Numbers aren't the problem. For the 2024-25 season, MLS NEXT comprises 151 clubs across the United States and Canada. This includes 29 MLS academies and 122 Elite Academies, totaling 753 teams and over 16,000 players.
The difference is many of those MLS players are paying to be on those team. My son plays MLS next and on many team there are multiple players that lack the high level skills to be playing there. They have zero chance or the athletic ability to be world class. The cost to play MLS NEXT is prohibitive.
The demographics of England has changed contributing to a change in Team demographics.
But you are not going to produce thousands of world class players, so you identify the best players, i.e. the ones that look like they may have a shot, scholarship them and let everyone else pay by fooling them into thinking their kid has a shot. Realistically, you are looking at less than 2% who might have a shot out of the 16000 - so a few hundred, with the rest being fillers with money.
That's still not enough of a talent pool. England has 90 fully funded professional team academies. Many if them residential.
The 90 kind of misrepresents though, realistically its half that. The MLS has 29 academies. Keep in mind also that a lot of this was purposely revamped in the last 15 years, plus many of these clubs are funding this through player development, i.e. its part of their business plan.
Add to that the multi sport culture we have. Majority of our soccer players are seasonal
check out a high end 7 on 7 football tournament. There’s definitely an athlete drain.
I’m not talking general flag football, I’m talking high end 7 on 7. Ie premium sports, California power, Florida express
My nephew plays te for a top 20 school. It’s very different than the soccer process. He used to be in a very high skilled sport and walked onto football in high school purely based on body type. He just got a big 10 offer despite having very little footage and having played very few minutes for his top 20 school sitting behind seniors (though he did shift to varsity as a sophomore and skipped the frosh team altogether). He does 7v 7 but no one takes the practice schedule as seriously as soccer (it’s a once a weekend thing). Very little by way of skills training. The training mostly comes in diet and straight up exercise for which he puts my soccer player to shame.
Congratulations to your nephew! Is he class of 2028? Top 20 in state or national? I’m a big cfb fan
Nationally its even more dramatic:
Hard disagree. You can repeat yourself until the cows come home - it still doesn't change the fact that it's missing the point. There are plenty of oft-repeated problems with US soccer - but not having the best athletes even choose to be in the pool in the first place from the earliest ages is always going to be a big one when talking about national (and other top 0.1% teams).
Found this interesting video. Soccer is the national past time of Brazil. There's no other sports distraction there (at least any more than basketball or skiing is in Europe). They are also the second most populous country in the Americas so clearly no issue there with the player pool size. Yet, Brazil seems to be struggling to find its former success. So what changed?
