MLS is working on a plan to bring along young players

[AreliusIV]

By Dylan Hernandez
Mercury News

Four players who took part in the 1999 under-17 world championships will represent the United States at the 2006 World Cup -- Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley, Bobby Convey and Oguchi Onyewu. No other team in Germany will feature as many players who were at that youth tournament seven years ago.

It is a testament to the United States' ability to develop talent. But the deputy commissioner of Major League Soccer also sees this as a testament to the depth of other countries' rosters.

``When few players from the U-17 team make the senior squad, it's a healthy dynamic,'' Ivan Gazidis said. ``That means there is a massive amount of competition.''

Gazidis' hope is that MLS can help replicate that kind of environment in the United States. His solution: a youth division.

``I'm hopeful that in the next year or two, all teams will have youth teams,'' said Gazidis.

Details are still being ironed out, but Gazidis envisions a system similar to that in Europe, where each club has teams for various age levels. Top local players would receive professional coaching and, in some instances, train with the senior team.

Gazidis calls the project the second phase in the league's effort to improve player development; the first was the addition of a reserve league, in 2005.

Phase One, which allowed teams to sign more players and offered weekend games for reserves, has been responsible for the emergence of Chris Rolfe. A third-round pick by the Chicago Fire out of the University of Dayton, Rolfe was the kind of player who ordinarily would have been cut in training camp. But he nabbed one of the team's developmental slots, and by the end of the 2005 season was one of the top attacking talents in the country. Rolfe is an alternate on the U.S. World Cup team.

Phase Two would, in theory, continue to keep players from slipping through the cracks.

At the moment, MLS's involvement with soccer at the youth level is minimal. Each year the league signs about 10 players who have college eligibility remaining to contracts that set aside money for school. The most-prized signings are often teenagers out of U.S. Soccer's U-17 year-round residency program in Florida.

Gazidis said he regrets that MLS now can devote resources only to developing top players like Beasley and Convey.

``Instead of being a rifle that selects six, seven or eight players a year, maybe we can take more a shotgun approach and have another 40 or 50 across the country,'' Gazidis said.

MLS must still determine how teams would be rewarded for developing players. The problem came to the forefront this winter, when the New York/New Jersey MetroStars (since renamed the Red Bulls) thought of signing Johnny Exantus, 16.

Exantus spent considerable time in the MetroStars' youth system -- they were one of the few MLS teams with one -- but could not move directly to their roster. Under league rules, Exantus would have had to sign a contract with the league, giving all 12 teams the chance to enter a lottery to win his rights.

Gazidis said the league intends to create a system that is more inclusive. The foundation of the present system is youth clubs that charge thousands of dollars in registration and travel fees -- limiting the player pool, for the most part, to the middle and upper classes. These clubs feed players into the Olympic Development Program, which, in turn, pumps players to colleges and youth national teams.

``To participate in the current structure requires a certain amount of money that every player doesn't have,'' Gazidis said. ``We want to expand our reach into the inner city, to reach the kids who don't have that opportunity.''

[dysko]

I know that Uncle Dave has spoken about doing a youth program here on more than one occasion. The first of which was when he announced the team.

I think this would be great...

[prk166]

I'm hoping all of the MLS moves this way. It'd be nice to see RSL have a couple smaller teams in the region to work with for developing "older players" (14-22).

[AreliusIV]

Here's the Washington Post with a video story on where the USA is at, where we need to go, and how to get there.

[prk166]

The Washington Post is so wise. 🙂