The U.S. is an athletic superpower. Ever since the Cold War, our country’s effort to dominate global sports has been extremely successful. We boast the most Olympic medals, and the world’s best basketball, baseball and football leagues.
Yet in soccer, the world’s most popular pastime, we never cease to embarrass ourselves.
The MLS continually fails to attract or develop very talented players and our men’s national team has never made it past the World Cup quarter finals.
This isn’t to say we haven’t seen success. Our women’s national team have claimed an incredibly impressive four World Cup titles in the last 35 years.
But why do our male players continually lag behind their European counterparts?
Soccer obviously isn’t quite as popular as other sports in the U.S. such as football or basketball. The sport also has a disjoined history, no American league has existed for more than 50 years. For reference La Liga, the Spanish soccer league, was founded in 1929.
However, the main reason for this gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world lies in our youth development process.
Any American soccer player started their journey to the pros when they were about five years old, playing peewee soccer.
Overland Park Soccer Club — one of the biggest clubs in Johnson county — only offers three years of non-competitive soccer, Pre-K through 2nd Grade.
After second grade, families are forced to either discontinue their soccer careers, search for a new club or begin paying OP $1,700 a year.
Our system is extremely flawed.
First of all, third grade is far too young for children to begin playing competitively. This should be utilized as a period to develop a love and enjoyment of the sport, not to worry about winning games.
Our children’s lives forcefully begin revolving around soccer and many of them quickly burn out due to the ever-present competition.
I personally experienced this exact problem. In fourth grade, I finally joined a competitive soccer team and I was ecstatic. Yet within the first few months of play, I began to dread each game. I did not want to go for fear of losing or getting replaced as a starter. I totally lost interest — soccer was no longer fun.
The second big problem is the fact that it costs families $2,000 for their children to kick a soccer ball. We are ultimately excluding an entire demographic of athletes from development. The children who are athletically gifted but cannot afford to join a club team will move on to a different sport. It’s as simple as that
The difference? In Europe soccer is FREE to play.
Their business model is the complete opposite from ours. Rather than demanding money upfront and turning a profit that way, professional teams choose to invest their own money in talented children with the hope of cultivating a superstar.
If a star is born, the club can choose to keep this player to drive internal success or sell them on the global market for millions.
The key to their success is quite simple. European clubs put much more effort into developing every player because their product is literally the player, not a service they’re selling.
Furthermore during youth development trainers put a strong emphasis on growing a love for the game rather than inducing competition.
Ronald de Jong, a trainer for the Dutch club Ajax said that when training younger players he is never looking for the result of practices or games. Rather he is paying attention to which players are running on their toes, showing creativity with the ball, and truly enjoying the game.
In the last 50 years the club Ajax has made around €250 million from the sales of ten players out of the hundreds that they have developed into pros.
Despite all our faults the U.S. seems to be making steps towards progress, with a decent finish in the last World Cup and a globally competitive U19 national team.
However, the first step to truly making a difference is eliminating the cost barrier. If this could be accomplished, the door would be opened to an entire new demographic of players poised to make a difference in the MLS and the world. Not only that but it would encourage coaches and trainers to prioritize the development of players rather than simply looking for immediate profits.
Although the U.S. will likely never love the game of soccer as much as Europeans, we can attempt to emulate what these countries are doing correctly in order to succeed.