A Key to Winning the World Cup
September 8, 2006
What do AC Milan, AJAX, Bayern Munich, Boca Juniors, Chelsea, Chivas, Club America, Manchester United, Sporting Lisbon, Real Madrid, West Ham United & The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) have in common? First things first, everyone knows these clubs as the best in the world and the winningest clubs or Federation. Some are considered the richest - some the poorest.
What they all have in common is the strong focus and tradition of cultivating youth talent. After studying these clubs you will find that these clubs have produced some of most talented and prestigious players on the planet today. Most notably, the CBF has a crop of 400 professional clubs in Brazil. No wonder the best players in the world come out of this country - there is so much competition, opportunity and passion for the game its unbelievable.
It’s also no wonder why the Premiership is consider the most prestigious league in the world, you guessed it, all Premier League teams have youth academies. A player must be at least nine years of age to join an academy however; many clubs are fostering talent before nine years such as Arsenal, Ajax all of Brazil, etc.
Here is an interesting note, Chivas USA appears to be leading the MLS’ most expansive effort to develop its local youth. FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake seem to be scratching the surface where as DC United is the proclaimed and proven leader in youth development in MLS. Isn’t DC the winningest franchise in MLS? Correct, although early on and as seen over the development of the league the upper east and lower west costs are talented hotbeds for youth soccer, which correlates to San Jose and L.A. taking two titles each and DC one over the past five years. So, it unequivocally appears to me that again much more skilled and professional development needs to take place in the grassroots.
Fortunately, the US is a young soccer nation and we have a bright future ahead of us. The NSCAA is doing a great job of educating and training talented coaches, which more and more coming into the coaching realm have played on competitive levels. Although compared to the rest of the world, by comparison, such levels I speak of are collegiate play and American Tier II professional experience with a minute few possessing MLS experience.
With general player coach attrition in mind, it would seem that at the rate we are going we might be a decade or so away from having a realistic chance to challenge for the grand daddy prize of them all. Unless, there is an acceleration plan that MLS is not telling us about? Better yet, how could the existing futbol community contribute to the acceleration of youth development? I strongly believe youth development with highly skilled professionals is the key and US Soccer needs more germination and competition, as this breads more and more top talent, which I am calling Project 4,000.
Before I close…coming off the holiday I wanted to share this which you may have seen but, this video provides another key ingredient to what we need more of as a soccer nation - passion.
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