Karlton Athletic
SILVER
13, almost 14. If we did it, the whole family wouldn't go though... I can work remote and have friends there who might be able to hook me up with accommodation, so we can keep the cost down on that side.
La Liga Select Scouts
- Thread starter Karlton Athletic
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Well, if you know it's a money grab but want the experience for your kid because you can swing it, I'd consider it. I had the chance to go play in England with a travel team when I was 16 and my parents wouldn't do it. Even when we planned to have fundraisers, etc. $1,500 at the time.
Don't think I ever forgot that... because they had the means. I might not have appreciated it back then but... I haven't ever forgotten it.
Karlton Athletic
SILVER
I played a tournament in the Italian Alps (grew up in UK). It was an amazing experience.
RedCard
GOLD
Not sure what the price was since my wife took care of that (which scares me a bit...) but that's why we didn't go with our son...that would be way too much money for us. But great experience for him for sure. Glad we did it.$3195 per player + flight = roughly $4000 for the player
$1149 per family member + flight = $2000 -> x3 if family of 4 = $6000 for 3 family members -> add hotel $200/night x 9 nights = $1800ish
So $12,000 ish for a family of 4 plus food?
so padding a little extra, total out the door price of $15,000 or so for a family of 4 sound about right?
I think the player fee is whatever. They're getting a real cool experience. Boarding and food included.
But I think the expensive part is the family cost... Access to training sessions + tickets to stuff ain't worth $1000...
That said, I won't call anything a money grab... cause it all depends on a family's wants and desires and financial priority... it's a cool ass trip...
If you can afford it, why not go and consider it as a really nice vacation...
(and if you find out where you can sell a kidney to finance this, let me know.. I might need that number too!
Had to find this thread... my kid got "scouted" at the Socal Cup this weekend. I gave them my contact info, and supposedly they are going to send me info on the program, but seemed like the guy there was going around, picking out a few kids from every team, and collecting into for the "exclusive" offer (to pay money and go train in Spain).
Here's the thing, though: my kid isn't even on the top level team for his club (ie: implicitly, there are ~20 kids in the same club who are all better than he is, not even counting all the other higher level teams). I seriously doubt their scout is seeing something that all the other coached are not, when looking at the second tier teams. It seems like maybe they are just picking kids who are more physical and unafraid, rather than those that have more actual skill (my guess), and just picking a few from each team there.
Still, I don't mean to poop on the program or anything; I'm sure it's a cool opportunity if your kid is into it and you can afford it. There's little chance that we will do it (at this rate, my son may not even be playing soccer next year, since he keeps getting passed by for moving up within his club), but I'm sure it'll be a cool experience for some of the kids. Just needed to post here, cause he got solicited for this program, and I remembered the thread.
TheMountie
BRONZE
I wouldn’t be surprised if the person "selecting" kids is receiving a commission for every child they convince to pay $3,500 or more.
As mentioned multiple times in this thread, if a professional club is genuinely interested in your child, they would offer a trial with their academy, and you wouldn't be expected to cover travel or accommodation costs. Many of these programs, like La Liga Select, aren't even officially affiliated with La Liga. They simply pay a premium to use the league/club's name/license. These programs are essentially the same as Liverpool International, Manchester City Soccer Academy USA, and Barcelona or Real Madrid summer camps. They often target uninformed parents. I nearly fell for it myself when Galaxy Orange County came to town 4 years ago. It would be helpful if they were more transparent about the fact that these are "experiences," not legitimate scouting opportunities.
Even if I had $4,000 to spare, I’d rather spend it on a two-week family vacation at a resort.
As mentioned multiple times in this thread, if a professional club is genuinely interested in your child, they would offer a trial with their academy, and you wouldn't be expected to cover travel or accommodation costs. Many of these programs, like La Liga Select, aren't even officially affiliated with La Liga. They simply pay a premium to use the league/club's name/license. These programs are essentially the same as Liverpool International, Manchester City Soccer Academy USA, and Barcelona or Real Madrid summer camps. They often target uninformed parents. I nearly fell for it myself when Galaxy Orange County came to town 4 years ago. It would be helpful if they were more transparent about the fact that these are "experiences," not legitimate scouting opportunities.
Even if I had $4,000 to spare, I’d rather spend it on a two-week family vacation at a resort.
Agree with everything, except that I think it is officially affiliated in some way (or at least that's what the site claims). Apparently they select something around the top 1% of the paying kids to go back and do an actually free training program, so it's not entirely a money grab, just mostly.
As others have said, depending on the family's specific financial situation, it could be a reasonable value. For example, I talked to another parent who's kid was "scouted" (there were two from my son's team, and a couple others within the club), and he was saying it might be cool, as an experience for his kid. I know a couple other parents on the team who sent their kids to similar programs last year (just pay-to-go European academy training programs). I think for people for whom $10k is a trivial amount of money, it might be a desirable opportunity (and conversely, the program is almost certainly looking for kids from those types of families).
There's almost no chance we will do it (as noted); $10k is not a trivial amount of money to me. But I'm not going to begrudge the people for whom it's viable and reasonable either.
Buddy of mines G2010 kid is going next month to Spain for La Liga academy. All travel paid for her and her mom by the scout. This was at one of those McDonald’s camps that was affiliated with La Liga. She was the top performer at the free clinic / ID camp.
