dfbmike
BRONZE
in Europe and South America, it isn't about gaming circuits, rankings, or winning until you've hooked onto a pro club. The youth clubs develop players to feed them to semi-pro and pro clubs. So their focus is on producing amazing individual players who are a commodity. We focus on building teams.
You are thinking about academy clubs, which are the minority in Europe. The majority of clubs are actually located in cities and townships where most of the players play on the same team for many, many years together and know each other well, go to school together etc etc. The scouting is different and that is how the good players get discovered and moved to academy or if you think you got what it takes you go try out yourself, but generally speaking players will play for their city or district club. In addition gaming circuits, or leagues with promotion and relegation, are a huge part of european soccer...tournaments, not so much.