Mystery Train
GOLD
There is so much about this article I love, but mostly I love him taking a blow-torch to the mentality of US youth soccer clubs:
"I’ll never forget a club coach telling me, when I was maybe 14 years old, that I would never make it as a pro because I was “too small.” But this is the mentality that is so toxic across the board in youth soccer in America. It’s not about proving yourself every day. It’s about what you did last year. It’s about who you know. It’s about your size. It’s about your reputation. It’s about what fancy youth club you play for. If you want to see what’s wrong with U.S. Soccer in a single image, just go out to one of these fancy suburbs some weekend and spot the coaches of the fancy club teams strutting on the sidelines. Half of them are carrying themselves like they’re Pep Guardiola. I mean, the arrogance. It’s unbelievable."
--Geoff Cameron
Damn.
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/geoff-cameron-what-must-change-in-u-s-soccer/
"I’ll never forget a club coach telling me, when I was maybe 14 years old, that I would never make it as a pro because I was “too small.” But this is the mentality that is so toxic across the board in youth soccer in America. It’s not about proving yourself every day. It’s about what you did last year. It’s about who you know. It’s about your size. It’s about your reputation. It’s about what fancy youth club you play for. If you want to see what’s wrong with U.S. Soccer in a single image, just go out to one of these fancy suburbs some weekend and spot the coaches of the fancy club teams strutting on the sidelines. Half of them are carrying themselves like they’re Pep Guardiola. I mean, the arrogance. It’s unbelievable."
--Geoff Cameron
Damn.
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/geoff-cameron-what-must-change-in-u-s-soccer/