This reminds me of when I was watching the American Music Awards. I heard from my kids while watching that Drake was on one of those kids shows, so his exposure to the scene and his current popularity is not as much of a surprise. Meaning, he didn't emerge out of nowhere. There is a similarity to academy. A player can come out of nowhere, maybe AYSO or flight 3, but it may be more difficult. The game is happening faster. Decisions have to be made at a much more rapid pace. It's harder for a player coming from a slower paced game to play at that pace, as was said in an earlier post, the intensity may not be baked into the player at a young age and so there is more to get used to, especially in a tryout, which can be stressful for the kids if academy is their dream (or their parents dream). It took my son a year, and he was kind of an outlier on the team - same or maybe more speed and similar skills, but not confident, not bold, not fearless, basically the smallest. He'd rather not step initially and chase the ball later. He won't last with that mentality, but I think the coaches understand that everyone has to develop. My son played flight 1 right away, then dropped to a lower flight, then made an academy club and is angling to play academy next year if he can make it. This is all before age 10, so yeah he was young, but he was always the one with skill and a soft touch, maybe too soft, but we'll see, but not the biggest, not a goal scorer, none of those things you think of when you think of academy.
Think of job you go to every day. Not everyone is a superstar. There are many role players, but role players who are looking for an opportunity to step up, but companies need role players, that is the bulk of the workforce really. Most of the academy team shouldn't be role players, they should be more than that if they're going to be really good like some teams are, but you need players who show up, who understand the game, who will chase the ball under all circumstances, as much as you need the superstars who don't always come to training or who are too young to pass when they should but too good to be left on the bench for too long.