who is going to PAY all that?* Especially when states, city, communities are on lockdown because of this pandemic and we still don’t know why state governors, city mayors WON’T open even though healthy people are still inside and we are wanting to go out because WE have bills to pay too. So, who is going to pay? Our tax dollars? We ain’t paying a private owned club. You pay for your shit so HOW ARE YOU GOING TO get that money? For any small clubs, how are they going to get that money if they don’t have any to sign talents to build a team? There is no competition. This is happening to EVERYWHERE. Small clubs in all top leagues won’t get better. No money = no talents = a club stays small. Big money = loads of talents to buy = rich club stays RICH. All of that is a product of no competition. In the NBA, if a small club can’t get better, you have draft picks. At least you have a chance. When it comes to everywhere else, you can’t get better. There is no chance. No incentive to get better. I repeat: Who is going to pay ALL THAT BILLS? Taxes to maintain this building? Where would you get the money? *It ain’t free.* Our tax dollars WON’T. I’m waiting.
As someone who grew up in Germany and lives here in the States, let me tell you the fundamental problem of US Soccer. There is NO proper amateur and youth leagues outside of the major city hubs. You know how pretty much every little town in Europe has it's own soccer/football team which plays on a level of the overall football pyramid? Yeah that's virtually non-existent here. If kids or even young adults want to play organized soccer they either have to move away or rely on their local school district having money to have it's own program or hope that a bunch of European adults miss soccer enough that they create their own little private hobby league outside of the US soccer federation system. The core problem here is there is no grassroots organization to control local leagues and US soccer doesn't even seem to have an interest in the sport beyond MLS and USMNT. I've heard an American try to tell me that the US is way to big to have local soccer federations, but that simply isn't true. It would be a simple task to model the US soccer system via a localized system like the DFB (German football fed) in which every state has its own soccer federation and takes care of its own league system in the state to then feed the top divisions. Money is always an issue naturally but this can easily be alleviated through membership fees just like it happens in many other countries. It's not like US soccer is poor either, they can afford to subsidize local federations to run a proper pyramid system. US soccer is not even on a 3rd world level. Outside of college, a few local hobby leagues and the immediate MLS along with its "farm system" their is no opportunity for kids to learn the sport properly. Unless you are an absolute prodigy, you would never want to follow the path of a conventional soccer development career in this country since it's a lot easier to just either switch in American Football or Baseball or simply don't play at all and stop wasting your time.
I grew up in Western North Carolina and there was no real youth leagues for me to play in outside of the local YMCA league and my middle and high school teams. I never got a chance to play in college because there wasn’t a club team for me to play for.
Hear me out convince public schools and colleges to care more about soccer. Then invest and improve coaching. The public school system works if we care about the sport. The problem is we don’t.
They just fixed that, we have semi and other pro leagues that have academies and their own leagues. USL have there academies set up now. I think they are doing the better job then MLS academies. Easiest way to go pro then MLS. I don't know about each state but here in California we have NPL and ECNL which are high level leagues that provide great competition and scouts attend them. As someone who has been part of an MLS academy and US Development academy the goverment paid half of the cost for the fee. The fee here was $9,250 and I cover half. The current price right now is $2,550 for club and $3950 for the new MLS platform league, this might change and go higher due to COVID-19 shutting down games and only have practice. Many teams also don't have financial aid for player who don't have the money to pay but they are flexible to let you pay in installments rather then cash up front. I think the big issue here in American soccer/football is MLS. MLS does not have a system where they relegate teams and promote teams from different divisions. You see the lesser leagues and division not get exposure no real threat for any team playing in MLS from a relegation battle. Also MLS is horrible for promoting youth. The biggest club here that does an EXCELLENT job and that is not due to US Soccer it is more of their system is NY Rebull. Redbull Football/Soccer have a great system of having kids go pro from RB Salzburg to RB Leipzig. NY Redbull promote 30% of youth to first team. That is really good, next team is Real Salt Lake, great job as well with 26% and FC Dallas is the next club doing it. All other clubs don't do this. They rather get outside USA talent from Europe, south america and they take up roster space. College soccer/football rout for MLS superdraft is not worth it. The coaches don't have connections with Pro teams, they don't really give you great scholarships, your schedule for class is crazy, you get teachers who hate you because you are not in class most of the time. If you are lucky to get drafted (play better in March madness not reg season) the MLS team sends you to USL or you just become a practice player. The only good about playing Soccer here in USA is they develop your athleticism better then other countries. Being 16 here you can compete physically with the 24 year olds.
Yeah but you have to understand how deep our ties are to our own sports. We started playing pro baseball in this country at roughly the same time the FA formed in England. All your small towns had soccer clubs; ours had baseball teams. We've been playing our version of "football" since at least the 1880s. Basketball started not long after that. So soccer here is competing with three sports that have been around for almost the same amount of time. Soccer had a rough early go here because first it was seen as a "British" game (and no good American liked anything British) and then later as an "immigrant" game (yes that is a "dogwhistle" if you will).
It's been the same ever since I was a kid (I'm 32). I made a travel team after trying out. Parents couldn't afford it, so I played recreational, stinting my development, and not getting any notice from colleges. MLS wasn't in my city yet, so no youth academies of any sort, which I'm sure would have cost just as much anyways. Just a shame how much talent I've seen personally fall through the cracks, can't even imagine the total scale.
In nashville I've played with people that truly are good enough for pro soccer. We just got a pro team and not one person on that nashville soccer team is from Nashville and they had tryouts and it was 1000$ 200 people went and they signed 1 person!!!
@@flaqko5686 Yea, they do those 'tryouts' as a publicity stunt for new clubs to gain traction in the community. It only took 3 years with an MLS academy to "produce" our first elite 'homegrown' academy product. But even then, he had attended our academy for only a brief stint before college, and was only invited to the academy because he was playing at a private high school AND travel club. Point being, MLS/US is JUST starting to actually develop players/kids, rather than mooching the elite off pay to play travel clubs. It's in its infancy, but we'll get there I hope.
Which may be for the best at this point. Part of the reason for the upcoming youth movement is that MLS Academies are finally starting to see the fruits of their efforts, plus having MLS reserve sides playing in lower leagues.
@@Bullwine Yes but they are also eliminating potential players by lowering the player pool. They did that to save more money for the club. Now they are only going to scout players only in ECNL, NPL (high level club league for California) which is funny because there still scoutin players who have money and have money to play. With USDA they still get players who are talented but don't have the money but going to MLS platform like you said they are discrediting players who don't have money.
@DaGe PaPo Played it on Fifa put my controller in middle. Both teams had a player sent off with India nicking it 1-0 in the 88th minute with a header from a Cross.
For my travel team we had 3 kits and they made us pay 3k for them, the season cost was around 3.5k as well. The cost is absurd especially since we had to pay for travel cost as well
Here in the US, soccer was considered to be a "girly" sport during my childhood. I know that this has pushed many people away from the game and towards American football and basketball. I think this is changing now, but it's interesting that our women's team has been the best in the world while we considered it to be the girl's sport. Makes me hopeful for the future of the USMNT
i agree with all of this and it’s true that some teams charge outrages fees just to join. however, i am seeing a lot more coaches trying to teach a more technical side to the game and i think in recent years a lot more americans have been making it in europe because of this. in a country of 300 million there has to be a lot of hidden talents here but the stupid pay to play system is holding us back.
Also the whole "Super Technical" La Liga copy formula they have been implmenting in the last 9 years. Basically every big team wants a midfielder for every position. They need a false 9 as a striker, they need a passing creative winger, they need a passing creative CB etc. That doesn't work, you need to mix up other styles. They are discrediting other players who biggest asset is physicality, speed and finishing and power. It's sad but they are pushing out players who are great at counter attacking and prefer players comfortable on the ball and control possession. That is why in England they don't have that issue because you have mix of teams that teach different styles.
What's really fascinating is playing pickup or organized soccer as an adult. There are so so many players as good as or better than ex-d1 and ex-academy players, but they never played at an academy or in college or sometimes even high school.
@@subraxas no they are way to big to be microstates like im meaning places like san marino Andorra tonga Liechtenstein like seriously small countries you cant see on maps
A micro state is one of those places where there is basically just a city but it is a country. For example, The Vatican,or Andorra, San Marino, Leichtenstein, luxembourg, monaco,
Football, Baseball, and Basketball are "traditional" US sports so they already have built up the whole 'pyramid' in their own way over time - soccer is late to the party basically. It's mostly based around High School athletic programs, which feed into college programs, then the pros. Outside of High school, you also have things like Little League baseball, Peewee football, and I'm guessing an equivalent for basketball. Doing it that way, the pro teams can offload the youth development costs on the colleges and High Schools. The thing is with soccer, while graduating with a degree from a university is fantastic, most pro soccer teams are unlikely to give a possible talent much of a look since it is expected that a 21/22 year old should have been pro already for at least 5/6 years. Since soccer is 'newer' in the US, the coaching at the High School and College levels is weaker (in general - there's always exceptions) which makes for less desirable prospects with possible bad habits. How much true US talent has been wasted we'll never know. With a population of the US, statistically, it is likely that 2-3 generational talents of a Pele/Maradona/Messi level went undiscovered... There's also another thing. I don't think the average US parent is too comfortable with the idea of their 14/15 year old kid getting signed to a pro contract requiring a likely move to a "far away" location to continue the athletic development. Sure, there are boarding schools that operate in the US (and some excellent ones at that) but they are truly reserved for the upper crust and aren't really sports focused afaik.
I'm from America and there are two options when trying to go pro in America. you either play for a DA team( developmental Academy) and try to work your way into a MLS first team . The other option is to play travel and play for your high school, then play soccer at a D1 school, and last try to get scouted by an mls team in college
American here, this video was incredible and I really appreciate the hard work you put into this, and every video you make. This subject matters a lot to me so I'm glad you've used a platform as large as yours to give it some proper attention. I'll definitely be sharing this around! However, I just have one tiny, tiny correction. D.C. United announced about 1-2 weeks ago that they're ending the pay-to-play structure in their academy and fully funding it going forward. That leaves Minnesota United as the only MLS club without a fully club-funded academy. Also, thank you so much for setting people straight on the needless football vs soccer debate. It's so played out at this point and it's not going to change so I wish people would just drop it and focus on the game. THANK YOU ALFIE!
@John Doe The maker of the video doesn't know enough about the United States to know how they name the seasons, but he's convinced he understands the nation well enough to describe what's wrong about it's youth athletics.
Well, well said, "Focus on physicality and results at a very early age. Over talent and player development... strong focus on athleticism rather than aptitude on the ball and understanding of the game."
I don't even have to mention Messi. Marco Verratti and Lorenzo Insigne are 5'4" and 5'3" respectively, and they're still internationally renowned talents. That's the wonderful thing about this sport: It does not discriminate based on size, whereas in basketball, if you stop at a certain height, your aspirations of a professional career are all but finished no matter how skilled you are.
America needs Promotion and Relegation. It will simply change everything. It will automatically create more competition, and that will force the clubs to take the most talented Players if they want to stay in the MLS
@@3dsaulgoodman43 This is a problem not addressed in this video, but should be: the very existence of profit-driven leagues. I have long regarded USL as a sick joke of a league because they don't really care if clubs live or die, just that they can pay franchise fees to play at certain levels. They and MLS drew up the atrocity that is the PLS guidelines, which sadly make pro/rel impossible in the US (as least for the time being). You also have a corrupt federation that is in complete lockstep with MLS, and to a lesser extent the "joke league," that continues to fight against meaningful and needed reform and the way they treat leagues and clubs intent on creating such reform (see also: their treatment of NASL and what I fear they're trying to do with NISA, which has recently been working on an alternative pyramid-within-the-system). Geography shouldn't be a factor against true reform, but a lot of idiots try to use it anyway - despite the fact that Russia has a proper pyramid structure and is much larger than the US. If you can have a true pyramid with the opportunity to have teams in the top tier travel from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, you prove to us that it can easily be done from Miami to Seattle or Boston to San Diego in a pro/rel system.
Michael Czerniewski they could easily just promote and relegate within conferences. 2 teams relegated from MLS western conference and 2 teams promoted from USL western conference. In 3rd division Spain they just make new conferences every year depending on who gets promoted/relegated. I know Spain is much smaller but considering they can do it with 80 teams idk why the MLS couldn’t change conferences with 30
@@ATLMike94 Clueless. You guys are good in finding excuses for not having promotions cause your whole System is fucked. If you buy an mls Team you just buy a share of the mls. Such a stupid system.
@Michael T. Mathews Oh yes it is. Without p and r you have a closed system where people have no incentive to stop losing because youll still stay in the mls. And if you introduce p&r, your local team has a chance of making the mls, however small may the chance be. People will be more interested in something potentially good, tjan something always on a minor local level
Guys I'm mexican American, but I'm worried for my mexican side , the usa have reyna , pulisic , adams , mckennie, sergino . Thats looking pretty promising.
Octavio Arroyo Not only that, but also change the league structure. Have no play offs and only have one winner instead of two. Splitting the season into 2 separate with playoffs causes most teams in Liga MX to have a “Win Now” mentality. There’s only 17 games and then playoffs, which teams don’t want to risk giving young Mexican players game time (since they’re inexperienced) so they go for cheap experienced players from South America. That’s why there’s so many foreign players in Liga MX, the teams prefer to have players with experience rather than develop with only 17 games before play offs. This also causes players like Cordova (from Club America) to not get consistent game time until he was 22. Havertz is only 21 and already had over 110 appearances for Leverkusen, just for comparison Cordova only is about to hit 50 appearances for America and he’s 23. He spent a year on loan at another club in Mexico, but only had 9 appearances. He’s two years older with only 60 or so games in Mexico’s top flight. Yes this only one example of this and there’s been good players that have come from Liga MX throughout the last few years, but in my opinion the league structure is one of the main things holding the talent back and it is not talked about as much.
That is true, but soccer/football is growing really fast in popularity, so it is a really good time to implement a better system and if they did, I think in 20-30 years the US would do way better and get far at tournaments such as the World Cup
@@BruhMoment-tb8qm Yeah, the sport is growing rapidly but our systems here in the states can't adapt to more people from poorer backgrounds with talent that would give them a chance in other countries to become a star.
Well, the US has one of the largest populations in the world. They have more than enough kids to play the sport and others. To me that’s just a BS excuse, the US has a large demographic of kids from different backgrounds, some of those backgrounds are passionate for the sport. I live in the US and the pay to play system is what ruins the sport for those who can’t afford it. Usually these are kids with wealthier parents/background are playing the sport. From my experience these kids that played consistently on a club team (travel team) lacked passion for the sport. I was friends with some of them from my high school team and I kid you not, most of them lacked passion for the sport. They either got into the sport because it was safer (to their parents) than American Football, or just grew up playing it as a hobby and stuck by it. I just feel like those players who can afford it take the sport for granted and theres probably thousands of kids who can’t play the sport at a competitive level because financially they can’t afford it.
Great video. There are some MLS teams, like the RedBulls who invest heavily in their youth system. But I think it will be after my lifetime where clubs realize they can make more money on a player by investing in them rather than the pay to play model.
Agent P and you can definitely see that paying off. The Real Salt Lake academy have lost some great talents to European clubs. Ledezma is one of them, playing for PSV now
@@jorgevillatoro9118 it's nice to see talents leaving the US to join european teams and not the other way around. Heck, NHL are stealing every big talents from europe😜
Having had a child in the travel team system, I totally agree. We were willing and able to pay and commit the time to take our son to the various tournaments. Few parents can afford the cost and the cost increase a lot the higher up in level the team is. The time commitment is huge spent most of our holidays traveling to tournaments. Next is the college system which is more harm to a soccer development than help. My son trying to balance school work with playing soccer was very hard. The entire system needs to be changed. The county I live in the state of Virginia has the same population of Iceland and Iceland’s team is better in my opinion to the US team. Iceland’s system seems obviously better than our system here in America with 300 million people. Huge changes need to be made.
One small note/correction. DC United no longer charges players' families for their Academy. It's understandable that you missed this, given that the change was announced only a couple weeks before you put this video up, so it would have been easy to miss during your research.
One way to solve that pay to play issue is a relegation system, remember, MLS is not the only league in the US, but the most powerful, so basically make it the 1st division and put all others behind it, I bet you all these new teams will stop using pay to play so they could get the best players and get to the MLS...
@@denzelwenzel That's another problem on it's own, and that's money involved, unless some of them decide to give up a ton of money, it won't happen, and I bet none of them are giving fucks for the state of US soccer...
@@ATLMike94 Yes, I know most of MLS teams are free to play, not all though, but what you don't understand is, first of all I'm Brazilian, I know how it works here, there are thousands of clubs here who are pay to play, but they're not 5k USD expensive, in fact, they are less expensive than the recreational level in the US, most of them are tied to 1st and 2nd tier teams and they get bonuses if they find a good player their bosses can sign at very young age, what I'm saying is, as the relegation system come into effect, teams *will have to invest somehow to produce new players or they' get relegated,* losing even more income. Now, how many free to play clubs exist in the US? Imagine increasing that number by 5 times, with small clubs creating ties to big teams and medium and big clubs investing in new academy centers, and imposing a modest fee to play? Increasing the spotting power will increase US football quality, it's how Brazil still has some of the best players in the world while still being a lot poorer than the rest of the world, now imagine this spotting power and the money the US has.
@@ATLMike94 You're saying as if anything were different here, most of the things you said for the US is true here, specially the money part of it, but what you don't get is that small clubs *profit from the discovery of young talents,* search for the "Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior" it has an english wiki page just for it. I remember hearing that the US don't allow teens to sign contracts for teams/clubs, but that maybe the problem too, kids who perform well on that "Copinha," usually finds themselves with a contract with a big team after it, the youth team that discovered that kid gets a profit from the transfer, you see, *it is profitable,* now, I might not know how things work there, but what I'm saying is this, wide area and powerful spotting is the key, I'm not saying pro/rel is, I'm saying pro/rel will improve spotting performance.
You’re research is spot on. My son can play on a normal rec league for free on some occasions, however, the travel team is close to $1200 per season. Not including travel costs. Great video, cheers!
Hello there, I can’t understand the cost per player. Some clubs don’t have a choice because they have to pay for facilities. Our club pays a nominal field usage and we are volunteering. But our 2 main coaches have 25+ years coaching, have taken 4 different teams to Europe to play in tournaments, have NSCAA License, besides the F and D. We charge $160 for new players and about $100 for returning players. We keep our club small to keep quality but do not turn players away.
I can understand paying a contribution and membership fees to a club but $1200 is obscene. Here in the Netherlands you wouldn't even get into the triple digits for a regular local team. At least that's how it was when i was a kid when i played two decades ago. Oh and over here every football club is recreational until you get picked up for the youth team of a major club. You don't buy-in to major teams. They scout you and that's it.
I've experienced everything that Alfie said. The pay to play problem. The difference in playing for a travel team and recreation team. Living in a state where the odds of light escaping a black hole are greater than anyone even recognizing that the sport exists. I also love that Alfie used Getty Images of my favorite team, Orlando City SC and our bright new talent Daryl Dike!! This is the video I needed in my life! Thank you.
I had a friend that was invited into the Chicago fire academy. I thought he a great player without being biased. Because him and his family couldn’t afford the payment, he lost his opportunity to become a professional player.
It’s so expensive to play here in the US, got called up to the interstate league for my club but wasn’t able to due to the cost and the fact that I still wanted to attend college when I graduate
Yeah now that's another part that makes me mentally exhausted.... In Norway, we get sponsored by the state to study. We even get money to pay rent and food. I just don't get the systems in USA, nor how any people can consider such a country "great" (no offense... what I mean is that the populace is exploited, instead of building a sound structure)
SebSk we have the best economy, arguably the best and most recognized culture in the world. We have more freedom and opportunity than any other country in the world. As for the schooling there’s alot of scholarships and grants offered to full time students who actually get good grades. We don’t get government hand outs cause we’re people who work for things.
SebSk there are many reasons why America is not only “great” but the best in the world. Which is why most people from the around the world try or want to immigrate here.
You don’t have to play for a club to make it join your schools team which is another way to get scouted by a college. Which would also take care of the cost of college as most colleges let you attend free if you play for them. Yes their should be a better system but it’s not currently possible as soccer isn’t given the proper funding for such systems in europe. Simply because it’s not as big as in europe, although I do believe this will change in the future as it’s rapidly growing.
Ik like I made varsity my freshman year in D1 often got offered to play for local academy’s but man how tf they expect someone to pay 300+ for uniform Plus the monthly fee $250+.. plus every tournament 150+ to play ... you gotta pay a lot to play not even that you gotta pay to get scout 😂liek wtfff you gotta have lots of money to give to your kids to be able to play a sport
Good video. I'm a father of 2 kids that played top soccer in the US. I had to work 2 jobs because the soccer was costing me $12,000--$16,000 a year. Scholarships are based on lack of income and talent with only 1 or 2 spots per team, so its very hard to qualify. to make things worse, the kits in top clubs usually cost $400-$700 (no joke). My son played Development Academy and they even had to fly to tournaments and games (at parent cost). The coaching was substandard with an emphasis on size, strength, and aggression. As for national team recognition you pretty much have to know someone or your club has to have connections. Money talks! I seen extremely talented players leave soccer for much less expensive sports such as Basketball and Football. I eventually sold everything and moved to Europe where my son plays absolutely free, with free uniforms, free travel, and much better facilities and coaching. Its very sad. And yes, promotion and relegation would improve many things in the system.
This was a fantastic video and you were spot on about every single part. It's a huge misconception that the US doesn't know anything about soccer or that we are just terrible at it. While we haven't produced the worlds best players it's completely false to assume that we are inept. There are many players who come from overseas that move to the US that can't make club teams regardless of pay. We do have talent here, but as you stated, making a profession out of it was almost impossible so people choose other routes or just quit playing. Only the families with a lot of money that can push their children through expensive clubs with connections see USMNT, college, or international scouts. The future is bright though. Thanks for covering the beginning too. It blows my mind how ignorant people are about the worlds biggest sport's history... it's always aimed at us for some reason too..
A played for a travel team and I got a scholarship. The only thing my parents payed for was my jerseys. I was the only player at any age level to get it for that club so that's cool
That happened to me also I was in 6th when that happen my pe coach was a coach for that team and he talked to them and the only thing my parents paid was the jerseys
Soccer is growing in the US in a big way, and it would be a great opportunity for them to create a sport that was truly open to all and not locked behind a paywall as happens with basketball and american football and the college draft system. Especially considering the generally poorer communities who take up the sport such as latin Americans.
This video is spot on. My son played for a club team a few years ago here in the US. He showed some promise so he was invited to try out for the Premier club team. He made the team but then the Club told us the cost: $1500 per season, not including uniforms, tournament fees, or travel costs. There was no way we could afford it so we had to decline the invitation. Scholarships were not available.
In Australia it’s harder for young players to develop as they would in England mainly because lots of people put soccer or football in a bad light and it is a bit of a shamed sport for lots of people and lots are persuaded to a different sport because maybe they could get bullied for it
Always thought australia is a nice country. Shamed for playing football? Here in europe everyone can play what he wants 😂 whats wrong with you guys? Is Australia north korea or what?
amann still a nice country just as there is so many sports in Australia that is big like (AFL , Cricket, Rugby league and union, Tennis, Swimming and of course soccer/football. So Ye it has a stigma but it has a growing fan base
I really appreciate your videos on America being soccer positive. Having someone like you makes liking soccer more fun. Why not let us enjoy your sport too? The more to chat with, right? I’ll be honest. I used to hate it, and make fun of it all the time. In 2007 I went to a Timbers game, and it changed my life. Soccer is one of the most important things in my life, and I’ve converted so many friends. I plan on converting many more. Thanks for the videos, and the sport. Portland out! 🤘🏻
I for the most part agree with this but a huge part that was left out is how difficult it is to get coaching license here. The USSF makes you go through hoops and hoops and hoops to get the proper training and experience and eventually qualification to be a proficient coach here in the States, so that's why all of the good coaches immediately go somewhere they can get paid well (which also happens to be the more expensive travel teams, go figure). This means that, even with guys in proximity to an MLS academy, they'll likely be a few steps behind other kids who went to those travel teams first. This also means that the only avenue left for most middle class and poor Americans are left with the school system, which wouldn't be the worst if it we had good coaches, but going through highschool, praying you get a scholarship, and getting drafted to MLS means that you don't get high level coaching until 18, and don't play pro until 19 at best. For example, there's only ever been two Premier League players to have won the National HS Player of the Year award (albeit more who have gone through this system); Jack Harrison (Massachusetts/New York) and Claudio Reyna (New Jersey).
The real problem in coaching is that licensing does not guarantee quality coaching. Good US coaches often destroy a decade of players before their coaching strategies and tactics reflect modern, quality values. Still too much kickball, which won't change in my lifetime.
WOW Alfie, I always thought the USA came up with the term soccer and always wonder why, but you've increased my knowledge today Sir. Thank you for that bro.
Hey just wanted to reach out. I am from Louisiana in the United States. I grew up playing travel soccer and it was $6500 a season and that didn't include travel fees. It really does kill our development.
PROBENIC COMPS gio reynas dad was the sporting director for nycfc which he went to borussia from, pulisics parents were professional football players so he already had those connections, and there’s so many more situations like that. all the inner city kids and so many people who had crazy talent never get the opportunities that they should because of these situations.
Problem in India - Parents force their child to become engineers/doctors and if you want to pursue sports parents will not support and if your parents support you then society will laugh on you if you tell them you want to pursue sports and if all went right than a politician's son will be selected instead of you even if he does not know how to kick the ball
Lmao. I'm an Indian from Malaysia, and even though my parents tell me that I can become whatever I want, I can tell that they'll prefer for me to become a doctor or an engineer rather than a radio jockey.
That’s actually great here in USA you’ll have to pay around $3000 a season just play and that doesn’t include the team giving you jerseys, cleats or anything else just be great full that you are actually paying $70 a month for playing for I wish I had that opportunity man 🤧🙏🏾
The biggest problem here in the US is that soccer competes with American Football. They play during the same season, so if you're a teenage boy and are one of the best athletes in your town or region, you're most likely going to play American Football. But if you're a teenage girl and you're one of the most skilled athletes, you're going to play soccer because there is no prevalent American Football leagues for girls. That's one of the reasons the USWNT has been so dominant over the years. I think it's also important to remember that soccer has only been a mainstream sport here for just a few decades.
Exactly. Australia and the USA are some of the world's only multisport nations. The major problem in the USA is that soccer is way down the line in terms of priorities of young athletes. The video maker talks about how in much of the world soccer is seen as a vehicle out of poverty and has a passionate following among the lower classes. Well guess what, that's not true in the USA for the most part. In the USA, the culture is around football and basketball. Moreover, there are other huge differences between the US culture and say European culture. The big problem to the extent that there is a big problem in US youth development is that everyone who has tried to improve the situation has tried to import systems from Europe to the USA despite the structural gulf in culture between the two. That's how the USA ended up with a 'pay to play' system, and why we went through a whole generation of players without new talent (culminating in our failure to qualify for the WC because our team had aged out and had no youthful replacements).
@@celebrim1 Most kids who play in travel clubs are White.. this isn't racist at all but its because of the amount of money their parents make. Hispanics, Asians, and African-Americans don't make that kind of money so its harder to play club soccer.
@@phyzixs.8061 First of all, I've coach youth soccer in a major urban area and I'm well aware of the racial segregation in all too many youth teams. You find teams of Hispanic players, teams of white players, and teams of recent African immigrants. Often when you play against a Hispanic team, they've done various things to try to mitigate the cost like have reserve players or larger teams (if the league allows it). What you don't understand because you are young is that it didn't have to be this way. Back before 2006 the USSF was committed to developing and supporting High School soccer which was an affordable path to play which could have met the needs of all Americans and which would have fit well with American culture and institutions. And after 2006, Sunil Gulati chose to abandon High School and Collegiate soccer and focus on European style 'academy systems' where you have semi-professional youth teams. The trouble is that the academy system doesn't work in the United States (and really didn't work 15 years ago even more than now) for a whole host of reasons that I could explain to you. The result of this shift of focus was nearly 10 years where we weren't developing any youth talent in this country at all, and the 'pay to play' system that you are talking about, and the racial segregation of youth soccer that you are talking about. So I don't disagree with your observations, but my point is that the very people that complain the most about the current system are the same people that made the decisions that led to this system. And further, that 14 years ago I told them that this would happen, and they didn't listen to me.
The issue with this view is that like all of our other sports, and the same goes with the around the world and their sports. IE. Cricket, Golf, Rugby, etc... That while you might miss some talent due to an athlete choosing a different sport, that doesn't mean they will be the best at that particular sport. Tiger Woods would likely have never made it to the NFL either... Tom Brady likely would have never made it in the MLB.. etc. That being said, it's possible that some WR for an NFL team could have been the worlds greatest player, but the same could be said for someone playing in any other sport around the world.. We have lot's of multi sport athletes, they aren't always the best at every sport they play and at some point they choose the one they are best at and hope for the best.
As a Mexican-American I feel that the usa in terms of youth development is improving a lot. The usa have a very good upcoming crop of players Pulisic , Reyna, mckennie , Tyler adams , sergiño etc. With those players the future is looking quite bright and is a very strong back bone for years to come. For my Mexican side its not looking so hot , lozano is starting to get more playing time but still doesn't have the managers confidence, Hector Herrera is on the same boat and thinking about it so is Gutierrez psv , Lainez as well no improvement at betis , guardado has been a great servant but he's getting on a bit, corona and Jimenez are our best representatives.
The thing is most of those US players that you named joined the academy of those teams. The Mexican players you named all came from a team from Mexico and played domestically for a few years. That’s the difference between what the US is starting to do and what mexico is doing wrong. Mexican clubs over charge for the young players whenever a European team is interested. Those European teams would rather spend that money and get a Brazilian or Argentinian for half that price that Mexican clubs charge. But there is a lot of young Mexicans in many European clubs outside the bigger leagues they are just not talked about a lot because the Mexican media loves to focus on their big names and sometimes overrate they.
@@George_1098 @George1098 @George1098 George that is true , ill give you sergiño , and 1/5 of weston , why because Weston spent a few years in Germany before moving back to the USA with Dallas he played over 7 years with Dallas before moving back to Germany if the kid didn't have any talent he definitely would not have returned to Germany so we can say that he further developed at Dallas, while its true that Pulisic did develop into the player he is today at borrusia he still had to be scouted in the usa before going on to play in germany he played in the usa from age 7-15 so I would say some credit has to go to the usa , and finally let's not kid ourselves Adams and Giovanni are basically developed in the usa both played for the youth sides of NYCFC and Red bull NYC, they barely left last year but its the same point they were scouted and developed at these academies.
@@George_1098 for the mexican sides its absolutely whoaful the amount of talent that is available but not exploited, most top mexican clubs that produce talent don't need to sale because they are backed by very wealthy companies Femsa tigres/monterrey , america televisa and many more examples. Monterrey had a chance to sell Jonathan gonzales and Rodriguez but asking for 10 and 15 mil respectively was ludicrous for players with no international backing the offers were 7 and 10 mil. As i mentioned unrealistic fees is definitely the blocking point for most mexican clubs.
ty for addressing the football vs soccer terms, and why we call it soccer. I see too many people getting triggered for no reason when we call it soccer instead of football, when the English invented the word in the first place
The only reason we (Canada) produced Alphonso Davies was that he was subsidized. Without that he would never have gotten where he is. If we want to be serious about developing players over here then pay to play has to be abolished. Both the US and Canada have so much potential in all sports that are being stifled by the financial barrier
Soccer is getting bigger in Canada. There are more soccer options for my kids than there were when I was young. I think it's because hockey is so expensive, soccer is much cheaper.
@@brandonhey7797 it's really disheartening seeing lots of good players and when you ask them if they are academy players and they almost 90% of the time always say they cant afford it and then even then like mentioned in the video just paying to be in one doesnt necessarily mean you're good.
One of the biggest hurdles soccer will have developing youth players in the US is the fact that high school and college teams are generally the way kids are developed in sports and football (American), basketball, and baseball take the lions share of the talent.
Not true. Soccer has almost exclusive access to athletes 5’10 and under. We aren’t losing athletes of average height and build to football or basketball. Don’t fall into the trap of blaming other sports for stealing the talent. There are 330 million people in the US, more than enough to produce some world class soccer talent, especially since (again) the big four American sports are completely ignoring athletes under 5’10”.
@@Michael-cb5nm actually…many many kids who end up 5’10” and under don’t give up on their dream of playing football or basketball until long after they have reached their full height. Also, being 5’10” and under doesn’t preclude a person from playing college football or basketball, so millions of kids who have no hope of making the NBA or NFL still choose to play basketball and football. A person at age 17 or 18 who has played basketball their whole life can’t just switch to soccer and make up for those years of experience. How many top flight soccer players started playing soccer after age 10?
From a perspective of someone that played recreational soccer for almost 10 seasons consecutively and then one season on my high school junior varsity team I can say that the older you get you really start to realize how much the system is a pay to play
Thank you for making this video! All of your points are absolutely correct. One other point I might add, however you may have covered it in the video, is that players are restricted to playing in their age group rather than playing against other players at their skill level.
Not entirely different from Australia, the best youth level prior to an A-League academy is NPL, which is at a minimum 2k per year and the amount of nepotism and politics to get into said programs is ludicrous and A-League clubs won't look elsewhere for youth players. We have a massive amount of talented footballers from African and Indigenous backgrounds, yet hardly any are found in the higher levels of the game here.
At 14:07 he has a good point. I remember taking a coaching course for a license in the US and the instructor told me after the course that the coaching federation doesn’t like coaches doing rondos because it isn’t “game-like” 🤦♂️ needless to say we both strongly disagree
I'll try to be objective on this as someone who has been deep into MLS and USL for over two decades. A lot of the issues that have been inherent in the system (pay to play, coaching, and talent identification) are being turned around by MLS teams (and now some USL teams as well). One of the biggest issues within soccer in the US has always been there is a lack of infrastructure. Teams had poor training facilities, stadium situations, and had non-existent youth facilities. The first thing that really changed was stadiums as most teams have or are in the process of building facilities that are on par with most leagues. The second thing is in the last few years has been teams building training facilities that would surprise most people. Sporting Kansas City has won players over because of the quality of their training facility. Now teams are building academy facilities that are designed to be among the best in the world. Real Salt Lake spent 78 million building a facility that houses the first team training and all the youth teams. Kansas City spent 75 million while Atlanta spent 60 million. Philadelphia has a dedicated youth facility as well as a residency where they provide schooling for their players as well as a full time nutritionist that looks over the players fitness levels and provides meals that are specific to what they need for their training regiment. They've also brought in specific individuals that are known for youth development from abroad and hired a technical director that has been through the Red Bull system (and was responsible for signing Firmino at Hoffenheim and Mane at RB Salzburg). They also have used their II team in USL to let kids play against grown men and learn how to have to play better in order to compete. Yeah, they get smoked every now and again but they learn more from having to play up a level or two than by playing only against kids their age. But it hasn't even been really a full cycle to get players that started on the U-12 team to progress into the first team. The first group you are seeing is what they have now and they already have Aaronson that is likely going to Salzburg while they have several players that stayed in Philly instead of going to a team like PSV. What I think you will see over the next few years is more and more players coming out of America and Canada that will get a chance at bigger teams. The first real crop of players to come out of the new youth systems (ones where coaches are sent to France and Germany to take classes provided by those associations or play pro minutes in the second division starting at age 15) have produced Weston McKinnie (FC Dallas youth academy now at Juventus), Alphonso Davies (Vancouver Whitecaps to Bayern Munich), Tyler Adams (NY Red Bull to Red Bull Leipzig), and Gio Reyna (NYCFC youth academy to Dortmund) who are all starters. FCD sold Chris Richards to Bayern before he ever played a first team game and NYCFC sold Joe Scally for a couple million to Monchengladbach before he ever played a first team game. Now these all may just be a blip and the US/Canada don't produce another player on a Pulisic or Davies level. But based on what I see watching these players go up against players that were starters in Europe or South America (and some that are current national team players) I think that you'll see a better caliber of player coming out over the next half decade or so.
I used to use the word soccer as did my friends when I was young. I am now 71 and from Liverpool so I don't have any problem calling it soccer. Only the ignorant of the history would object, so carry on yanks, no problem.
I’m so happy this video was made! I commented that I wanted something like this as I wrote a research dissertation on this exact topic! Something to add to the tournaments in travel soccer/football, they cost extra just for a teams registration in each tournament(usually about 50-150 dollars) on top of all other costs. Btw Daryl Dike is insane, has enormous talent
I'd like to see a deep dive into the state of the sport in Australia (we'd call it Soccer) the interest is dying (again) and the FFA (Football Federation Australia) need to tread carefully or risk the A-League going under, and if that happens, the sport will never get back up in Australia I feel As a whole, Soccer is in a bit of trouble, roundly being out attended by the BBL and certain WBBL games even get a higher attendance than A-League games (BBL and WBBL are both 20 over cricket comps, the W just means the women's comp) And it should thank it's lucky stars it runs through the summer, to match with European competition, because if it ran in winter, it wouldn't be able to hold a candle to AFL and NRL in the country for watched and attendance (put it in perspective, the 2019 AFL season average attendance was 37,317, marginally lower than the 2018/19 EPL with 38,182 with about 20 million less people in the country)
@Granddad Fleenstone ahhh, don't we all just LOVEEEE when someone who doesn't A, understand, B, know anything about, and C doesn't care for belittles something mate, you're not funny, and if you took 10 minutes to actually look at AFL you'd understand why it's so popular here, and why it's spreading in the US, Ireland, NZ and the pacific islands If you don't like it, fine, who cares, but don't belittle something because YOU PERSONALLY don't like it, it makes you look like a right knobhead
I'm an American with a son growing up in Turin, Italy. He's in middle school now and this is the point in Italy where kids are expected to either play on serious teams, or basically stop playing. There are very few recreational leagues. Our son is quite passionate about calcio (he was pretty jazzed to have nutmegged Ronaldo''s son in the park one day) but he's not really competitive to the point where he's wants to commit to a serious team - he just wants to have fun and get better. He's kind of in a pickle as the places where he can improve expect him to dedicate himself, while the not-so-serious school he attends isn't really challenging him. In the US, he could play on his junior high school team (I think the video doesn't give a lot of ) or in a recreational league without much problem. Other parents have the same problem. His best friend's parents send their son to fencing because they see the poisonous atmosphere of the families who dive into serious calcio teams. Ugh. I'll also add that it isn't cheap for him to either join a team or attend soccer classes in Italy. I think we pay around 100 euros a month for a 3rd tier place (I know the Juventus academy is much more costly, but they may give scholarships to poor but really talented kids. I'm not sure about the Toro academy).
The price of entry really hurt my parents passion to have me play. They wanted me to “soccer” but it was expensive and American football was more affordable. For the sake of keeping me busy and healthy I played I eventually had to just play American football. Not saying I’d be some kind of all star but I’ve had many friends passionate about soccer who eventually hit a barrier at more “competitive” leagues. There’s a hug potential talent pool but the system handicaps it’s self.
Very true me and my brother were in a team here but we couldn’t join because it was too expensive for us. It probably would’ve been a bit more than 6k not including kit and travel cost we don’t have that kind of money
Brilliant intro, I love it when Alfie just destroys complainers before they even have the chance to complain 🤣 best football (or soccer!) channel on youtube 👍
I've never seen a stock image where I actually recognize anyone... until 2:14. I know that school. I'm a referee, and I've actually refereed some of their games. Doesn't really mean anything, but it's kinda cool. To me at least. Ok, carry on.
If we take this video/comments section over to Britain with the title The Problem with UK Youth Baseball/Basketball/American Football / Development I bet there would be a lot of similar points and counter points. Hockey has this issue in the US as well but not quite as lagging in some areas of the country and more so in other areas of the USA.
As an American , thank for your video. My daughter and I bothe played in the pay to play model. It’s the anchor that keeps the game from growing. However the new MLS club here in St Louis has said their academy would have no pay to play. I was thrilled to hear this , and is opposite of what is the norm here in the USA
Cardiff City academy charge or used to charge parents to buy the child's kits and equipment- so even though technically the training is free the club are making money from selling the shirts as you can't play without them- a bit of a loop hole
There is so much untapped grassroot potential in the US for youth development in soccer, but due to financial greed of clubs through the profit motive which worsen the socio-economic barriers that stop poorer families from participating combined with the geographic scale of the county and distribution of clubs make youth development have slim pickings for young talent. Soccer should be demococratised in the US to make everybody feel like they’ve got a stake in the game, rather than a game just for the rich
Americans could produce some of the best talent, people who grow up in America are generally more athletic than a lot of continents, some of the best sports are in America(basketball,American football etc) if they focused their talent into football from young they’d be wonderkids
“Americans are generally more athletic”? I think the word ‘athletic’ is disingenuous to other countries. “America generally invests more into elite level sports” is a more accurate and fair comment
J B considering the US has one of the highest rates of morbid obesity in the world I would disagree that Americans are more ‘athletic’. Tell that to Jamaica who has had some great 100 meter sprinters, or Kenya for having some of the worlds best long distance runners. The list could go on. I think you’re being disingenuous
Simon Jones there are more people who are athletic in the us than most other countries in the world. Yes we have a high percent obese, but we also have a high percent athletic. You’re either or here, there is no middle ground. You either go to the gym every day and are a fitness and strength guru or you are morbidly obese. But I would say that a higher percentage of people in the us attend the gym regularly or are at least very fit or muscular than most other developed countries.
I think the major problem is that in the hierarchy of sports in America, soccer is maybe the fourth or fifth in terms of popularity. the way the video described the sport in other countries as a way to escape poverty is what basketball does in the US. of course the problems mentioned in this video are also prevalent, but not enough people care. it's tough to compare soccer in america with football worldwide, because it's not nearly as popular or important here.
The biggest problem in the U.S. is football (soccer) is behind football, baseball, basketball and hockey in popularity meaning a huge disparity in funds compared to Europe. Kids from lower income areas flock to football and basketball especially and that's where a lot of the top talent ends up applying their athleticism. So most of the physically gifted young athletes in these areas rarely ever play organized soccer. And then pro players in the top 3 sports here can make as much or more many here than pro footballers in Europe and play in the top world league.
Tbh I wasn’t a bad player but this is exactly what happened to me. I didn’t get picked up and wasn’t rich enough to play for a big name team, Then I had to work and did that instead...
Hopefully things get better here in the states, there is a Barca academy here where I live . I think it works like an actual academy which is a step forward
I am American. You did a good job explaining the biggest problem with American soccer: that it is pay-to-play and too focused on being top-down. Like everything else in America, money is a big and corrupting issue, which is why we can't have nice things.
Thanks for this! I’m an American and you are right on with the cost of club/travel teams. I’m wondering if European clubs will start investing in overseas academies to take advantage of the short comings in US youth soccer. I think it would be the ultimate embarrassment to see talented low income kids overlooked due to lack of funds become stars for Euro teams who care about skill in lieu of immediate cash. We get excited with Pulisic and Reyna, but they spent time in Europe’s youth academies due to their high profile soccer connections. Most Americans won’t have that advantage, especially the low income kids. Thanks for your videos. Your research and delivery on all of your topics is first class!
I know it's a bit late of a response but here in San Diego (yew new MLS team to celebrate) we had FC Barcelona's development program introduced here about 5 years ago. I know they do it in other spots. Obviously our country is huge, so it will likely be in hot spots vs all around the country and that is still a problem for someone who grows up in, let's say, New Mexico or Idaho..
The problem is that the rich kids are more likely to make it to youth academies even with little talent. Even Zlatan has said it.
It’s not that they don’t have talent, I feel like it’s more about having passion for the sport for those who can afford it. From my experience living in the US, my parents couldn’t afford to have me play club football obviously because it was expensive, so I would only settle for playing football for my school.
The quality is much lower of high school soccer ( football , sorry I would’ve confused myself with American football) because more kids play and it is much cheaper. Most kids that play it, don’t play club football. The high school season is only 2 in a half to 3 months (at least in my state, it might be different in others), depending on how far your team goes, and it is usually played during the off season of club football, so those kids who play club football also play the high school season.
In my high school team we had a total of 21 players on the Varsity team and I would say probably 14 or 15 out of the 21 played club soccer. Im not kidding when I tell you, most of these guys where lazy during practice, they knew they didn’t really had to fight for their spot (because the coaches would prefer the players that play for a club team) and most of them couldn’t wait for the season to be over so they can go back to play for their club team. So they wouldn’t really try their best.
I was friends with some of those players and they also wouldn’t really watch football or care to keep up with it. Personally I love the sport and can talk about it all day, so that was very shocking to me.
Playing club football in the US increases your chances of being scouted by a college or university since you are playing at a higher level, against better competition and playing for a longer period of time. For some club football teams you get to travel and play in other states, in tournaments etc. You basically get more exposure.
So those players from my high school team that also played club soccer, just played soccer either because it was much safer than American Football, they can afford it, or it’s a way to get into college and get scholarships.
That’s the same with NFL and NHL though. It’s an American problem.
Imagine that in brazil, only the rich could play, our national team would be a joke
@@ap17l93 Kaka wasn't poor and he was a legend for your country's national team
1 in a million and he was not rich just middle class family
(Canadian who played college soccer in the USA) many American coaches care more about size/strength than technique, I was told by a couple D1 coaches as a 5'9 left back that their teams didn't take any defenders under 6 feet lmao. even though the best left back in the world at the time was 5'7 Jordi Alba
@Aidan Nagy God that’s annoying lol
yea it's really annoying. i'm a 5'10 keeper, but I lift heavy and have a 38 inch vertical. 5'10 is short for keepers but not for soccer in general, but still, coaches would rather me be 6'6 skinny twig who doesn't have to jump to punch the ball over the bar.
You can't fault them for wanting a specific type of player to fill a specific position. I had the same problem being a short right back. The school I went to played 3 in the back and they were all tall lol. I would've had to play as a winger, but I just don't have the natural stamina for that :/
David Atkinson yea but u look anywhere else other than the US, you have 5’8 players playing cb and they’re better than the 6’4 guys the us coaches like. Coaches here take size over skill any day of the week. It feels like soccer coaches are really just football coaches in disguise. You look at any D1 team, and they’re all 6’1, 6’2 or taller. Meanwhile you look at some european team and they’re all 5’10.
It goes both ways though, I was a kid with actual technical ability but had to play defense because of my size. I would want a certain height based on position in my team if I was a coach but it wouldn't be the deal breaker on where a player plays. Your ability still has to be on par for what that position requires above all.
This is so stupid.. In Germany often Clubs PAY for youth talent to play for them, in the US the talent has to pay the club 🤦🏼♂️
Well be real. All the MLS teams are free except for a few. The DA system is broken because most of the teams that are in the development academy don't really make money off their USL teams, they make most of their money through the youth.
@Nota Troll This will still be the case in a hundred years. Stop defending an indefensible situation.
@nota troll
You dont need to make profits in football. And good players can come from poor teams. Kadji Sport Academy is a team in freaking Cameroon which produced Samuel Eto'o, Stephane Mbia, Carlos Kameni, Jean Il Maloun. If a little academy in cameroon can do it, USA can do it too.
Academies are made to produce talent not profit. In 24 years you can certainly produce some decent players, sell them to make money for the clubs needs (not for profit) and that money goes to the academy. The academy doesnt need too much money anyway. And from what ive read, football is the 3rd most played sport in the USA among the youth
Well yes. Its also the problem with the noninterest and that comes from the fact that there is no promotion and relegation
The real problem is that American sports are mostly based around college being the pre-professional stage. For basketball, football, etc. every kid who wants to be professional tries to get into a Division 1 college. After that, they hope to get drafted by the professional league. The problem is that from the age of 18-23 most other football players in other countries are already playing professionally. America hasn't adjusted it's soccer pyramid to account for this reality, instead it tries to follow the model of other American sports.
true Amricans too stubborn to change their way of structure because teams and leagues in all sports are too focused on monopolising the money at the top instead of doing it for purely sporting reasons and because of that at the end of the day most talent/prospects are seen as a number in the system instead of the potential they hold in the long run. the fact that teams tank in order to get a chance to get the next batch of prospects should show how flawed the US model is
Winning cost MONEY.
It ain’t FREE. You’re paying BILLS to players, coaches, staff members, workers contracts. etc. You’re paying the land TAX to stadium, facility, academy and maintaining everything.
It ain’t FREE. *So, who is going to PAY all that?* Especially when states, city, communities are on lockdown because of this pandemic and we still don’t know why state governors, city mayors WON’T open even though healthy people are still inside and we are wanting to go out because WE have bills to pay too.
So, who is going to pay? Our tax dollars? We ain’t paying a private owned club. You pay for your shit so HOW ARE YOU GOING TO get that money?
For any small clubs, how are they going to get that money if they don’t have any to sign talents to build a team? There is no competition. This is happening to EVERYWHERE.
Small clubs in all top leagues won’t get better.
No money = no talents = a club stays small.
Big money = loads of talents to buy = rich club stays RICH.
All of that is a product of no competition.
In the NBA, if a small club can’t get better, you have draft picks. At least you have a chance.
When it comes to everywhere else, you can’t get better. There is no chance. No incentive to get better.
I repeat: Who is going to pay ALL THAT BILLS? Taxes to maintain this building? Where would you get the money? *It ain’t free.*
Our tax dollars WON’T.
I’m waiting.
@@robert2690 Bruh, what are you going on about? Academies in Europe are private institutions.....your tax dollars don't go to them.
@@robert2690 What are you talking about? Most good academys are attached to pro teams that pay their bills.
@@robert2690 The way it works in the UK is that the academy how pays for the training sells for player for a fee to the bigger club who wants them. So the smaller club can make a lot of money. Not every player is sold. But the few that are go for millions. I kind of like this system.
This is so true. In the 90s I was chosen to be in the Olympic Development Program (from whence the team for the Olympics is chosen), but then they required a massive fee that my single mom just couldn't afford. The rich kid teams would hire a couple of us poor kids to play with them during international competitions, but then afterward they'd literally say, "We wish you could afford to play with us all the time. Too bad. Bye."
One of my teammates was in ODP. We played together in rec, travel, and varsity, and his dad was our travel coach. That's where the big costs came in. They were not rich at all but his dad was a huge football fanatic and basically their whole family revolved their lives around it. Nice people, not disparaging them, but that was just their thing and they spared no expense. Unfortunately for my friend, though he was probably the best player in our travel league, and was good enough to play varsity with 11th and 12th graders in 8th grade, he was a 5'5" tall striker. He was doomed before he started because he was too small by American standards, and he never got anywhere with it.
@@100percentSNAFU that's Messi's height.
The US football/soccer situation can be compared to the Democratic Republic of Congo's mineral situation. So much untapped material that can make them successful, but poor management and greed for money prevents them from becoming a success.
Potential resources yet to be used summing it up
Not so much chinese influence in american soccer
Great example
Dutch disease?
Agent P very true, here in the us u have to pay at the very least a $2000 per year to play for a good club.
This reminded me when Zlatan mentioned this same problem about his children playing on a team when he was at LA
Yea I would say that’s biggest hinder to Southern California soccer we have so much talent but it gets thrown to the side because the kids that can’t pay don’t get scouted and the ones that play highschool don’t get the attention do to American football being a priority to the school
@@frostynuggs339 this is 100% true. I coached 5 students that couldn't get a look in due to them not p[laying "travel ball"
@@frostynuggs339 Is American Football actually the priority in California schools though? I'm not American but I got the feeling that was Basketball these days?
Fran Ohmsford no you see each state has a different schedule for they’re sports so like from Aug to nov it’s American football season from dec to March is basketball season which overlaps with soccer and water polo all the funds end up going to American football and basketball and baseball because they’re “primary sports” and soccer is a secondary sport apparently thus the school’s don’t care about it and American football being the biggest sport here teachers and staff don’t care about sticking up for the soccer program cause they like football and basketball or baseball
Because he don’t realize it ain’t free. Nothing is ever free. You want to own something? you have to pay for it. You make a product, you have to pay for the equipment, items to assemble and workers to assemble the product.
A club pays bills (players contracts, workers, staff, etc) and TAXES (Buildings, Land, maintenance, etc)
You own a land, you pay a tax.
You own a building, you pay a tax. If you own a house, you pay mortgage. If you rent an apartment, you pay the bills.
If it’s free, the government CAN take it away and you will have NOTHING.
Someone has to build a house, building. That person has bills/taxes to pay too.
Someone has to pay and for a small club, how would you get the money?
It ain’t free.
And I know if a club is funded by the working class tax dollars, it won’t end well. Millions of working class will be affect.
It will end bad.
Winning cost MONEY.
It ain’t FREE. You’re paying BILLS to players, coaches, staff members, workers contracts. etc. You’re paying the land TAX to stadium, facility, academy and maintaining everything.
It ain’t FREE. *So, who is going to PAY all that?* Especially when states, city, communities are on lockdown because of this pandemic and we still don’t know why state governors, city mayors WON’T open even though healthy people are still inside and we are wanting to go out because WE have bills to pay too.
So, who is going to pay? Our tax dollars? We ain’t paying a private owned club. You pay for your shit so HOW ARE YOU GOING TO get that money?
For any small clubs, how are they going to get that money if they don’t have any to sign talents to build a team? There is no competition. This is happening to EVERYWHERE.
Small clubs in all top leagues won’t get better.
No money = no talents = a club stays small.
Big money = loads of talents to buy = rich club stays RICH.
All of that is a product of no competition.
In the NBA, if a small club can’t get better, you have draft picks. At least you have a chance.
When it comes to everywhere else, you can’t get better. There is no chance. No incentive to get better.
I repeat: Who is going to pay ALL THAT BILLS? Taxes to maintain this building? Where would you get the money? *It ain’t free.*
Our tax dollars WON’T.
I’m waiting.
Why football isn't going forward in South Asian countries like India, Bangladesh and so on
India and Bangla is South Asia. Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia is South East Asia
Nothing is going forward there sadly
Your answer is cricket
@@garlicmuncher answer is no investment and sponsorship in any other sport other than cricket
@@Channel-mg6yi exactly, our government does little to nothing to promote other sports except for athletics
As someone who grew up in Germany and lives here in the States, let me tell you the fundamental problem of US Soccer.
There is NO proper amateur and youth leagues outside of the major city hubs.
You know how pretty much every little town in Europe has it's own soccer/football team which plays on a level of the overall football pyramid? Yeah that's virtually non-existent here.
If kids or even young adults want to play organized soccer they either have to move away or rely on their local school district having money to have it's own program or hope that a bunch of European adults miss soccer enough that they create their own little private hobby league outside of the US soccer federation system.
The core problem here is there is no grassroots organization to control local leagues and US soccer doesn't even seem to have an interest in the sport beyond MLS and USMNT.
I've heard an American try to tell me that the US is way to big to have local soccer federations, but that simply isn't true.
It would be a simple task to model the US soccer system via a localized system like the DFB (German football fed) in which every state has its own soccer federation and takes care of its own league system in the state to then feed the top divisions.
Money is always an issue naturally but this can easily be alleviated through membership fees just like it happens in many other countries. It's not like US soccer is poor either, they can afford to subsidize local federations to run a proper pyramid system.
US soccer is not even on a 3rd world level.
Outside of college, a few local hobby leagues and the immediate MLS along with its "farm system" their is no opportunity for kids to learn the sport properly.
Unless you are an absolute prodigy, you would never want to follow the path of a conventional soccer development career in this country since it's a lot easier to just either switch in American Football or Baseball or simply don't play at all and stop wasting your time.
I grew up in Western North Carolina and there was no real youth leagues for me to play in outside of the local YMCA league and my middle and high school teams. I never got a chance to play in college because there wasn’t a club team for me to play for.
Hear me out convince public schools and colleges to care more about soccer. Then invest and improve coaching. The public school system works if we care about the sport. The problem is we don’t.
@@mattisbadateverything college can’t do much because of title IX
They just fixed that, we have semi and other pro leagues that have academies and their own leagues. USL have there academies set up now. I think they are doing the better job then MLS academies. Easiest way to go pro then MLS. I don't know about each state but here in California we have NPL and ECNL which are high level leagues that provide great competition and scouts attend them.
As someone who has been part of an MLS academy and US Development academy the goverment paid half of the cost for the fee. The fee here was $9,250 and I cover half. The current price right now is $2,550 for club and $3950 for the new MLS platform league, this might change and go higher due to COVID-19 shutting down games and only have practice. Many teams also don't have financial aid for player who don't have the money to pay but they are flexible to let you pay in installments rather then cash up front.
I think the big issue here in American soccer/football is MLS. MLS does not have a system where they relegate teams and promote teams from different divisions. You see the lesser leagues and division not get exposure no real threat for any team playing in MLS from a relegation battle. Also MLS is horrible for promoting youth. The biggest club here that does an EXCELLENT job and that is not due to US Soccer it is more of their system is NY Rebull. Redbull Football/Soccer have a great system of having kids go pro from RB Salzburg to RB Leipzig. NY Redbull promote 30% of youth to first team. That is really good, next team is Real Salt Lake, great job as well with 26% and FC Dallas is the next club doing it. All other clubs don't do this. They rather get outside USA talent from Europe, south america and they take up roster space. College soccer/football rout for MLS superdraft is not worth it. The coaches don't have connections with Pro teams, they don't really give you great scholarships, your schedule for class is crazy, you get teachers who hate you because you are not in class most of the time. If you are lucky to get drafted (play better in March madness not reg season) the MLS team sends you to USL or you just become a practice player. The only good about playing Soccer here in USA is they develop your athleticism better then other countries. Being 16 here you can compete physically with the 24 year olds.
Yeah but you have to understand how deep our ties are to our own sports. We started playing pro baseball in this country at roughly the same time the FA formed in England. All your small towns had soccer clubs; ours had baseball teams. We've been playing our version of "football" since at least the 1880s. Basketball started not long after that. So soccer here is competing with three sports that have been around for almost the same amount of time. Soccer had a rough early go here because first it was seen as a "British" game (and no good American liked anything British) and then later as an "immigrant" game (yes that is a "dogwhistle" if you will).
It's been the same ever since I was a kid (I'm 32). I made a travel team after trying out. Parents couldn't afford it, so I played recreational, stinting my development, and not getting any notice from colleges. MLS wasn't in my city yet, so no youth academies of any sort, which I'm sure would have cost just as much anyways. Just a shame how much talent I've seen personally fall through the cracks, can't even imagine the total scale.
You might have been the next Roger Levesque of only the system wasnt broken.
In nashville I've played with people that truly are good enough for pro soccer. We just got a pro team and not one person on that nashville soccer team is from Nashville and they had tryouts and it was 1000$ 200 people went and they signed 1 person!!!
Flaqko thats crazy scary bruh
@@flaqko5686 Yea, they do those 'tryouts' as a publicity stunt for new clubs to gain traction in the community. It only took 3 years with an MLS academy to "produce" our first elite 'homegrown' academy product. But even then, he had attended our academy for only a brief stint before college, and was only invited to the academy because he was playing at a private high school AND travel club. Point being, MLS/US is JUST starting to actually develop players/kids, rather than mooching the elite off pay to play travel clubs. It's in its infancy, but we'll get there I hope.
@@3dsaulgoodman43 I kept practicing my scuba celebrations....so i got that ;)
And, in a sense of irony, the USDA that was funded by the USSF was ended this summer and more of the academy push is being done by the MLS.
Zachary Harden and ECNL
Which may be for the best at this point.
Part of the reason for the upcoming youth movement is that MLS Academies are finally starting to see the fruits of their efforts, plus having MLS reserve sides playing in lower leagues.
USL has done it for a few years, and the past two super drafts the top picks were players that were home grown at USL teams.
@@Bullwine Yes but they are also eliminating potential players by lowering the player pool. They did that to save more money for the club. Now they are only going to scout players only in ECNL, NPL (high level club league for California) which is funny because there still scoutin players who have money and have money to play. With USDA they still get players who are talented but don't have the money but going to MLS platform like you said they are discrediting players who don't have money.
@@Bullwine USL in my opinion is the best way to go pro in USA. They promote more their youth then signing players.
Video idea: something about Schalke's downfall
That is something I've noticed. Things have been bad for them since the 18/19 season.
Schlake what?!
That's the most vague suggestion for a video. Just something, sod all in particular lol
I think it’s cause they started to lose all their young talent like goretzka, sane, and Meyer
Bruh
We Indians number 1.4 Billion and still we don't produce anything even close to the players in EFL League 2
Whay you can except in a country where politician's child is selected instead of a talented one and this my real life experience
Indian player have to play in Indian league to get caps Danny bath and couple of others wanted to play but where told no
Judging by a lot of ultras in Asia if it was a lot more higher quality it would be absolutely mental
Becasue in India it’s cricket cricket and cricket and then hockey in sports priorities
@DaGe PaPo Played it on Fifa put my controller in middle. Both teams had a player sent off with India nicking it 1-0 in the 88th minute with a header from a Cross.
For my travel team we had 3 kits and they made us pay 3k for them, the season cost was around 3.5k as well. The cost is absurd especially since we had to pay for travel cost as well
@Nota Troll I can understand the season fee but 3 kits from under armor shouldn't cost 3k. I got lucky and LA Galaxy signed me into their academy.
C. Hill wait 3 thousand?
@@5dingg Yeah
@nota troll. An academy doesnt nees funding that big
@@stefangog2852 This wasn't for a youth academy, it was a travel team. I don't remember having to pay for anything when I was in LA Galaxy's academy
Here in the US, soccer was considered to be a "girly" sport during my childhood. I know that this has pushed many people away from the game and towards American football and basketball. I think this is changing now, but it's interesting that our women's team has been the best in the world while we considered it to be the girl's sport. Makes me hopeful for the future of the USMNT
The football/baseball/basketball players at my US high school called soccer team "communist-football".
@@azaz8076 I've never heard that one
i agree with all of this and it’s true that some teams charge outrages fees just to join. however, i am seeing a lot more coaches trying to teach a more technical side to the game and i think in recent years a lot more americans have been making it in europe because of this. in a country of 300 million there has to be a lot of hidden talents here but the stupid pay to play system is holding us back.
Couldn't be more true
I wonder how many of those Americans in Europe are rich kids who's parents paid to go to the clubs academy's?
More players are coming from your country there’s dest pulisic,Mckennie and Reyna
Also the whole "Super Technical" La Liga copy formula they have been implmenting in the last 9 years. Basically every big team wants a midfielder for every position. They need a false 9 as a striker, they need a passing creative winger, they need a passing creative CB etc. That doesn't work, you need to mix up other styles. They are discrediting other players who biggest asset is physicality, speed and finishing and power. It's sad but they are pushing out players who are great at counter attacking and prefer players comfortable on the ball and control possession. That is why in England they don't have that issue because you have mix of teams that teach different styles.
What's really fascinating is playing pickup or organized soccer as an adult. There are so so many players as good as or better than ex-d1 and ex-academy players, but they never played at an academy or in college or sometimes even high school.
A full squad of players only from microstates (san marino Andorra etc etc)
@DaGe PaPo there isn't really a proper definition of like it has to be under a certain population or size so it would be up to his judgement
Like Belgium, Montenegro or Northern Ireland.
@@subraxas no they are way to big to be microstates like im meaning places like san marino Andorra tonga Liechtenstein like seriously small countries you cant see on maps
IT'S.
A.
SMALL.
COUNTRY.
IN.
EUROPE.
A micro state is one of those places where there is basically just a city but it is a country. For example, The Vatican,or Andorra, San Marino, Leichtenstein, luxembourg, monaco,
The idea as mentioned for Mane and Suarez is a common idea in America, however, it is reserved for Football, not Soccer.
Basketball***
Really both basketball and football it just depends on which area you’re from
Football, Baseball, and Basketball are "traditional" US sports so they already have built up the whole 'pyramid' in their own way over time - soccer is late to the party basically. It's mostly based around High School athletic programs, which feed into college programs, then the pros. Outside of High school, you also have things like Little League baseball, Peewee football, and I'm guessing an equivalent for basketball. Doing it that way, the pro teams can offload the youth development costs on the colleges and High Schools.
The thing is with soccer, while graduating with a degree from a university is fantastic, most pro soccer teams are unlikely to give a possible talent much of a look since it is expected that a 21/22 year old should have been pro already for at least 5/6 years. Since soccer is 'newer' in the US, the coaching at the High School and College levels is weaker (in general - there's always exceptions) which makes for less desirable prospects with possible bad habits.
How much true US talent has been wasted we'll never know. With a population of the US, statistically, it is likely that 2-3 generational talents of a Pele/Maradona/Messi level went undiscovered...
There's also another thing. I don't think the average US parent is too comfortable with the idea of their 14/15 year old kid getting signed to a pro contract requiring a likely move to a "far away" location to continue the athletic development. Sure, there are boarding schools that operate in the US (and some excellent ones at that) but they are truly reserved for the upper crust and aren't really sports focused afaik.
I'm from America and there are two options when trying to go pro in America. you either play for a DA team( developmental Academy) and try to work your way into a MLS first team . The other option is to play travel and play for your high school, then play soccer at a D1 school, and last try to get scouted by an mls team in college
American here, this video was incredible and I really appreciate the hard work you put into this, and every video you make. This subject matters a lot to me so I'm glad you've used a platform as large as yours to give it some proper attention. I'll definitely be sharing this around! However, I just have one tiny, tiny correction.
D.C. United announced about 1-2 weeks ago that they're ending the pay-to-play structure in their academy and fully funding it going forward. That leaves Minnesota United as the only MLS club without a fully club-funded academy.
Also, thank you so much for setting people straight on the needless football vs soccer debate. It's so played out at this point and it's not going to change so I wish people would just drop it and focus on the game. THANK YOU ALFIE!
Autumn is used interchangeably with Fall in the US
It's depressing to hear someone who knows as little about the USA as the person who uploaded the video pontificating on it like an authority.
@John Doe The maker of the video doesn't know enough about the United States to know how they name the seasons, but he's convinced he understands the nation well enough to describe what's wrong about it's youth athletics.
@@celebrim1 those two things are completely unrelated
@@lollol9772 Yes, but it's still true that the maker of the video knows nothing about youth athletics in the United States.
Well, well said, "Focus on physicality and results at a very early age. Over talent and player development... strong focus on athleticism rather than aptitude on the ball and understanding of the game."
I don't even have to mention Messi. Marco Verratti and Lorenzo Insigne are 5'4" and 5'3" respectively, and they're still internationally renowned talents. That's the wonderful thing about this sport: It does not discriminate based on size, whereas in basketball, if you stop at a certain height, your aspirations of a professional career are all but finished no matter how skilled you are.
America needs Promotion and Relegation. It will simply change everything. It will automatically create more competition, and that will force the clubs to take the most talented Players if they want to stay in the MLS
They can do one with the USL Championship. The problem is a lot of the MLS club's feeder clubs/reserve teams play in that league.
@@3dsaulgoodman43 This is a problem not addressed in this video, but should be: the very existence of profit-driven leagues. I have long regarded USL as a sick joke of a league because they don't really care if clubs live or die, just that they can pay franchise fees to play at certain levels. They and MLS drew up the atrocity that is the PLS guidelines, which sadly make pro/rel impossible in the US (as least for the time being). You also have a corrupt federation that is in complete lockstep with MLS, and to a lesser extent the "joke league," that continues to fight against meaningful and needed reform and the way they treat leagues and clubs intent on creating such reform (see also: their treatment of NASL and what I fear they're trying to do with NISA, which has recently been working on an alternative pyramid-within-the-system). Geography shouldn't be a factor against true reform, but a lot of idiots try to use it anyway - despite the fact that Russia has a proper pyramid structure and is much larger than the US. If you can have a true pyramid with the opportunity to have teams in the top tier travel from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, you prove to us that it can easily be done from Miami to Seattle or Boston to San Diego in a pro/rel system.
Michael Czerniewski they could easily just promote and relegate within conferences. 2 teams relegated from MLS western conference and 2 teams promoted from USL western conference. In 3rd division Spain they just make new conferences every year depending on who gets promoted/relegated. I know Spain is much smaller but considering they can do it with 80 teams idk why the MLS couldn’t change conferences with 30
@@ATLMike94 Clueless. You guys are good in finding excuses for not having promotions cause your whole System is fucked. If you buy an mls Team you just buy a share of the mls. Such a stupid system.
@Michael T. Mathews
Oh yes it is. Without p and r you have a closed system where people have no incentive to stop losing because youll still stay in the mls. And if you introduce p&r, your local team has a chance of making the mls, however small may the chance be. People will be more interested in something potentially good, tjan something always on a minor local level
This isn't just a problem with youth development it's a problem of the US system
As someone who grew-up mostly in the US, but moved back to London 3 years ago, this video was spot on! Brilliant work!
In Ireland I think most people call association football , soccer as we have another sport we call football, which is Gaelic Football
I forgot this was a thing. 😂
I'm Irish and prefer the term football. Gaelic football is played more with hands than feet, so in a way it's silly that its referred to as football
@@emmetthynes1397 We already have handball though which is as old as Gaelic football so I suppose that's why it is called Gaelic football
@D-block South Hasnt GAA overtaken football/soccer as the most popular sport in Ireland.
@@3dsaulgoodman43 not really
It makes me sad that Mexico’s youth system is slowly becoming like Americas
Cristian Carvajal if teams in mexico would fucking learn to sell cheap we’d probably be a potential World Cup semifinalist
Guys I'm mexican American, but I'm worried for my mexican side , the usa have reyna , pulisic , adams , mckennie, sergino . Thats looking pretty promising.
felix ochoa I don’t think those players will live up to their expectations pulisic can if he stays fit
Octavio Arroyo Not only that, but also change the league structure. Have no play offs and only have one winner instead of two. Splitting the season into 2 separate with playoffs causes most teams in Liga MX to have a “Win Now” mentality. There’s only 17 games and then playoffs, which teams don’t want to risk giving young Mexican players game time (since they’re inexperienced) so they go for cheap experienced players from South America. That’s why there’s so many foreign players in Liga MX, the teams prefer to have players with experience rather than develop with only 17 games before play offs.
This also causes players like Cordova (from Club America) to not get consistent game time until he was 22. Havertz is only 21 and already had over 110 appearances for Leverkusen, just for comparison Cordova only is about to hit 50 appearances for America and he’s 23. He spent a year on loan at another club in Mexico, but only had 9 appearances. He’s two years older with only 60 or so games in Mexico’s top flight.
Yes this only one example of this and there’s been good players that have come from Liga MX throughout the last few years, but in my opinion the league structure is one of the main things holding the talent back and it is not talked about as much.
felix ochoa It doesn’t matter how promising they are, if they aren’t a good TEAM all together it won’t matter at the end of the day.
There’s also obvious factor not pointed out here, football is far from their most popular sport.
That is true, but soccer/football is growing really fast in popularity, so it is a really good time to implement a better system and if they did, I think in 20-30 years the US would do way better and get far at tournaments such as the World Cup
@@BruhMoment-tb8qm Yeah, the sport is growing rapidly but our systems here in the states can't adapt to more people from poorer backgrounds with talent that would give them a chance in other countries to become a star.
@@meeramenon3161 yeah I get you
Well, the US has one of the largest populations in the world. They have more than enough kids to play the sport and others. To me that’s just a BS excuse, the US has a large demographic of kids from different backgrounds, some of those backgrounds are passionate for the sport. I live in the US and the pay to play system is what ruins the sport for those who can’t afford it. Usually these are kids with wealthier parents/background are playing the sport.
From my experience these kids that played consistently on a club team (travel team) lacked passion for the sport. I was friends with some of them from my high school team and I kid you not, most of them lacked passion for the sport. They either got into the sport because it was safer (to their parents) than American Football, or just grew up playing it as a hobby and stuck by it. I just feel like those players who can afford it take the sport for granted and theres probably thousands of kids who can’t play the sport at a competitive level because financially they can’t afford it.
@@George_1098 You put it perfectly
Great video. There are some MLS teams, like the RedBulls who invest heavily in their youth system. But I think it will be after my lifetime where clubs realize they can make more money on a player by investing in them rather than the pay to play model.
Real Salt Lake as well.
Agent P and you can definitely see that paying off. The Real Salt Lake academy have lost some great talents to European clubs. Ledezma is one of them, playing for PSV now
@@jorgevillatoro9118 it's nice to see talents leaving the US to join european teams and not the other way around. Heck, NHL are stealing every big talents from europe😜
Having had a child in the travel team system, I totally agree. We were willing and able to pay and commit the time to take our son to the various tournaments. Few parents can afford the cost and the cost increase a lot the higher up in level the team is. The time commitment is huge spent most of our holidays traveling to tournaments. Next is the college system which is more harm to a soccer development than help. My son trying to balance school work with playing soccer was very hard. The entire system needs to be changed. The county I live in the state of Virginia has the same population of Iceland and Iceland’s team is better in my opinion to the US team. Iceland’s system seems obviously better than our system here in America with 300 million people. Huge changes need to be made.
And it’s not just soccer/football. My wife played softball and even with both of her parents having good jobs, it was still a struggle at times.
One small note/correction. DC United no longer charges players' families for their Academy. It's understandable that you missed this, given that the change was announced only a couple weeks before you put this video up, so it would have been easy to miss during your research.
Well it’s only 2023. What took so long?
One way to solve that pay to play issue is a relegation system, remember, MLS is not the only league in the US, but the most powerful, so basically make it the 1st division and put all others behind it, I bet you all these new teams will stop using pay to play so they could get the best players and get to the MLS...
That’s oversimplifying it
Suuure....and how are you gonna get all the franchise owners to go along with this?
@@denzelwenzel That's another problem on it's own, and that's money involved, unless some of them decide to give up a ton of money, it won't happen, and I bet none of them are giving fucks for the state of US soccer...
@@ATLMike94 Yes, I know most of MLS teams are free to play, not all though, but what you don't understand is, first of all I'm Brazilian, I know how it works here, there are thousands of clubs here who are pay to play, but they're not 5k USD expensive, in fact, they are less expensive than the recreational level in the US, most of them are tied to 1st and 2nd tier teams and they get bonuses if they find a good player their bosses can sign at very young age, what I'm saying is, as the relegation system come into effect, teams *will have to invest somehow to produce new players or they' get relegated,* losing even more income.
Now, how many free to play clubs exist in the US?
Imagine increasing that number by 5 times, with small clubs creating ties to big teams and medium and big clubs investing in new academy centers, and imposing a modest fee to play?
Increasing the spotting power will increase US football quality, it's how Brazil still has some of the best players in the world while still being a lot poorer than the rest of the world, now imagine this spotting power and the money the US has.
@@ATLMike94 You're saying as if anything were different here, most of the things you said for the US is true here, specially the money part of it, but what you don't get is that small clubs *profit from the discovery of young talents,* search for the "Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior" it has an english wiki page just for it.
I remember hearing that the US don't allow teens to sign contracts for teams/clubs, but that maybe the problem too, kids who perform well on that "Copinha," usually finds themselves with a contract with a big team after it, the youth team that discovered that kid gets a profit from the transfer, you see, *it is profitable,* now, I might not know how things work there, but what I'm saying is this, wide area and powerful spotting is the key, I'm not saying pro/rel is, I'm saying pro/rel will improve spotting performance.
You’re research is spot on. My son can play on a normal rec league for free on some occasions, however, the travel team is close to $1200 per season. Not including travel costs. Great video, cheers!
Hello there, I can’t understand the cost per player. Some clubs don’t have a choice because they have to pay for facilities. Our club pays a nominal field usage and we are volunteering. But our 2 main coaches have 25+ years coaching,
have taken 4 different teams to Europe to play in tournaments, have NSCAA License, besides the F and D. We charge $160 for new players and about $100 for returning players. We keep our club small to keep quality but do not turn players away.
I can understand paying a contribution and membership fees to a club but $1200 is obscene. Here in the Netherlands you wouldn't even get into the triple digits for a regular local team. At least that's how it was when i was a kid when i played two decades ago. Oh and over here every football club is recreational until you get picked up for the youth team of a major club. You don't buy-in to major teams. They scout you and that's it.
I've experienced everything that Alfie said. The pay to play problem. The difference in playing for a travel team and recreation team. Living in a state where the odds of light escaping a black hole are greater than anyone even recognizing that the sport exists.
I also love that Alfie used Getty Images of my favorite team, Orlando City SC and our bright new talent Daryl Dike!! This is the video I needed in my life! Thank you.
As a perfect example, I tried out for a D1 college, Mercer University, and was told if I was taller I would be perfect for them.
I had a friend that was invited into the Chicago fire academy. I thought he a great player without being biased. Because him and his family couldn’t afford the payment, he lost his opportunity to become a professional player.
It’s so expensive to play here in the US, got called up to the interstate league for my club but wasn’t able to due to the cost and the fact that I still wanted to attend college when I graduate
Yeah now that's another part that makes me mentally exhausted....
In Norway, we get sponsored by the state to study. We even get money to pay rent and food.
I just don't get the systems in USA, nor how any people can consider such a country "great" (no offense... what I mean is that the populace is exploited, instead of building a sound structure)
SebSk we have the best economy, arguably the best and most recognized culture in the world. We have more freedom and opportunity than any other country in the world. As for the schooling there’s alot of scholarships and grants offered to full time students who actually get good grades. We don’t get government hand outs cause we’re people who work for things.
SebSk there are many reasons why America is not only “great” but the best in the world. Which is why most people from the around the world try or want to immigrate here.
You don’t have to play for a club to make it join your schools team which is another way to get scouted by a college. Which would also take care of the cost of college as most colleges let you attend free if you play for them. Yes their should be a better system but it’s not currently possible as soccer isn’t given the proper funding for such systems in europe. Simply because it’s not as big as in europe, although I do believe this will change in the future as it’s rapidly growing.
Ik like I made varsity my freshman year in D1 often got offered to play for local academy’s but man how tf they expect someone to pay 300+ for uniform
Plus the monthly fee $250+.. plus every tournament 150+ to play ... you gotta pay a lot to play not even that you gotta pay to get scout 😂liek wtfff you gotta have lots of money to give to your kids to be able to play a sport
Good video. I'm a father of 2 kids that played top soccer in the US. I had to work 2 jobs because the soccer was costing me $12,000--$16,000 a year. Scholarships are based on lack of income and talent with only 1 or 2 spots per team, so its very hard to qualify. to make things worse, the kits in top clubs usually cost $400-$700 (no joke). My son played Development Academy and they even had to fly to tournaments and games (at parent cost). The coaching was substandard with an emphasis on size, strength, and aggression. As for national team recognition you pretty much have to know someone or your club has to have connections. Money talks! I seen extremely talented players leave soccer for much less expensive sports such as Basketball and Football. I eventually sold everything and moved to Europe where my son plays absolutely free, with free uniforms, free travel, and much better facilities and coaching. Its very sad. And yes, promotion and relegation would improve many things in the system.
This was a fantastic video and you were spot on about every single part. It's a huge misconception that the US doesn't know anything about soccer or that we are just terrible at it. While we haven't produced the worlds best players it's completely false to assume that we are inept. There are many players who come from overseas that move to the US that can't make club teams regardless of pay. We do have talent here, but as you stated, making a profession out of it was almost impossible so people choose other routes or just quit playing. Only the families with a lot of money that can push their children through expensive clubs with connections see USMNT, college, or international scouts. The future is bright though. Thanks for covering the beginning too. It blows my mind how ignorant people are about the worlds biggest sport's history... it's always aimed at us for some reason too..
Great video as always, the issue of cost and opportunity is very similar in Australia.
A played for a travel team and I got a scholarship. The only thing my parents payed for was my jerseys. I was the only player at any age level to get it for that club so that's cool
See you in the MLS
That happened to me also I was in 6th when that happen my pe coach was a coach for that team and he talked to them and the only thing my parents paid was the jerseys
Great video as always! Also surprised to find the true origins of the words "football" and "soccer". Definitely gonna use them as trivia now!
Soccer is growing in the US in a big way, and it would be a great opportunity for them to create a sport that was truly open to all and not locked behind a paywall as happens with basketball and american football and the college draft system. Especially considering the generally poorer communities who take up the sport such as latin Americans.
This video is spot on. My son played for a club team a few years ago here in the US. He showed some promise so he was invited to try out for the Premier club team. He made the team but then the Club told us the cost: $1500 per season, not including uniforms, tournament fees, or travel costs. There was no way we could afford it so we had to decline the invitation. Scholarships were not available.
In Australia it’s harder for young players to develop as they would in England mainly because lots of people put soccer or football in a bad light and it is a bit of a shamed sport for lots of people and lots are persuaded to a different sport because maybe they could get bullied for it
Always thought australia is a nice country. Shamed for playing football? Here in europe everyone can play what he wants 😂 whats wrong with you guys? Is Australia north korea or what?
th-cam.com/video/fZo7io_Ky_Y/w-d-xo.html
amann still a nice country just as there is so many sports in Australia that is big like (AFL , Cricket, Rugby league and union, Tennis, Swimming and of course soccer/football.
So Ye it has a stigma but it has a growing fan base
@@amann7166 Soccer/Football is seen as a girl sport because there are so many divers and it's not very physical compared to other sports
Owen Hannah yes, cricket is my fave physical sport
I really appreciate your videos on America being soccer positive. Having someone like you makes liking soccer more fun. Why not let us enjoy your sport too? The more to chat with, right? I’ll be honest. I used to hate it, and make fun of it all the time. In 2007 I went to a Timbers game, and it changed my life. Soccer is one of the most important things in my life, and I’ve converted so many friends. I plan on converting many more. Thanks for the videos, and the sport. Portland out! 🤘🏻
Good video alfie. Here is another idea
Idea: Ranking all continental treble winning teams of Europe since 1967
Pandurang Gireesh bayern, barca, inter, valencia, ,man utd, real madrid, bayern, barca
Decent
@@alex-cm9fd PSV?Ajax?Celtic?
@@janemarsh8328 thanks mate
Pandurang Gireesh no worries man
You should try doing some XIs with your ideas on your own channel
I for the most part agree with this but a huge part that was left out is how difficult it is to get coaching license here. The USSF makes you go through hoops and hoops and hoops to get the proper training and experience and eventually qualification to be a proficient coach here in the States, so that's why all of the good coaches immediately go somewhere they can get paid well (which also happens to be the more expensive travel teams, go figure). This means that, even with guys in proximity to an MLS academy, they'll likely be a few steps behind other kids who went to those travel teams first.
This also means that the only avenue left for most middle class and poor Americans are left with the school system, which wouldn't be the worst if it we had good coaches, but going through highschool, praying you get a scholarship, and getting drafted to MLS means that you don't get high level coaching until 18, and don't play pro until 19 at best. For example, there's only ever been two Premier League players to have won the National HS Player of the Year award (albeit more who have gone through this system); Jack Harrison (Massachusetts/New York) and Claudio Reyna (New Jersey).
The real problem in coaching is that licensing does not guarantee quality coaching. Good US coaches often destroy a decade of players before their coaching strategies and tactics reflect modern, quality values. Still too much kickball, which won't change in my lifetime.
WOW Alfie, I always thought the USA came up with the term soccer and always wonder why, but you've increased my knowledge today Sir. Thank you for that bro.
That USA kit is so nice tho
Well duh we are a rich country. Shitty system
Ooof, as an American, I’ve been waiting to hear from Alfie on this
As an American, I loved the video mate! Consistently great content; one of my favorite TH-cam channels!
Hey just wanted to reach out. I am from Louisiana in the United States. I grew up playing travel soccer and it was $6500 a season and that didn't include travel fees. It really does kill our development.
There is universities that cost less than that.
USA has Gio Reyna who turns 18 in November and plays in the Bundesliga.. I hope he contributes a lot and helps Pulisic score goals in CONCACAF.
And Tyler adams, and Weston McKennie too
OneNDoneJob also dest
todoroki shoto definitely him too
All those players were born with rich parents 🤦🏽♂️
PROBENIC COMPS gio reynas dad was the sporting director for nycfc which he went to borussia from, pulisics parents were professional football players so he already had those connections, and there’s so many more situations like that. all the inner city kids and so many people who had crazy talent never get the opportunities that they should because of these situations.
Problem in India - Parents force their child to become engineers/doctors and if you want to pursue sports parents will not support and if your parents support you then society will laugh on you if you tell them you want to pursue sports and if all went right than a politician's son will be selected instead of you even if he does not know how to kick the ball
Ya man ik it I'm in india and it's just hard our legend Chhetri is atleast trying to change it
Lmao. I'm an Indian from Malaysia, and even though my parents tell me that I can become whatever I want, I can tell that they'll prefer for me to become a doctor or an engineer rather than a radio jockey.
In England rochdale fc make you pay £70 per month for you to pay for there youth team
Even that isn’t that bad compared to the $2000+ in the US
That’s actually great here in USA you’ll have to pay around $3000 a season just play and that doesn’t include the team giving you jerseys, cleats or anything else just be great full that you are actually paying $70 a month for playing for I wish I had that opportunity man 🤧🙏🏾
That’s nothing, my shitty recreational team cost like $250
That’s nothing my team wants me to pay 1,400 for just one year
The biggest problem here in the US is that soccer competes with American Football. They play during the same season, so if you're a teenage boy and are one of the best athletes in your town or region, you're most likely going to play American Football. But if you're a teenage girl and you're one of the most skilled athletes, you're going to play soccer because there is no prevalent American Football leagues for girls. That's one of the reasons the USWNT has been so dominant over the years. I think it's also important to remember that soccer has only been a mainstream sport here for just a few decades.
The U.S. can be likened to Australia too. Many prospective players take part in the sport that is more popular locally, like the AFL, NRL and NFL
Exactly. Australia and the USA are some of the world's only multisport nations. The major problem in the USA is that soccer is way down the line in terms of priorities of young athletes. The video maker talks about how in much of the world soccer is seen as a vehicle out of poverty and has a passionate following among the lower classes. Well guess what, that's not true in the USA for the most part. In the USA, the culture is around football and basketball.
Moreover, there are other huge differences between the US culture and say European culture.
The big problem to the extent that there is a big problem in US youth development is that everyone who has tried to improve the situation has tried to import systems from Europe to the USA despite the structural gulf in culture between the two. That's how the USA ended up with a 'pay to play' system, and why we went through a whole generation of players without new talent (culminating in our failure to qualify for the WC because our team had aged out and had no youthful replacements).
@@celebrim1 Most kids who play in travel clubs are White.. this isn't racist at all but its because of the amount of money their parents make. Hispanics, Asians, and African-Americans don't make that kind of money so its harder to play club soccer.
Im Hispanic and play club soccer but only because it isn't super expensive and my parents are willing to sacrifice something for me
@@phyzixs.8061 First of all, I've coach youth soccer in a major urban area and I'm well aware of the racial segregation in all too many youth teams. You find teams of Hispanic players, teams of white players, and teams of recent African immigrants. Often when you play against a Hispanic team, they've done various things to try to mitigate the cost like have reserve players or larger teams (if the league allows it).
What you don't understand because you are young is that it didn't have to be this way. Back before 2006 the USSF was committed to developing and supporting High School soccer which was an affordable path to play which could have met the needs of all Americans and which would have fit well with American culture and institutions. And after 2006, Sunil Gulati chose to abandon High School and Collegiate soccer and focus on European style 'academy systems' where you have semi-professional youth teams.
The trouble is that the academy system doesn't work in the United States (and really didn't work 15 years ago even more than now) for a whole host of reasons that I could explain to you. The result of this shift of focus was nearly 10 years where we weren't developing any youth talent in this country at all, and the 'pay to play' system that you are talking about, and the racial segregation of youth soccer that you are talking about. So I don't disagree with your observations, but my point is that the very people that complain the most about the current system are the same people that made the decisions that led to this system. And further, that 14 years ago I told them that this would happen, and they didn't listen to me.
The issue with this view is that like all of our other sports, and the same goes with the around the world and their sports. IE. Cricket, Golf, Rugby, etc... That while you might miss some talent due to an athlete choosing a different sport, that doesn't mean they will be the best at that particular sport. Tiger Woods would likely have never made it to the NFL either... Tom Brady likely would have never made it in the MLB.. etc. That being said, it's possible that some WR for an NFL team could have been the worlds greatest player, but the same could be said for someone playing in any other sport around the world.. We have lot's of multi sport athletes, they aren't always the best at every sport they play and at some point they choose the one they are best at and hope for the best.
As a Mexican-American I feel that the usa in terms of youth development is improving a lot. The usa have a very good upcoming crop of players Pulisic , Reyna, mckennie , Tyler adams , sergiño etc. With those players the future is looking quite bright and is a very strong back bone for years to come. For my Mexican side its not looking so hot , lozano is starting to get more playing time but still doesn't have the managers confidence, Hector Herrera is on the same boat and thinking about it so is Gutierrez psv , Lainez as well no improvement at betis , guardado has been a great servant but he's getting on a bit, corona and Jimenez are our best representatives.
The thing is most of those US players that you named joined the academy of those teams. The Mexican players you named all came from a team from Mexico and played domestically for a few years. That’s the difference between what the US is starting to do and what mexico is doing wrong.
Mexican clubs over charge for the young players whenever a European team is interested. Those European teams would rather spend that money and get a Brazilian or Argentinian for half that price that Mexican clubs charge. But there is a lot of young Mexicans in many European clubs outside the bigger leagues they are just not talked about a lot because the Mexican media loves to focus on their big names and sometimes overrate they.
I wouldn’t count Sergio dest he was born raised and coached in Netherlands.
@@George_1098 @George1098 @George1098 George that is true , ill give you sergiño , and 1/5 of weston , why because Weston spent a few years in Germany before moving back to the USA with Dallas he played over 7 years with Dallas before moving back to Germany if the kid didn't have any talent he definitely would not have returned to Germany so we can say that he further developed at Dallas, while its true that Pulisic did develop into the player he is today at borrusia he still had to be scouted in the usa before going on to play in germany he played in the usa from age 7-15 so I would say some credit has to go to the usa , and finally let's not kid ourselves Adams and Giovanni are basically developed in the usa both played for the youth sides of NYCFC and Red bull NYC, they barely left last year but its the same point they were scouted and developed at these academies.
@@George_1098 for the mexican sides its absolutely whoaful the amount of talent that is available but not exploited, most top mexican clubs that produce talent don't need to sale because they are backed by very wealthy companies Femsa tigres/monterrey , america televisa and many more examples.
Monterrey had a chance to sell Jonathan gonzales and Rodriguez but asking for 10 and 15 mil respectively was ludicrous for players with no international backing the offers were 7 and 10 mil.
As i mentioned unrealistic fees is definitely the blocking point for most mexican clubs.
@@balubendalam9548 ill give you him but Weston , pulisic , reyna and Adams ???
I further explained in another comment
ty for addressing the football vs soccer terms, and why we call it soccer. I see too many people getting triggered for no reason when we call it soccer instead of football, when the English invented the word in the first place
Day 30 : Ranking every barca transfer since Neymar's sale
As a youth player myself here, I've seen plenty of players not be able to play because they don't have the money.
The only reason we (Canada) produced Alphonso Davies was that he was subsidized. Without that he would never have gotten where he is. If we want to be serious about developing players over here then pay to play has to be abolished. Both the US and Canada have so much potential in all sports that are being stifled by the financial barrier
Soccer is getting bigger in Canada. There are more soccer options for my kids than there were when I was young. I think it's because hockey is so expensive, soccer is much cheaper.
This is the video I've been waiting for, it really sucks how it's structured here.
Americans need to take notes and use what European countries use in terms of a league system for there to be a fix, imho.
@@brandonhey7797 it's really disheartening seeing lots of good players and when you ask them if they are academy players and they almost 90% of the time always say they cant afford it and then even then like mentioned in the video just paying to be in one doesnt necessarily mean you're good.
@@Voz_ Yeah. Football is treated too much like a business over in the US, instead of what it was supposed to be.
This is extremely accurate having spent 8 years playing for club teams in California.
Friendly FYI, Daryl Dike’s last name is pronounced DEE-KAY
Here’s hoping the whole world will know his name one day - Orlando City fan :)
Eyyy Orlando is playing good this season ✊I’m from lake Mary
@@DBZnetwork yooo, I'm from Titusville, Cape Canaveral
🦁
🦁
LP15 Csine Gallese has been good too 👍🏽⚽️
Although it was brief, I appreciate you mentioning the social and economical inequities that run rampant throughout the US.
One of the biggest hurdles soccer will have developing youth players in the US is the fact that high school and college teams are generally the way kids are developed in sports and football (American), basketball, and baseball take the lions share of the talent.
Thats very true.
Not true. Soccer has almost exclusive access to athletes 5’10 and under. We aren’t losing athletes of average height and build to football or basketball.
Don’t fall into the trap of blaming other sports for stealing the talent. There are 330 million people in the US, more than enough to produce some world class soccer talent, especially since (again) the big four American sports are completely ignoring athletes under 5’10”.
@@Michael-cb5nm actually…many many kids who end up 5’10” and under don’t give up on their dream of playing football or basketball until long after they have reached their full height. Also, being 5’10” and under doesn’t preclude a person from playing college football or basketball, so millions of kids who have no hope of making the NBA or NFL still choose to play basketball and football.
A person at age 17 or 18 who has played basketball their whole life can’t just switch to soccer and make up for those years of experience. How many top flight soccer players started playing soccer after age 10?
From a perspective of someone that played recreational soccer for almost 10 seasons consecutively and then one season on my high school junior varsity team I can say that the older you get you really start to realize how much the system is a pay to play
Take a shot every time he says football
5 minutes later:
*incoherently drunk*
Can you do a similar one about australia?
No stick to cricket and rugby
Kosmo grow up
shut it jarrod
Keep reading my first comment that's all I have to say
Thank you for making this video! All of your points are absolutely correct. One other point I might add, however you may have covered it in the video, is that players are restricted to playing in their age group rather than playing against other players at their skill level.
Not entirely different from Australia, the best youth level prior to an A-League academy is NPL, which is at a minimum 2k per year and the amount of nepotism and politics to get into said programs is ludicrous and A-League clubs won't look elsewhere for youth players. We have a massive amount of talented footballers from African and Indigenous backgrounds, yet hardly any are found in the higher levels of the game here.
Loving the content recently
At 14:07 he has a good point. I remember taking a coaching course for a license in the US and the instructor told me after the course that the coaching federation doesn’t like coaches doing rondos because it isn’t “game-like” 🤦♂️ needless to say we both strongly disagree
I'm from the US and I promise you we dont use mouth pieces when playing.
I'll try to be objective on this as someone who has been deep into MLS and USL for over two decades. A lot of the issues that have been inherent in the system (pay to play, coaching, and talent identification) are being turned around by MLS teams (and now some USL teams as well). One of the biggest issues within soccer in the US has always been there is a lack of infrastructure. Teams had poor training facilities, stadium situations, and had non-existent youth facilities. The first thing that really changed was stadiums as most teams have or are in the process of building facilities that are on par with most leagues. The second thing is in the last few years has been teams building training facilities that would surprise most people. Sporting Kansas City has won players over because of the quality of their training facility. Now teams are building academy facilities that are designed to be among the best in the world. Real Salt Lake spent 78 million building a facility that houses the first team training and all the youth teams. Kansas City spent 75 million while Atlanta spent 60 million.
Philadelphia has a dedicated youth facility as well as a residency where they provide schooling for their players as well as a full time nutritionist that looks over the players fitness levels and provides meals that are specific to what they need for their training regiment. They've also brought in specific individuals that are known for youth development from abroad and hired a technical director that has been through the Red Bull system (and was responsible for signing Firmino at Hoffenheim and Mane at RB Salzburg). They also have used their II team in USL to let kids play against grown men and learn how to have to play better in order to compete. Yeah, they get smoked every now and again but they learn more from having to play up a level or two than by playing only against kids their age. But it hasn't even been really a full cycle to get players that started on the U-12 team to progress into the first team. The first group you are seeing is what they have now and they already have Aaronson that is likely going to Salzburg while they have several players that stayed in Philly instead of going to a team like PSV.
What I think you will see over the next few years is more and more players coming out of America and Canada that will get a chance at bigger teams. The first real crop of players to come out of the new youth systems (ones where coaches are sent to France and Germany to take classes provided by those associations or play pro minutes in the second division starting at age 15) have produced Weston McKinnie (FC Dallas youth academy now at Juventus), Alphonso Davies (Vancouver Whitecaps to Bayern Munich), Tyler Adams (NY Red Bull to Red Bull Leipzig), and Gio Reyna (NYCFC youth academy to Dortmund) who are all starters. FCD sold Chris Richards to Bayern before he ever played a first team game and NYCFC sold Joe Scally for a couple million to Monchengladbach before he ever played a first team game. Now these all may just be a blip and the US/Canada don't produce another player on a Pulisic or Davies level. But based on what I see watching these players go up against players that were starters in Europe or South America (and some that are current national team players) I think that you'll see a better caliber of player coming out over the next half decade or so.
Thanks for that lucid explanation of the origins of the terms "football" & "soccer"....Very well explained.
I used to use the word soccer as did my friends when I was young. I am now 71 and from Liverpool so I don't have any problem calling it soccer. Only the ignorant of the history would object, so carry on yanks, no problem.
Hey, don't boost the egos of yanks any higher. They already belives they are top of the world 😜
I’m so happy this video was made! I commented that I wanted something like this as I wrote a research dissertation on this exact topic! Something to add to the tournaments in travel soccer/football, they cost extra just for a teams registration in each tournament(usually about 50-150 dollars) on top of all other costs. Btw Daryl Dike is insane, has enormous talent
I'd like to see a deep dive into the state of the sport in Australia (we'd call it Soccer)
the interest is dying (again) and the FFA (Football Federation Australia) need to tread carefully or risk the A-League going under, and if that happens, the sport will never get back up in Australia I feel
As a whole, Soccer is in a bit of trouble, roundly being out attended by the BBL and certain WBBL games even get a higher attendance than A-League games (BBL and WBBL are both 20 over cricket comps, the W just means the women's comp)
And it should thank it's lucky stars it runs through the summer, to match with European competition, because if it ran in winter, it wouldn't be able to hold a candle to AFL and NRL in the country for watched and attendance (put it in perspective, the 2019 AFL season average attendance was 37,317, marginally lower than the 2018/19 EPL with 38,182 with about 20 million less people in the country)
I'd love to see this. I think Alfie should also consult Eli Mengem
@Granddad Fleenstone ahhh, don't we all just LOVEEEE when someone who doesn't A, understand, B, know anything about, and C doesn't care for belittles something
mate, you're not funny, and if you took 10 minutes to actually look at AFL you'd understand why it's so popular here, and why it's spreading in the US, Ireland, NZ and the pacific islands
If you don't like it, fine, who cares, but don't belittle something because YOU PERSONALLY don't like it, it makes you look like a right knobhead
I'm an American with a son growing up in Turin, Italy. He's in middle school now and this is the point in Italy where kids are expected to either play on serious teams, or basically stop playing. There are very few recreational leagues. Our son is quite passionate about calcio (he was pretty jazzed to have nutmegged Ronaldo''s son in the park one day) but he's not really competitive to the point where he's wants to commit to a serious team - he just wants to have fun and get better.
He's kind of in a pickle as the places where he can improve expect him to dedicate himself, while the not-so-serious school he attends isn't really challenging him. In the US, he could play on his junior high school team (I think the video doesn't give a lot of ) or in a recreational league without much problem. Other parents have the same problem. His best friend's parents send their son to fencing because they see the poisonous atmosphere of the families who dive into serious calcio teams. Ugh. I'll also add that it isn't cheap for him to either join a team or attend soccer classes in Italy. I think we pay around 100 euros a month for a 3rd tier place (I know the Juventus academy is much more costly, but they may give scholarships to poor but really talented kids. I'm not sure about the Toro academy).
The price of entry really hurt my parents passion to have me play. They wanted me to “soccer” but it was expensive and American football was more affordable. For the sake of keeping me busy and healthy I played I eventually had to just play American football. Not saying I’d be some kind of all star but I’ve had many friends passionate about soccer who eventually hit a barrier at more “competitive” leagues. There’s a hug potential talent pool but the system handicaps it’s self.
Very true me and my brother were in a team here but we couldn’t join because it was too expensive for us. It probably would’ve been a bit more than 6k not including kit and travel cost we don’t have that kind of money
Brilliant intro, I love it when Alfie just destroys complainers before they even have the chance to complain 🤣 best football (or soccer!) channel on youtube 👍
I've never seen a stock image where I actually recognize anyone... until 2:14. I know that school. I'm a referee, and I've actually refereed some of their games. Doesn't really mean anything, but it's kinda cool. To me at least. Ok, carry on.
If we take this video/comments section over to Britain with the title The Problem with UK Youth Baseball/Basketball/American Football / Development I bet there would be a lot of similar points and counter points. Hockey has this issue in the US as well but not quite as lagging in some areas of the country and more so in other areas of the USA.
As an American , thank for your video. My daughter and I bothe played in the pay to play model. It’s the anchor that keeps the game from growing. However the new MLS club here in St Louis has said their academy would have no pay to play. I was thrilled to hear this , and is opposite of what is the norm here in the USA
Cardiff City academy charge or used to charge parents to buy the child's kits and equipment- so even though technically the training is free the club are making money from selling the shirts as you can't play without them- a bit of a loop hole
That's why the USA weren't in the 2018 World Cup, although they had talented players like Pulisic
u didnt even watch the whole video while typing this comment why are you saying "that's why"
they bright a future now with reyna, pulisic, dest
Keenan Ilingan 2 out of 3 didn’t come though mls clubs
There is so much untapped grassroot potential in the US for youth development in soccer, but due to financial greed of clubs through the profit motive which worsen the socio-economic barriers that stop poorer families from participating combined with the geographic scale of the county and distribution of clubs make youth development have slim pickings for young talent. Soccer should be demococratised in the US to make everybody feel like they’ve got a stake in the game, rather than a game just for the rich
Americans could produce some of the best talent, people who grow up in America are generally more athletic than a lot of continents, some of the best sports are in America(basketball,American football etc) if they focused their talent into football from young they’d be wonderkids
“Americans are generally more athletic”? I think the word ‘athletic’ is disingenuous to other countries. “America generally invests more into elite level sports” is a more accurate and fair comment
Simon Jones and that results them into being more athletic
J B considering the US has one of the highest rates of morbid obesity in the world I would disagree that Americans are more ‘athletic’. Tell that to Jamaica who has had some great 100 meter sprinters, or Kenya for having some of the worlds best long distance runners. The list could go on. I think you’re being disingenuous
Simon Jones there are more people who are athletic in the us than most other countries in the world. Yes we have a high percent obese, but we also have a high percent athletic. You’re either or here, there is no middle ground. You either go to the gym every day and are a fitness and strength guru or you are morbidly obese. But I would say that a higher percentage of people in the us attend the gym regularly or are at least very fit or muscular than most other developed countries.
I think the major problem is that in the hierarchy of sports in America, soccer is maybe the fourth or fifth in terms of popularity. the way the video described the sport in other countries as a way to escape poverty is what basketball does in the US. of course the problems mentioned in this video are also prevalent, but not enough people care. it's tough to compare soccer in america with football worldwide, because it's not nearly as popular or important here.
The biggest problem in the U.S. is football (soccer) is behind football, baseball, basketball and hockey in popularity meaning a huge disparity in funds compared to Europe. Kids from lower income areas flock to football and basketball especially and that's where a lot of the top talent ends up applying their athleticism. So most of the physically gifted young athletes in these areas rarely ever play organized soccer. And then pro players in the top 3 sports here can make as much or more many here than pro footballers in Europe and play in the top world league.
As an American soccer TH-camr this video was accurate!
Tbh I wasn’t a bad player but this is exactly what happened to me.
I didn’t get picked up and wasn’t rich enough to play for a big name team,
Then I had to work and did that instead...
Hopefully things get better here in the states, there is a Barca academy here where I live . I think it works like an actual academy which is a step forward
In Europe they actually pay kids to play but in USA they want you to pay like 1k for one season
I am American. You did a good job explaining the biggest problem with American soccer: that it is pay-to-play and too focused on being top-down. Like everything else in America, money is a big and corrupting issue, which is why we can't have nice things.
Thanks for this! I’m an American and you are right on with the cost of club/travel teams. I’m wondering if European clubs will start investing in overseas academies to take advantage of the short comings in US youth soccer. I think it would be the ultimate embarrassment to see talented low income kids overlooked due to lack of funds become stars for Euro teams who care about skill in lieu of immediate cash. We get excited with Pulisic and Reyna, but they spent time in Europe’s youth academies due to their high profile soccer connections. Most Americans won’t have that advantage, especially the low income kids.
Thanks for your videos. Your research and delivery on all of your topics is first class!
I know it's a bit late of a response but here in San Diego (yew new MLS team to celebrate) we had FC Barcelona's development program introduced here about 5 years ago. I know they do it in other spots. Obviously our country is huge, so it will likely be in hot spots vs all around the country and that is still a problem for someone who grows up in, let's say, New Mexico or Idaho..
0:25 That is the problem.They will never improve unless they start calling it football.
Thats the least of our worries.