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It’s gon take a big pay raise to keep Martinez tho ...luckily it looks like Blank ain’t stingy with the check book so far
⚽ OFFICIAL 2019 Major League Soccer Thread
- Thread in 'Sports & Training' Thread starter Started by Coromanti,
- Start date
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Premiership most likely. I don't think he'd enjoy being back in continental europe.
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I was thinkin France cuz it seems like scoring goals is easier there ...but we can all agree that him staying in the MLS for as long as possible is best...his national team is Venezuela so they can’t be picky bout leagues right now
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Lee Nguyen, I see you
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if DC can beat the Red Bulls this weekend...Ahh man listen. The city will be on fire with talks of soccer.
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Nah. Wayne Fatso being around not changing the L you bout to take.
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We start the season losing 3 straight. Go on a 15 game streak. Then back to a 3 game losing streak. Oh the rollercoaster ride. I just hope we gut the fish this weekend. Rctid!
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Rivalry matches have been pretty entertaining this week. Portland/Seattle are level right now, but I feel Portland has been creating way more pressure.
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Good gracious, Sounders’ form right now 
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The West is a much more competitive conference. There are serious disparities in quality in the east.
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Who else watching Atlanta vs DC 
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oh **** off
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Ol man Lorenoowiwitiz we byke in it
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Welp DC got us tonight. killed us on the counter
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^^^
Wow, DC really on some kind of wave right now, I didn’t see this result coming against class like ATL.
Wow, DC really on some kind of wave right now, I didn’t see this result coming against class like ATL.
Bosa
formerly hhaze
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was going to go to the game but had a indoor soccer game today.. dc united pull that win tho woo
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ATL choked. Supporters shield is ours.
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https://theathletic.com/516093/2018/09/11/parchman-ranking-all-23-mls-academies/
Parchman: Ranking all 23 MLS academies
By Will Parchman 1h ago
12
When it comes to MLS, I’m consistently asked one question more than any other. It’s a simple query with an unimaginably complex answer.
How are MLS academies doing?
The simple answer is that the professional youth development scene is getting better. There are some clear leaders in this space and they’re doing lots of things right. However, on the whole, MLS academies still aren’t doing well enough.
But each academy is different, and so to investigate this question more thoroughly, I set out to rank every MLS franchise’s academy as it stands today, from one through 23.
I considered five factors to arrive at this list: coaching, overall talent, track record, matriculation, and investment. These are the five most important ingredients in the academy stew. You need exceptional coaching, the ability to identify talent at a young age, the ability to grow that talent into next-level players, and a track record of doing it over time. The best academies, wherever they are in the world, excel at each of these five pillars. And the fifth, investment, is more of an institutional concern but no less important than the first four.
I’ve also compiled who I consider to be the most exciting prospect for each club, based on two criteria: they aren’t currently established first-team regulars, and they’re no older than 18 as of publication.
So here we are. Keep in mind that this is mostly a work of educated opinion. There is no such thing as a definitive ranking in anything, and this is not an exception. But after spending thousands of hours with my head in the business of MLS academies, and speaking with academy officials from clubs across MLS, South America and Europe over the years, I feel qualified to put this on a platter for your consumption.
As far as broad conclusions, I think it’s fair to draw one extremely broad one. About a third of the league’s teams currently oversee academies so misused that they might as well not even exist. There are some extremely worthy success stories you’re about to read through, and those deserve their due. But it is a shame that more teams haven’t followed their lead, either through willful decisions or ignorant malpractice. The good news is that there is no magic formula. They can turn the ship around tomorrow if they so choose. But they have to choose.
Here is the list.
23. Minnesota United
Why they’re here: After some rocky early days, Minnesota United’s academy is finally, blessedly, lurching to life. Why it’s taking as long as it has in such a fast-paced game is the mystery. As we’ll soon see with Atlanta United, its status as a nascent club can’t be a real excuse. Atlanta United entered the league at the same time and currently has five Homegrown players on its roster. Minnesota United still isn’t fielding U-17 or U-19 teams this season.
There are some good signs. Academy director Tim Carter is a well-respected name in Minnesota after presiding over Shattuck St. Mary’s academy, a non-MLS Development Academy club with a quality residency program. But why does speed matter in cranking up an academy? Danny Luis Flores, Shattuck’s shining academy star and a U-17 U.S. youth international, chose the Philadelphia Union academy in August in part because he literally wouldn’t have had a place to play with Minnesota United, just an hour up the road. Carter and Minnesota United appear to be playing the long game, slowly rolling out an age division or so at a time. It’s worked so far for NYCFC, so we’ll have to wait and see if Minnesota United’s lesser resources can mirror that model.
Top prospect: Fred Emmings (goalkeeper, 14)
One of the early success stories of Minnesota United’s academy, Emmings got a call-up to the U-15 U.S. national team in January. Emmings, a U-14 player with Minnesota United, is already 6-foot-4, 212 pounds.
22. Los Angeles FC
Why they’re here: It’s tough to appropriately rank LAFC, since the club’s first team is less than a year old and they’re still rolling out their academy structure. So this low ranking is more an indication of the club’s incompleteness than it is an indictment of their current level, although they do get some of the same demerits Minnesota United did. LAFC has been exceedingly cautious with its academy, and the maddening part is that it wasn’t necessary. Their now infamous decision to spurn the well-stocked Chivas USA academy in 2016 to start with a blank slate was unimaginably silly. Instead, those players and coaches largely went to the L.A. Galaxy.
So LAFC has been content to build slowly and from the ground up. They started with U-12, U-13, and U-14 sides in their first season (2017-1
, and they added a U-15 team for 2018-19. The good news is that the early returns have been promising. By all accounts, LAFC academy director Todd Saldana has gone about building the academy the right way, and the club’s players are already receiving a steady stream of national team call-ups. Much like NYCFC a year ago, LAFC’s early academy success is a sure sign they’ll move up this list at speed once they have more than three teams in the academy. And Los Angeles will yield plenty of academy fruit in the meantime. But until then, we watch and wait.
Top prospect: Antonio Leone (defender, 14)
LAFC’s prospects are all exceedingly young, but Leone might be the best of the group. A ball-playing central defender, he’s already captained a USYNT side.
21. Houston Dynamo
Why they’re here: There’s plenty of criticism to go around when it comes to the Dynamo’s youth production line, which is more or less a broken conveyor belt that almost never runs. But let’s start with the good news. The club basically hit the reset button in July by hiring Paul Holocher to head up its academy. Holocher most recently oversaw the impressive transformation of San Jose’s academy, and he’ll have an equal if not more immense task on his hands in Houston.
Now for the bad. The academy was in such poor shape as recently as 2017 that a local, non-MLS Development Academy side, Texans SC Houston, was able to go 6-0-0 in the U-19 playoffs and actually win the DA national title over the L.A. Galaxy. There’s so much coaching and player talent in Houston that an unheralded club unseated the league’s blue bloods, all while the Dynamo U-19 team didn’t even make the playoffs. To make things worse, Christian Cappis, the best player from that Texans team and a U.S. youth international, joined the FC Dallas academy for the next season. Holocher has a lot of work ahead, but he’s sitting on a talent gold mine in Houston. The Dynamo just need to do everything differently. No pressure.
Top prospect: Marcelo Palomino (midfielder, 17)
Scoring 17 goals in 25 U-19 games as a No. 10 is a good tally for anyone; it’s great if you’re playing up in age like Palomino was in 2017-18.
https://twitter.com/victoraraiza/status/997669337900167168
Victor Araiza@victoraraiza
20. New England Revolution
The Revolution bought themselves a significant amount of academy street cred with the Homegrown signings of Diego Fagundez (2011) and Scott Caldwell (2013), and they’ve squandered most of it over the last five years. They hit a low ebb in 2017 by suspending Justin Rennicks, maybe the best forward prospect they’ve ever produced, for violating team rules by going on a training stint at Frankfurt without permission. By sticking to their own rules, the Revolution might have alienated one of their best prospects. (Rennicks is now playing NCAA soccer at Indiana.)
In terms of overall academy talent level, the Revs are easily in the bottom quarter of the league. The Revolution are a cost-conscious club, and even they couldn’t manage to justify more than the one Homegrown contract they’ve signed in the last three years. That belongs to Isaac Angking, who signed in 2018 as a single rose in an extremely poorly maintained garden. The cupboard isn’t entirely bare, but it is close. And that’s a problem the club will have to look to solve in the coming years.
Top prospect: Isaac Angking (midfielder, 1
The Revolution have a real opportunity with Angking, the team’s most promising academy player since Diego Fagundez. The central midfielder should get first-team minutes pronto.
https://twitter.com/IsaacAngking
19. Portland Timbers
Why they’re here: It’s a bizarre thing, how bad the Timbers’ academy has been. They have one of the worst development track records in the league, and even more bizarrely, a cursory glance over their academy roster reveals some promising pieces. Since joining from South Florida in 2016, forward Luca Cini has 43 goals in 58 games. Midfielder Carlos Anguiano has been a tremendous influence in the middle. Central defender Kyle Gruno spent time in Leicester City’s development apparatus. Things appear to be improving somewhat under academy director Larry Sunderland, who took over in 2015. But development doesn’t magically stop at 18, and the Timbers have been woeful at preparing players for professional chances and then giving them those chances.
This may be why they lost Akil Watts. An Indiana native, Watts joined the Timbers academy after leaving the U.S. U-17 residency in 2017. He spent a little more than a year there before being snapped up by Spanish club Mallorca in the summer of 2018. Watts might have always been planning to leave, but the Timbers’ record of failing to promote their academy players would certainly not have given him reason for optimism had he been thinking of staying. And so the best player in the Timbers’ academy waltzed out of Portland for free, and the team lost an excellent opportunity to begin turning that reputation around.
Top prospect: Adrian Villegas (midfielder, 1
The small, nimble midfielder’s been a known quantity for a while now, but is he withering on the vine?
18. Columbus Crew
Why they’re here: One has to feel for the Crew’s academy operators. The club is stuck in a state of limbo as forces beyond their control struggle to move the club to Austin. In the meantime, the Crew’s academy is trying to keep some semblance of control, and it’s doing reasonably well, all things considered. The Crew’s U-19 team made the national semifinals in 2018 behind some genuinely good soccer. But the signs of strain were there even before the club’s current struggles. The Crew have long let their academy kids germinate in college instead of signing them directly out of the academy.
To date, the Crew don’t have a single massive youth prospect in the pipeline, and certainly nothing to the degree of a Wil Trapp, whose signing as a Homegrown in 2013 feels like eons ago. They do have some quality, and the fact that both the U-17 and U-19 sides made the playoffs in 2018 suggests that the current academy staff is doing about as well as can be expected under the circumstances. One to watch is Sebastian Berhalter, the son of first team coach Gregg. He has promise for days.
Top prospect: Colin Biros (forward, 17)
Since the start of the 2015 academy season, Biros has 33 goals in the black and yellow. He’s a lethal scorer and the most exciting player in the Crew’s youth coffers today.
17. Orlando City
Why they’re here: Something about Orlando City’s academy feels stuck in neutral. It isn’t a bad academy, per se, but it also isn’t producing players for the first team, either; the only two Homegrown players on the roster were developed by Real Salt Lake and the Chicago Fire. In terms of timeline, Orlando City is working behind most of the rest of the league, but it’s still a bit disappointing that they haven’t done more than their current output.
And there’s worse news on the horizon. With David Beckham’s Inter Miami firing up in the next couple of years, Orlando City will no longer be the only MLS academy destination in the state. Orlando City has already struggled to pull players out of the non-MLS Development Academy clubs in South Florida, but it’ll be doubly hard once a Beckham-backed MLS club opens shop in their backyard. Much like the situation the Galaxy faced with LAFC coming online, Orlando City can’t afford to drag its feet. Become a true destination for academy kids or get left behind.
Top prospect: A.J. Seals (midfielder, 1
Seals has a chance to be the club’s first true Homegrown breakthrough after signing with Orlando City B this summer. The creative midfielder is a promising technician.
16. Colorado Rapids
Why they’re here: The Rapids seem to be in a phase of transition on the academy level, and in a good way. The lights over the pathway from the academy to the first team basically flickered off after Dillon Serna signed in 2013. It would be another four and a half years before they signed another Homegrown player. But since then, they’ve signed three in the last 12 months, a promising sign that the Rapids academy has more sway (and is doing better at talent identification) than it did a short time ago.
Colorado’s most obvious measure of improvement is in the eye test. The Rapids have never been known as a spritely, attacking academy before, but those days are gone. The Rapids, all the way down to the young U-12s, seem imbued by an attacking license that hasn’t been there before. That’s a credit to the vision of academy director Brian Crookham, whose project is coming to fruition. The Rapids still don’t seem to have nearly as much ownership backing in the academy as other clubs, and they’re still making up ground for what amounted to a three-year dark period. But the Rapids are improving, and in another year or two I’d expect to see them higher up this list.
Top prospect: Matthew Hundley (midfielder, 1
In his last season in the DA before sprinting off to UCLA, Hundley scored 22 goals in 24 games for the Rapids U-19s. That the dynamic wide man escaped to college without a contract is a bit disappointing.
15. D.C. United
Why they’re here: A part of me hates rating D.C. United even this high. They remain, stubbornly, maddeningly, the only MLS club that has yet to lower the gate and make its academy entirely free for everyone. I consider that an almost unforgivable sin, and it rockets the club down this list. And to be sure, D.C. United has no business being this low. D.C. is an unbelievable hotbed of talent, and even if the club didn’t really develop them early, Andy Najar and Bill Hamid are both incredible finds. But the development haul since then has been meager, and there’s always that damn fee.
But there’s also Ian Harkes, and Chris Durkin—possibly the finest defensive midfielder prospect in the entire USMNT pipeline. And that’s worth something, considering so few clubs have produced a player even approaching Durkin’s ability. There’s more than just Durkin here, and D.C. United’s academy is in better shape than many in MLS—including a few academies I’ve ranked above them on this very list. But to force even some players to pay for your academy (barring a scholarship) in an age when literally zero other MLS clubs do the same is a frankly shameful and indefensible practice.
Top prospect: Moses Nyeman (midfielder, 15)
I don’t say this lightly: Nyeman might not be the best player in the Development Academy, but he’s my favorite. A diminutive creator with vision for days? Nyeman is going to be special, young as he is.
14. Chicago Fire
The Fire tend to have broad, institutional struggles and yet still manage to produce legitimate pro prospects by just about any team’s measure. Chicago’s history of promoting Homegrowns to the first team is severely lacking, and yet the academy continues to give the first team options. But one of two things usually happens: the player either doesn’t like the landscape and leaves (Cameron Lindley) or they sign and end up ignored or misused (Victor Pineda). And yet the academy, amidst it all, somehow keeps making more Lindleys and more Pinedas.
The Fire don’t have a bad academy in terms of talent, but no academy player has any reasonable expectation they’ll be able to continue their careers on the first team. And that has a knock-on effect for who decides to join and stick around. Despite at times threadbare first team XIs, players like Djordje Mihailovic haven’t exactly been fast-tracked, and the first-team struggles have clearly influenced the overall level of the academy. The Fire will continue to produce individual quality, but whether anything happens with that individual quality is the broader, unanswered question.
Top prospect: Damian Las (goalkeeper, 16)
The Fire might well have the best goalkeeper prospect in the entire academy system. Las is a USYNT staple and has next-level reflexes. You’ll hear his name plenty in the coming years.
13. San Jose Earthquakes
Why they’re here: They might only be No. 13, but the Earthquakes are one of the fastest-rising academies in the country. Just a few years ago, San Jose was drifting laggardly in the back of the pack. Today, thanks in part to more investment and the work of Paul Holocher’s staff, San Jose’s academy is in much better shape and improving all the time. For the most part, San Jose’s academy teams play front-to-back soccer and produce players capable of doing the same on the next level.
The question now is whether San Jose can keep its torrid academy pace without Holocher. Whoever replaces him has a quality academy setup at their disposal, but they’ll have to continue battling the headwinds created by a historically disinterested ownership and a tumultuous first team coaching staff that seems to turn over fairly regularly. The good news is that general manager Jesse Fioranelli has plans for the academy, namely improved facilities and more general investment. It seems the club’s priorities are in the right place, even if their treatment of previous Homegrown players like Tommy Thompson has left much to be desired. Still, things are looking up in Northern California.
Top prospect: Gilbert Fuentes (midfielder, 16)
No player embodies the different atmosphere in the Earthquakes’ academy than Fuentes. The skilled midfielder signed at 15 and has a brilliant mind for the game.
12. Sporting KC
Why they’re here: A selection of at least a few SKC fans might take umbrage at this ranking, and I can hear the familiar strains now. Yes, they have done fine work in bringing the likes of Daniel Salloi, Jaylin Lindsey, and Wan Kuzain through the system. And yes, Gianluca Busio has clearly flowered playing with SKC’s NASCAR-fast U-19 team. But at the moment, SKC is a far better relocator of talent than an originator of it. And that does not get you inside the top 10. Not yet, anyway.
Busio and Lindsey both relocated from North Carolina in their mid-teens, although, to be fair, both have done a lot of developing in KC. And Kuzain had developed so well as a midfield technician at St. Louis Scott Gallagher, the same club that brought up mega-prospect Josh Sargent, that he’d already been on trial in Europe by the time he signed a Homegrown contract for SKC at 19. That said, once the kids have actually arrived, they’ve bloomed, and that’s a credit to the entire staff and in particular academy director Jon Parry, who has a deep, long-established relationship with Peter Vermes. The club also deserves credit for longer-standing development tracks, like defender and USYNT contributor Cameron Duke, which it is only now bringing to fruition.
Top prospect: Gianluca Busio (midfielder, 16)
The floppy-haired creator has few equals in skill set in the current USYNT setup. Busio has a ton of boom-or-bust potential, but if he’s a hit, he’s going to hit hard.
11. NYCFC
Why they’re here: I honestly don’t entirely know what to make of NYCFC’s academy. I don’t think anyone does just yet. NYCFC hasn’t been around long enough to raise up enough of its own kids, but it’s done magnificently well with what it’s been given. New York has a lot of raw talent but it’s been underserved in academy terms, and it now seems that NYCFC is on its way to providing an appropriate foil for the development juggernaut across town.
Even with star midfielder Giovanni Reyna reportedly set to join Borussia Dortmund at the age of 16, the same age Christian Pulisic was when he joined the German club three years ago, NYCFC is absolutely stacked with national team talent. That’s a major reason why the club won the U-19 division of the Development Academy in the summer of 2018. I’m not convinced that Justin Haak isn’t the single best defensive midfielder in the entire Development Academy, and 15-year-old fullback Joe Scally is one of the better wingback prospects in the country. NYCFC is clearly very well run. The next level is a track record of improving kids over a period longer than 18 months—and then playing them.
Top prospect: James Sands (defender/midfielder, 1
Sands, the club’s first Homegrown signing, needs first-team minutes (he made his debut this month—see the video below). He’s a thoroughly modern center back who likes to play with his feet and he’s a bang-up defensive midfielder as well.
10. Montreal Impact
Why they’re here: Few people outside Montreal really understood what was happening with Montreal’s academy scene until the Impact signed Ballou Tabla to a Homegrown contract in 2016. Over the following two seasons, Tabla impressed to such a degree that he earned a contract with Barcelona in 2018. It didn’t quite have the same impact as Alphonso Davies’ transfer to Bayern Munich, but it was and remains a huge deal for any MLS academy. And while Barcelona won’t knock often, Tabla wasn’t exactly a fluke, either.
Montreal’s taken a lot of swings on its academy players, and the Impact have missed on a good number of them. But give them credit for trying. Academy director Philippe Eullaffroy has done above average work with the academy and has an eye for talent. The problem has been in the matriculation. Something continually gets lost between the academy and the pro side, which has rarely emphasized the sort of free-flowing movement its academy coaches often espouse. Still, Montreal is on the right track, and its appearance in the U-19 final four in 2018 is a sign that the talent is there. And it isn’t going away.
Top prospect: Calin Calaidjoglu (midfielder, 17)
For good reason. Calaidjoglu was given the Impact’s No. 10 jersey for the U-19 team’s 2018-19 season. An extremely dangerous creator, you’ll hear his name again before long.
9. Toronto FC
Why they’re here: Vancouver has Alphonso Davies. Montreal has Ballou Tabla. Toronto has… volume. TFC is the richest of the three Canadian clubs, but they’re yet to produce a single marketable star they’ve been able to turn into local buzz and then flip for cash. And yet TFC has gotten more pro minutes from its academy players than either Montreal or Vancouver, and any Canadian youth national team roster will contain more kids from the TFC academy than any other. But its overall academy infrastructure is still catching up to Vancouver’s, and it could desperately use another attacking academy product.
The good news is that, as always, TFC has a ton of options to choose from. It just has to choose. In addition to Akinola, midfield creator Luca Petrasso is a hugely enticing Canadian YNT creative midfielder who can move his side’s chess pieces. TFC has now signed 15 Homegrown players, one of the biggest numbers in the league, but its spending habits have made those starting spots harder to find. Which is fair. But when the form of a huge-money player like Michael Bradley dips appreciably, which it has at times, does coach Greg Vanney ever consider pulling him for a deserving academy grad? Probably not all that often. Which gets at a broader problem the academy cannot solve on its own.
Top prospect: Ayo Akinola (midfielder, 1
An American national teamer playing as a TFC Homegrown, Akinola is worthy of the hype. The question is whether he can get minutes. The electric winger might find it tough in a system that relies on the fullbacks to create the width.
8. Atlanta United
Why they’re here: Before joining MLS, Atlanta United swallowed up youth club Georgia United and MLS granted the club Homegrown rights over its new charges. Atlanta United also smartly scooped up Tony Annan, one of Georgia United’s directors, to eventually become its academy director. That spine is now the backbone of Atlanta United’s bustling academy, which is housed in the club’s sparkling new facilities in Marietta, Ga. Players like Andrew Carleton and Patrick Okonkwo are included in that Georgia United alumni list.
Atlanta United is currently reveling in the half light of new, if incomplete, academy success alongside NYCFC. They’ve assimilated much of the youth talent already around them, and in doing so Atlanta United has created something of a blueprint for expansion MLS clubs. The failures of Minnesota United in the same time frame should tell you Atlanta United’s success was never preordained. And it is mighty impressive. But the club cannot ascend much higher than this until it has more time to develop deeper into its U-14 and U-12 divisions and then successfully matriculate those players. Their USL side will help as well. In any case, Atlanta United is one of the league’s great young academy success stories.
Top prospect: George Bello (defender, 16)
As the youngest Homegrown player to ever debut for an MLS first team, Bello is already making history. He’s not as flashy as some of his academy mates, but he’s a better long-term prospect at left back than any of his peers.
George Bello - Atlanta United
Bello is a left back who loves to get forward. He has played 3 games with Atlanta's USL side. Bello figures to be a key component of the U-17 USYNT side.
7. Philadelphia Union
Why they’re here: When the Union opened the doors on the YSC Academy in 2013, not many people knew what to make of it. The Union were audaciously pairing a high school with an academy, allowing for more training and more control from the parent club. Since then, a number of MLS clubs, notably the L.A. Galaxy and Real Salt Lake, have taken steps to replicate the model, and in some ways have improved on it. But the Union were the forerunners. And they’ve since reaped the benefits.ƒ
The Union are taking on talent at such a rapid rate that it’s hard to keep up. And they might just have the best defensive academy pipeline in the country. For anyone who isn’t paying close attention to academy soccer, that’s more impressive than it may sound. Players of the caliber of Auston Trusty and Matthew Real don’t come around often, let alone in pairs. The Union still have some work ahead, and the fact that YSC Academy has a hefty tuition—offset by scholarships—will probably date it in a decade or so. But for now, the amount of talent coursing through the Union’s academy today is a testament to a calculated, costly gamble that succeeded in spades.
Top prospect: Anthony Fontana (midfielder, 1
Talk about a club poster boy. Fontana is the first YSC Academy grad to matriculate to the first team as a Homegrown. He’s still developing, but he has a bright first team future.
6. Seattle Sounders
Why they’re here: Three specific events within a span of six months in 2014 set the Sounders’ academy onto the path of becoming a powerhouse. First, the club hired youth guru Marc Nicholls to run the academy. Then it announced the foundation of USL affiliate Sounders 2. Finally, it hired Garth Lagerwey as the senior team general manager. With Nicholls laying the groundwork, S2 nurturing players in between, and Lagerwey setting a tempo he developed at youth-first RSL from the top-down, the Sounders seemed like a good bet to succeed on the academy level.
And so they have. The Sounders keep sending academy teams to one-off international tournaments abroad and keep returning with trophies. Go see any of their youth teams in action and they’ll inevitably be among the most exciting, attack-oriented games you’ll see. The Sounders have improved their system from root to stem over the last four years, and with the help of investment and a willingness to push players to S2, the dividends are beginning to show. The only problem seems to be the route to the first team. Jordan Morris and DeAndre Yedlin were largely developed at other youth clubs, meaning they still haven’t gotten that Tyler Adams-level breakthrough yet. If that player isn’t in the academy right now, color me shocked. Josh Atencio is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
Top prospect: Josh Atencio (midfielder, 16)
A metronomic midfielder who can control games, Atencio has been involved in just about every meaningful USYNT call-up. Not a surprise given his level of talent.
5. Vancouver Whitecaps
Why they’re here: If you manage to sell a player to Bayern Munich for $15 million, no matter where you are in the world, you’re doing pretty well for yourself. If you manage to do it as an MLS club, you’re practically deserving of sainthood. Alphonso Davies is now the absolute gold standard in MLS as far as what’s possible for young kids. He went from academy (albeit a short stint) to USL to pro in less than a year. And now he’s set the record for a Homegrown outbound transfer. Go figure.
Vancouver has, for my money, the single best residency model anywhere in the U.S. or Canada. Players come to Vancouver from far-flung Whitecaps academy satellites in Canada, stay with host families, are set up with schooling, and are ferried to and from practices every day. It’s the most European model MLS has. And Davies isn’t the only worthwhile graduate.
In 2018 alone, the club has signed five players off its development squad, including Michael Baldisimo and Theo Bair, who scored 23 goals last season with the U-19s. The best news of all might actually be that Davies is leaving; his departure provides an incredibly high bar for the rest of the academy to aim for, something no other MLS club currently enjoys.
Top prospect: Michael Baldisimo (midfielder, 1
Watching Baldisimo play is a rare joy. The Canadian youth international is a 5-foot-5 dynamo, picking out killer balls and scything through traffic to create his own chances in equal measure.
4. Real Salt Lake
Why they’re here: If RBNY’s Matt Miazga is the best central defensive product MLS has ever pushed abroad, then Justen Glad is the best one to have stayed home. Glad’s ringing success made him not just one of the best Homegrown defenders in MLS but one of the best defenders in MLS period. And his story is basically the story of RSL in a nutshell: given trust early, allowed to make mistakes, and eventually matured into a bonafide MLS starter. In fact, in 2018, RSL became the first MLS team in history to have an entire defensive line made up wholly of Homegrown players. That is a very big deal.
The most exciting news for RSL is that the club no longer operates its academy in a different state. Long housed in Casa Grande, Ariz., in 2018 RSL relocated to a palatial $78 million academy facility just miles from Rio Tinto Stadium. It is currently the crown jewel of MLS academy facilities, and it has already been a boon for the club’s academy. Perhaps the bad news is that the secret is out. For instance, midfielder Richie Ledezma is garnering serious interest from PSV in Holland, putting more pressure on the club to sign its kids even more quickly. The good news is that shouldn’t be a problem for RSL, which has arguably the most loaded academy system anywhere in the country.
Top prospect: Richie Ledezma (midfielder, 17)
RSL has so many good ones you can almost close your eyes and pick, but Ledezma’s probably the best shout right now. The versatile midfielder scored 13 goals in 30 appearances for RSL’s U-19 side last year.
3. L.A. Galaxy
Why they’re here: Third? Yes. This is a ranking of MLS academies, and so technically the machinations of the first team shouldn’t factor into it. The Galaxy have arguably housed more individual talent than any academy in MLS over the years, but they’ve also lost more as well. There are multiple factors involved in the latter equation, but of late two stick out: first team instability and perceived lack of playing time. The Galaxy right now have what I consider the best generation of academy talent in MLS history, headlined by Efrain Alvarez, Ulysses Llanez, and Alex Mendez. Yet based on past experience, there is no degree of reasonable certainty any of those players will still be in Los Angeles in two or three years.
The saving grace is that more should be around the corner thanks to the Galaxy’s excellent academy staff. Whatever turmoil has roiled the first team, the Galaxy have a murderer’s row of youth coaches. U-19 coach Brian Kleiban is one of the best in the country and Galaxy II coach Mike Munoz has been at the forefront of the nation’s youngest, most exciting generation of coaches. So on that front, the Galaxy are arguably unmatched. But there always seems to be some sort of high-level drama percolating in the background in LA’s academy scene, and the Galaxy always seem to be at the center of it. As immense as the Galaxy’s academy is, it’s still awaiting its first true Homegrown breakthrough.
Top prospect: M Efrain Alvarez (15)
This one’s a no-brainer. Alvarez might already be the most ballyhooed prospect in academy history. Given his talent, the Galaxy risk losing him fast if they don’t give him some playing time.
15 year old @efrain_alvarez1 scored a hat trick in @USL play last night... Alvarez has been killing it so far in 2018 with 4 goals off of just 5 shots on target & has only played 4 games this season!#PlayYourKids
Efrain Alvarez is the real deal... the 15 year old came on at HT today and scores 2 beautiful goals for the @LAGalaxyII to bring his USL tally to 6 goals in 5 games played! pic.twitter.com/W9tyf99fue
2:18 PM - May 18, 2018
2. FC Dallas
At just about any other club, loaning out a player to Bayern Munich would likely be the academy news of the century. At FC Dallas, it was just another Tuesday. Central defender Chris Richards will spend the season with Bayern in Germany, presumably mostly with the development squads. Still, it’s an incredible hat-tip to the work FCD’s well-covered academy has done in recent years. Doubly so since, by my reckoning, Richards isn’t even the franchise’s best prospect right now.
The thing I most appreciate about FCD is its consistency in producing skill-forward players. Ferreira certainly fits that bill, as does the other head of the current development Hydra, galloping midfielder Paxton Pomykal. But keep going down the pipeline and you’ll see it at every level. USYNT forward Dante Sealy, just 15, is one of the most technically able attackers in the United States at his age. It isn’t a coincidence. For me, the reason FCD is a close second right now is that the defense isn’t quite keeping pace, and its teams can be a bit unbalanced. FCD is beginning to even it out with the likes of Richards and Reggie Cannon, but FCD has historically not been an elite defensive producer in line with the Red Bulls. That, of course, could always change in the next two or three years.
Top prospect: Jesus Ferreira (forward, 17)
The son of FCD legend David, Jesus is one of the best-known Homegrowns in the league despite being just 17. Whatever he lacks in size he makes up for in technical ability and vision.
1. New York Red Bulls
Why they’re here: The honor for best academy in MLS seems to shift every couple of years between a few different clubs, but I can’t find any reasonable argument to keep RBNY off the top of the heap in 2018. They invest, they have a legitimate USL pipeline, and they play their youth. In Jesse Marsch, the club is coming off its second consecutive coach who wasn’t just intimately invested in the success of the academy system but actively pushed kids into first-team roles before it was obvious (to us anyway) that they were ready. This is the hallmark of a youth-first club, and from their pre-U-12 U.S. Youth Soccer roots all the way up through the USL side, the Red Bulls have crafted something special.
It’s entirely possible the Red Bulls could have two real, homespun Homegrowns on a World Cup XI in 2022 in Tyler Adams and Matt Miazga. But more than that, the club is still churning out top quality academy players. Their biggest problem is in hanging onto them long enough to sign before they leak abroad. Ripping fullback Chris Gloster signed for Hannover earlier this year in lieu of a Homegrown deal, the same path Matthew Olosunde walked two years earlier with Manchester United. As long as the Red Bulls continue what they’ve been doing under Chris Armas, they’ll have what is, for my money, the best academy system in MLS, even if it’s a relatively close shave.
Top prospect: Ben Mines (forward, 17)
Mines made an enormous splash when he scored on his MLS debut in March. A slithery forward who’s as comfortable poaching as he is running in space is hard to find, but RBNY has one in Mines.
Parchman: Ranking all 23 MLS academies
By Will Parchman 1h ago
When it comes to MLS, I’m consistently asked one question more than any other. It’s a simple query with an unimaginably complex answer.
How are MLS academies doing?
The simple answer is that the professional youth development scene is getting better. There are some clear leaders in this space and they’re doing lots of things right. However, on the whole, MLS academies still aren’t doing well enough.
But each academy is different, and so to investigate this question more thoroughly, I set out to rank every MLS franchise’s academy as it stands today, from one through 23.
I considered five factors to arrive at this list: coaching, overall talent, track record, matriculation, and investment. These are the five most important ingredients in the academy stew. You need exceptional coaching, the ability to identify talent at a young age, the ability to grow that talent into next-level players, and a track record of doing it over time. The best academies, wherever they are in the world, excel at each of these five pillars. And the fifth, investment, is more of an institutional concern but no less important than the first four.
I’ve also compiled who I consider to be the most exciting prospect for each club, based on two criteria: they aren’t currently established first-team regulars, and they’re no older than 18 as of publication.
So here we are. Keep in mind that this is mostly a work of educated opinion. There is no such thing as a definitive ranking in anything, and this is not an exception. But after spending thousands of hours with my head in the business of MLS academies, and speaking with academy officials from clubs across MLS, South America and Europe over the years, I feel qualified to put this on a platter for your consumption.
As far as broad conclusions, I think it’s fair to draw one extremely broad one. About a third of the league’s teams currently oversee academies so misused that they might as well not even exist. There are some extremely worthy success stories you’re about to read through, and those deserve their due. But it is a shame that more teams haven’t followed their lead, either through willful decisions or ignorant malpractice. The good news is that there is no magic formula. They can turn the ship around tomorrow if they so choose. But they have to choose.
Here is the list.
23. Minnesota United
Why they’re here: After some rocky early days, Minnesota United’s academy is finally, blessedly, lurching to life. Why it’s taking as long as it has in such a fast-paced game is the mystery. As we’ll soon see with Atlanta United, its status as a nascent club can’t be a real excuse. Atlanta United entered the league at the same time and currently has five Homegrown players on its roster. Minnesota United still isn’t fielding U-17 or U-19 teams this season.
There are some good signs. Academy director Tim Carter is a well-respected name in Minnesota after presiding over Shattuck St. Mary’s academy, a non-MLS Development Academy club with a quality residency program. But why does speed matter in cranking up an academy? Danny Luis Flores, Shattuck’s shining academy star and a U-17 U.S. youth international, chose the Philadelphia Union academy in August in part because he literally wouldn’t have had a place to play with Minnesota United, just an hour up the road. Carter and Minnesota United appear to be playing the long game, slowly rolling out an age division or so at a time. It’s worked so far for NYCFC, so we’ll have to wait and see if Minnesota United’s lesser resources can mirror that model.
Top prospect: Fred Emmings (goalkeeper, 14)
One of the early success stories of Minnesota United’s academy, Emmings got a call-up to the U-15 U.S. national team in January. Emmings, a U-14 player with Minnesota United, is already 6-foot-4, 212 pounds.
22. Los Angeles FC
Why they’re here: It’s tough to appropriately rank LAFC, since the club’s first team is less than a year old and they’re still rolling out their academy structure. So this low ranking is more an indication of the club’s incompleteness than it is an indictment of their current level, although they do get some of the same demerits Minnesota United did. LAFC has been exceedingly cautious with its academy, and the maddening part is that it wasn’t necessary. Their now infamous decision to spurn the well-stocked Chivas USA academy in 2016 to start with a blank slate was unimaginably silly. Instead, those players and coaches largely went to the L.A. Galaxy.
So LAFC has been content to build slowly and from the ground up. They started with U-12, U-13, and U-14 sides in their first season (2017-1
, and they added a U-15 team for 2018-19. The good news is that the early returns have been promising. By all accounts, LAFC academy director Todd Saldana has gone about building the academy the right way, and the club’s players are already receiving a steady stream of national team call-ups. Much like NYCFC a year ago, LAFC’s early academy success is a sure sign they’ll move up this list at speed once they have more than three teams in the academy. And Los Angeles will yield plenty of academy fruit in the meantime. But until then, we watch and wait.Top prospect: Antonio Leone (defender, 14)
LAFC’s prospects are all exceedingly young, but Leone might be the best of the group. A ball-playing central defender, he’s already captained a USYNT side.
21. Houston Dynamo
Why they’re here: There’s plenty of criticism to go around when it comes to the Dynamo’s youth production line, which is more or less a broken conveyor belt that almost never runs. But let’s start with the good news. The club basically hit the reset button in July by hiring Paul Holocher to head up its academy. Holocher most recently oversaw the impressive transformation of San Jose’s academy, and he’ll have an equal if not more immense task on his hands in Houston.
Now for the bad. The academy was in such poor shape as recently as 2017 that a local, non-MLS Development Academy side, Texans SC Houston, was able to go 6-0-0 in the U-19 playoffs and actually win the DA national title over the L.A. Galaxy. There’s so much coaching and player talent in Houston that an unheralded club unseated the league’s blue bloods, all while the Dynamo U-19 team didn’t even make the playoffs. To make things worse, Christian Cappis, the best player from that Texans team and a U.S. youth international, joined the FC Dallas academy for the next season. Holocher has a lot of work ahead, but he’s sitting on a talent gold mine in Houston. The Dynamo just need to do everything differently. No pressure.
Top prospect: Marcelo Palomino (midfielder, 17)
Scoring 17 goals in 25 U-19 games as a No. 10 is a good tally for anyone; it’s great if you’re playing up in age like Palomino was in 2017-18.
https://twitter.com/victoraraiza/status/997669337900167168
Victor Araiza@victoraraiza
20. New England Revolution
The Revolution bought themselves a significant amount of academy street cred with the Homegrown signings of Diego Fagundez (2011) and Scott Caldwell (2013), and they’ve squandered most of it over the last five years. They hit a low ebb in 2017 by suspending Justin Rennicks, maybe the best forward prospect they’ve ever produced, for violating team rules by going on a training stint at Frankfurt without permission. By sticking to their own rules, the Revolution might have alienated one of their best prospects. (Rennicks is now playing NCAA soccer at Indiana.)
In terms of overall academy talent level, the Revs are easily in the bottom quarter of the league. The Revolution are a cost-conscious club, and even they couldn’t manage to justify more than the one Homegrown contract they’ve signed in the last three years. That belongs to Isaac Angking, who signed in 2018 as a single rose in an extremely poorly maintained garden. The cupboard isn’t entirely bare, but it is close. And that’s a problem the club will have to look to solve in the coming years.
Top prospect: Isaac Angking (midfielder, 1
The Revolution have a real opportunity with Angking, the team’s most promising academy player since Diego Fagundez. The central midfielder should get first-team minutes pronto.
https://twitter.com/IsaacAngking
19. Portland Timbers
Why they’re here: It’s a bizarre thing, how bad the Timbers’ academy has been. They have one of the worst development track records in the league, and even more bizarrely, a cursory glance over their academy roster reveals some promising pieces. Since joining from South Florida in 2016, forward Luca Cini has 43 goals in 58 games. Midfielder Carlos Anguiano has been a tremendous influence in the middle. Central defender Kyle Gruno spent time in Leicester City’s development apparatus. Things appear to be improving somewhat under academy director Larry Sunderland, who took over in 2015. But development doesn’t magically stop at 18, and the Timbers have been woeful at preparing players for professional chances and then giving them those chances.
This may be why they lost Akil Watts. An Indiana native, Watts joined the Timbers academy after leaving the U.S. U-17 residency in 2017. He spent a little more than a year there before being snapped up by Spanish club Mallorca in the summer of 2018. Watts might have always been planning to leave, but the Timbers’ record of failing to promote their academy players would certainly not have given him reason for optimism had he been thinking of staying. And so the best player in the Timbers’ academy waltzed out of Portland for free, and the team lost an excellent opportunity to begin turning that reputation around.
Top prospect: Adrian Villegas (midfielder, 1
The small, nimble midfielder’s been a known quantity for a while now, but is he withering on the vine?
18. Columbus Crew
Why they’re here: One has to feel for the Crew’s academy operators. The club is stuck in a state of limbo as forces beyond their control struggle to move the club to Austin. In the meantime, the Crew’s academy is trying to keep some semblance of control, and it’s doing reasonably well, all things considered. The Crew’s U-19 team made the national semifinals in 2018 behind some genuinely good soccer. But the signs of strain were there even before the club’s current struggles. The Crew have long let their academy kids germinate in college instead of signing them directly out of the academy.
To date, the Crew don’t have a single massive youth prospect in the pipeline, and certainly nothing to the degree of a Wil Trapp, whose signing as a Homegrown in 2013 feels like eons ago. They do have some quality, and the fact that both the U-17 and U-19 sides made the playoffs in 2018 suggests that the current academy staff is doing about as well as can be expected under the circumstances. One to watch is Sebastian Berhalter, the son of first team coach Gregg. He has promise for days.
Top prospect: Colin Biros (forward, 17)
Since the start of the 2015 academy season, Biros has 33 goals in the black and yellow. He’s a lethal scorer and the most exciting player in the Crew’s youth coffers today.
17. Orlando City
Why they’re here: Something about Orlando City’s academy feels stuck in neutral. It isn’t a bad academy, per se, but it also isn’t producing players for the first team, either; the only two Homegrown players on the roster were developed by Real Salt Lake and the Chicago Fire. In terms of timeline, Orlando City is working behind most of the rest of the league, but it’s still a bit disappointing that they haven’t done more than their current output.
And there’s worse news on the horizon. With David Beckham’s Inter Miami firing up in the next couple of years, Orlando City will no longer be the only MLS academy destination in the state. Orlando City has already struggled to pull players out of the non-MLS Development Academy clubs in South Florida, but it’ll be doubly hard once a Beckham-backed MLS club opens shop in their backyard. Much like the situation the Galaxy faced with LAFC coming online, Orlando City can’t afford to drag its feet. Become a true destination for academy kids or get left behind.
Top prospect: A.J. Seals (midfielder, 1
Seals has a chance to be the club’s first true Homegrown breakthrough after signing with Orlando City B this summer. The creative midfielder is a promising technician.
16. Colorado Rapids
Why they’re here: The Rapids seem to be in a phase of transition on the academy level, and in a good way. The lights over the pathway from the academy to the first team basically flickered off after Dillon Serna signed in 2013. It would be another four and a half years before they signed another Homegrown player. But since then, they’ve signed three in the last 12 months, a promising sign that the Rapids academy has more sway (and is doing better at talent identification) than it did a short time ago.
Colorado’s most obvious measure of improvement is in the eye test. The Rapids have never been known as a spritely, attacking academy before, but those days are gone. The Rapids, all the way down to the young U-12s, seem imbued by an attacking license that hasn’t been there before. That’s a credit to the vision of academy director Brian Crookham, whose project is coming to fruition. The Rapids still don’t seem to have nearly as much ownership backing in the academy as other clubs, and they’re still making up ground for what amounted to a three-year dark period. But the Rapids are improving, and in another year or two I’d expect to see them higher up this list.
Top prospect: Matthew Hundley (midfielder, 1
In his last season in the DA before sprinting off to UCLA, Hundley scored 22 goals in 24 games for the Rapids U-19s. That the dynamic wide man escaped to college without a contract is a bit disappointing.
15. D.C. United
Why they’re here: A part of me hates rating D.C. United even this high. They remain, stubbornly, maddeningly, the only MLS club that has yet to lower the gate and make its academy entirely free for everyone. I consider that an almost unforgivable sin, and it rockets the club down this list. And to be sure, D.C. United has no business being this low. D.C. is an unbelievable hotbed of talent, and even if the club didn’t really develop them early, Andy Najar and Bill Hamid are both incredible finds. But the development haul since then has been meager, and there’s always that damn fee.
But there’s also Ian Harkes, and Chris Durkin—possibly the finest defensive midfielder prospect in the entire USMNT pipeline. And that’s worth something, considering so few clubs have produced a player even approaching Durkin’s ability. There’s more than just Durkin here, and D.C. United’s academy is in better shape than many in MLS—including a few academies I’ve ranked above them on this very list. But to force even some players to pay for your academy (barring a scholarship) in an age when literally zero other MLS clubs do the same is a frankly shameful and indefensible practice.
Top prospect: Moses Nyeman (midfielder, 15)
I don’t say this lightly: Nyeman might not be the best player in the Development Academy, but he’s my favorite. A diminutive creator with vision for days? Nyeman is going to be special, young as he is.
14. Chicago Fire
The Fire tend to have broad, institutional struggles and yet still manage to produce legitimate pro prospects by just about any team’s measure. Chicago’s history of promoting Homegrowns to the first team is severely lacking, and yet the academy continues to give the first team options. But one of two things usually happens: the player either doesn’t like the landscape and leaves (Cameron Lindley) or they sign and end up ignored or misused (Victor Pineda). And yet the academy, amidst it all, somehow keeps making more Lindleys and more Pinedas.
The Fire don’t have a bad academy in terms of talent, but no academy player has any reasonable expectation they’ll be able to continue their careers on the first team. And that has a knock-on effect for who decides to join and stick around. Despite at times threadbare first team XIs, players like Djordje Mihailovic haven’t exactly been fast-tracked, and the first-team struggles have clearly influenced the overall level of the academy. The Fire will continue to produce individual quality, but whether anything happens with that individual quality is the broader, unanswered question.
Top prospect: Damian Las (goalkeeper, 16)
The Fire might well have the best goalkeeper prospect in the entire academy system. Las is a USYNT staple and has next-level reflexes. You’ll hear his name plenty in the coming years.
13. San Jose Earthquakes
Why they’re here: They might only be No. 13, but the Earthquakes are one of the fastest-rising academies in the country. Just a few years ago, San Jose was drifting laggardly in the back of the pack. Today, thanks in part to more investment and the work of Paul Holocher’s staff, San Jose’s academy is in much better shape and improving all the time. For the most part, San Jose’s academy teams play front-to-back soccer and produce players capable of doing the same on the next level.
The question now is whether San Jose can keep its torrid academy pace without Holocher. Whoever replaces him has a quality academy setup at their disposal, but they’ll have to continue battling the headwinds created by a historically disinterested ownership and a tumultuous first team coaching staff that seems to turn over fairly regularly. The good news is that general manager Jesse Fioranelli has plans for the academy, namely improved facilities and more general investment. It seems the club’s priorities are in the right place, even if their treatment of previous Homegrown players like Tommy Thompson has left much to be desired. Still, things are looking up in Northern California.
Top prospect: Gilbert Fuentes (midfielder, 16)
No player embodies the different atmosphere in the Earthquakes’ academy than Fuentes. The skilled midfielder signed at 15 and has a brilliant mind for the game.
12. Sporting KC
Why they’re here: A selection of at least a few SKC fans might take umbrage at this ranking, and I can hear the familiar strains now. Yes, they have done fine work in bringing the likes of Daniel Salloi, Jaylin Lindsey, and Wan Kuzain through the system. And yes, Gianluca Busio has clearly flowered playing with SKC’s NASCAR-fast U-19 team. But at the moment, SKC is a far better relocator of talent than an originator of it. And that does not get you inside the top 10. Not yet, anyway.
Busio and Lindsey both relocated from North Carolina in their mid-teens, although, to be fair, both have done a lot of developing in KC. And Kuzain had developed so well as a midfield technician at St. Louis Scott Gallagher, the same club that brought up mega-prospect Josh Sargent, that he’d already been on trial in Europe by the time he signed a Homegrown contract for SKC at 19. That said, once the kids have actually arrived, they’ve bloomed, and that’s a credit to the entire staff and in particular academy director Jon Parry, who has a deep, long-established relationship with Peter Vermes. The club also deserves credit for longer-standing development tracks, like defender and USYNT contributor Cameron Duke, which it is only now bringing to fruition.
Top prospect: Gianluca Busio (midfielder, 16)
The floppy-haired creator has few equals in skill set in the current USYNT setup. Busio has a ton of boom-or-bust potential, but if he’s a hit, he’s going to hit hard.
11. NYCFC
Why they’re here: I honestly don’t entirely know what to make of NYCFC’s academy. I don’t think anyone does just yet. NYCFC hasn’t been around long enough to raise up enough of its own kids, but it’s done magnificently well with what it’s been given. New York has a lot of raw talent but it’s been underserved in academy terms, and it now seems that NYCFC is on its way to providing an appropriate foil for the development juggernaut across town.
Even with star midfielder Giovanni Reyna reportedly set to join Borussia Dortmund at the age of 16, the same age Christian Pulisic was when he joined the German club three years ago, NYCFC is absolutely stacked with national team talent. That’s a major reason why the club won the U-19 division of the Development Academy in the summer of 2018. I’m not convinced that Justin Haak isn’t the single best defensive midfielder in the entire Development Academy, and 15-year-old fullback Joe Scally is one of the better wingback prospects in the country. NYCFC is clearly very well run. The next level is a track record of improving kids over a period longer than 18 months—and then playing them.
Top prospect: James Sands (defender/midfielder, 1
Sands, the club’s first Homegrown signing, needs first-team minutes (he made his debut this month—see the video below). He’s a thoroughly modern center back who likes to play with his feet and he’s a bang-up defensive midfielder as well.
10. Montreal Impact
Why they’re here: Few people outside Montreal really understood what was happening with Montreal’s academy scene until the Impact signed Ballou Tabla to a Homegrown contract in 2016. Over the following two seasons, Tabla impressed to such a degree that he earned a contract with Barcelona in 2018. It didn’t quite have the same impact as Alphonso Davies’ transfer to Bayern Munich, but it was and remains a huge deal for any MLS academy. And while Barcelona won’t knock often, Tabla wasn’t exactly a fluke, either.
Montreal’s taken a lot of swings on its academy players, and the Impact have missed on a good number of them. But give them credit for trying. Academy director Philippe Eullaffroy has done above average work with the academy and has an eye for talent. The problem has been in the matriculation. Something continually gets lost between the academy and the pro side, which has rarely emphasized the sort of free-flowing movement its academy coaches often espouse. Still, Montreal is on the right track, and its appearance in the U-19 final four in 2018 is a sign that the talent is there. And it isn’t going away.
Top prospect: Calin Calaidjoglu (midfielder, 17)
For good reason. Calaidjoglu was given the Impact’s No. 10 jersey for the U-19 team’s 2018-19 season. An extremely dangerous creator, you’ll hear his name again before long.
9. Toronto FC
Why they’re here: Vancouver has Alphonso Davies. Montreal has Ballou Tabla. Toronto has… volume. TFC is the richest of the three Canadian clubs, but they’re yet to produce a single marketable star they’ve been able to turn into local buzz and then flip for cash. And yet TFC has gotten more pro minutes from its academy players than either Montreal or Vancouver, and any Canadian youth national team roster will contain more kids from the TFC academy than any other. But its overall academy infrastructure is still catching up to Vancouver’s, and it could desperately use another attacking academy product.
The good news is that, as always, TFC has a ton of options to choose from. It just has to choose. In addition to Akinola, midfield creator Luca Petrasso is a hugely enticing Canadian YNT creative midfielder who can move his side’s chess pieces. TFC has now signed 15 Homegrown players, one of the biggest numbers in the league, but its spending habits have made those starting spots harder to find. Which is fair. But when the form of a huge-money player like Michael Bradley dips appreciably, which it has at times, does coach Greg Vanney ever consider pulling him for a deserving academy grad? Probably not all that often. Which gets at a broader problem the academy cannot solve on its own.
Top prospect: Ayo Akinola (midfielder, 1
An American national teamer playing as a TFC Homegrown, Akinola is worthy of the hype. The question is whether he can get minutes. The electric winger might find it tough in a system that relies on the fullbacks to create the width.
8. Atlanta United
Why they’re here: Before joining MLS, Atlanta United swallowed up youth club Georgia United and MLS granted the club Homegrown rights over its new charges. Atlanta United also smartly scooped up Tony Annan, one of Georgia United’s directors, to eventually become its academy director. That spine is now the backbone of Atlanta United’s bustling academy, which is housed in the club’s sparkling new facilities in Marietta, Ga. Players like Andrew Carleton and Patrick Okonkwo are included in that Georgia United alumni list.
Atlanta United is currently reveling in the half light of new, if incomplete, academy success alongside NYCFC. They’ve assimilated much of the youth talent already around them, and in doing so Atlanta United has created something of a blueprint for expansion MLS clubs. The failures of Minnesota United in the same time frame should tell you Atlanta United’s success was never preordained. And it is mighty impressive. But the club cannot ascend much higher than this until it has more time to develop deeper into its U-14 and U-12 divisions and then successfully matriculate those players. Their USL side will help as well. In any case, Atlanta United is one of the league’s great young academy success stories.
Top prospect: George Bello (defender, 16)
As the youngest Homegrown player to ever debut for an MLS first team, Bello is already making history. He’s not as flashy as some of his academy mates, but he’s a better long-term prospect at left back than any of his peers.
George Bello - Atlanta United
Bello is a left back who loves to get forward. He has played 3 games with Atlanta's USL side. Bello figures to be a key component of the U-17 USYNT side.
7. Philadelphia Union
Why they’re here: When the Union opened the doors on the YSC Academy in 2013, not many people knew what to make of it. The Union were audaciously pairing a high school with an academy, allowing for more training and more control from the parent club. Since then, a number of MLS clubs, notably the L.A. Galaxy and Real Salt Lake, have taken steps to replicate the model, and in some ways have improved on it. But the Union were the forerunners. And they’ve since reaped the benefits.ƒ
The Union are taking on talent at such a rapid rate that it’s hard to keep up. And they might just have the best defensive academy pipeline in the country. For anyone who isn’t paying close attention to academy soccer, that’s more impressive than it may sound. Players of the caliber of Auston Trusty and Matthew Real don’t come around often, let alone in pairs. The Union still have some work ahead, and the fact that YSC Academy has a hefty tuition—offset by scholarships—will probably date it in a decade or so. But for now, the amount of talent coursing through the Union’s academy today is a testament to a calculated, costly gamble that succeeded in spades.
Top prospect: Anthony Fontana (midfielder, 1
Talk about a club poster boy. Fontana is the first YSC Academy grad to matriculate to the first team as a Homegrown. He’s still developing, but he has a bright first team future.
6. Seattle Sounders
Why they’re here: Three specific events within a span of six months in 2014 set the Sounders’ academy onto the path of becoming a powerhouse. First, the club hired youth guru Marc Nicholls to run the academy. Then it announced the foundation of USL affiliate Sounders 2. Finally, it hired Garth Lagerwey as the senior team general manager. With Nicholls laying the groundwork, S2 nurturing players in between, and Lagerwey setting a tempo he developed at youth-first RSL from the top-down, the Sounders seemed like a good bet to succeed on the academy level.
And so they have. The Sounders keep sending academy teams to one-off international tournaments abroad and keep returning with trophies. Go see any of their youth teams in action and they’ll inevitably be among the most exciting, attack-oriented games you’ll see. The Sounders have improved their system from root to stem over the last four years, and with the help of investment and a willingness to push players to S2, the dividends are beginning to show. The only problem seems to be the route to the first team. Jordan Morris and DeAndre Yedlin were largely developed at other youth clubs, meaning they still haven’t gotten that Tyler Adams-level breakthrough yet. If that player isn’t in the academy right now, color me shocked. Josh Atencio is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
Top prospect: Josh Atencio (midfielder, 16)
A metronomic midfielder who can control games, Atencio has been involved in just about every meaningful USYNT call-up. Not a surprise given his level of talent.
5. Vancouver Whitecaps
Why they’re here: If you manage to sell a player to Bayern Munich for $15 million, no matter where you are in the world, you’re doing pretty well for yourself. If you manage to do it as an MLS club, you’re practically deserving of sainthood. Alphonso Davies is now the absolute gold standard in MLS as far as what’s possible for young kids. He went from academy (albeit a short stint) to USL to pro in less than a year. And now he’s set the record for a Homegrown outbound transfer. Go figure.
Vancouver has, for my money, the single best residency model anywhere in the U.S. or Canada. Players come to Vancouver from far-flung Whitecaps academy satellites in Canada, stay with host families, are set up with schooling, and are ferried to and from practices every day. It’s the most European model MLS has. And Davies isn’t the only worthwhile graduate.
In 2018 alone, the club has signed five players off its development squad, including Michael Baldisimo and Theo Bair, who scored 23 goals last season with the U-19s. The best news of all might actually be that Davies is leaving; his departure provides an incredibly high bar for the rest of the academy to aim for, something no other MLS club currently enjoys.
Top prospect: Michael Baldisimo (midfielder, 1
Watching Baldisimo play is a rare joy. The Canadian youth international is a 5-foot-5 dynamo, picking out killer balls and scything through traffic to create his own chances in equal measure.
4. Real Salt Lake
Why they’re here: If RBNY’s Matt Miazga is the best central defensive product MLS has ever pushed abroad, then Justen Glad is the best one to have stayed home. Glad’s ringing success made him not just one of the best Homegrown defenders in MLS but one of the best defenders in MLS period. And his story is basically the story of RSL in a nutshell: given trust early, allowed to make mistakes, and eventually matured into a bonafide MLS starter. In fact, in 2018, RSL became the first MLS team in history to have an entire defensive line made up wholly of Homegrown players. That is a very big deal.
The most exciting news for RSL is that the club no longer operates its academy in a different state. Long housed in Casa Grande, Ariz., in 2018 RSL relocated to a palatial $78 million academy facility just miles from Rio Tinto Stadium. It is currently the crown jewel of MLS academy facilities, and it has already been a boon for the club’s academy. Perhaps the bad news is that the secret is out. For instance, midfielder Richie Ledezma is garnering serious interest from PSV in Holland, putting more pressure on the club to sign its kids even more quickly. The good news is that shouldn’t be a problem for RSL, which has arguably the most loaded academy system anywhere in the country.
Top prospect: Richie Ledezma (midfielder, 17)
RSL has so many good ones you can almost close your eyes and pick, but Ledezma’s probably the best shout right now. The versatile midfielder scored 13 goals in 30 appearances for RSL’s U-19 side last year.
3. L.A. Galaxy
Why they’re here: Third? Yes. This is a ranking of MLS academies, and so technically the machinations of the first team shouldn’t factor into it. The Galaxy have arguably housed more individual talent than any academy in MLS over the years, but they’ve also lost more as well. There are multiple factors involved in the latter equation, but of late two stick out: first team instability and perceived lack of playing time. The Galaxy right now have what I consider the best generation of academy talent in MLS history, headlined by Efrain Alvarez, Ulysses Llanez, and Alex Mendez. Yet based on past experience, there is no degree of reasonable certainty any of those players will still be in Los Angeles in two or three years.
The saving grace is that more should be around the corner thanks to the Galaxy’s excellent academy staff. Whatever turmoil has roiled the first team, the Galaxy have a murderer’s row of youth coaches. U-19 coach Brian Kleiban is one of the best in the country and Galaxy II coach Mike Munoz has been at the forefront of the nation’s youngest, most exciting generation of coaches. So on that front, the Galaxy are arguably unmatched. But there always seems to be some sort of high-level drama percolating in the background in LA’s academy scene, and the Galaxy always seem to be at the center of it. As immense as the Galaxy’s academy is, it’s still awaiting its first true Homegrown breakthrough.
Top prospect: M Efrain Alvarez (15)
This one’s a no-brainer. Alvarez might already be the most ballyhooed prospect in academy history. Given his talent, the Galaxy risk losing him fast if they don’t give him some playing time.
15 year old @efrain_alvarez1 scored a hat trick in @USL play last night... Alvarez has been killing it so far in 2018 with 4 goals off of just 5 shots on target & has only played 4 games this season!#PlayYourKids
Efrain Alvarez is the real deal... the 15 year old came on at HT today and scores 2 beautiful goals for the @LAGalaxyII to bring his USL tally to 6 goals in 5 games played! pic.twitter.com/W9tyf99fue
2:18 PM - May 18, 2018
2. FC Dallas
At just about any other club, loaning out a player to Bayern Munich would likely be the academy news of the century. At FC Dallas, it was just another Tuesday. Central defender Chris Richards will spend the season with Bayern in Germany, presumably mostly with the development squads. Still, it’s an incredible hat-tip to the work FCD’s well-covered academy has done in recent years. Doubly so since, by my reckoning, Richards isn’t even the franchise’s best prospect right now.
The thing I most appreciate about FCD is its consistency in producing skill-forward players. Ferreira certainly fits that bill, as does the other head of the current development Hydra, galloping midfielder Paxton Pomykal. But keep going down the pipeline and you’ll see it at every level. USYNT forward Dante Sealy, just 15, is one of the most technically able attackers in the United States at his age. It isn’t a coincidence. For me, the reason FCD is a close second right now is that the defense isn’t quite keeping pace, and its teams can be a bit unbalanced. FCD is beginning to even it out with the likes of Richards and Reggie Cannon, but FCD has historically not been an elite defensive producer in line with the Red Bulls. That, of course, could always change in the next two or three years.
Top prospect: Jesus Ferreira (forward, 17)
The son of FCD legend David, Jesus is one of the best-known Homegrowns in the league despite being just 17. Whatever he lacks in size he makes up for in technical ability and vision.
1. New York Red Bulls
Why they’re here: The honor for best academy in MLS seems to shift every couple of years between a few different clubs, but I can’t find any reasonable argument to keep RBNY off the top of the heap in 2018. They invest, they have a legitimate USL pipeline, and they play their youth. In Jesse Marsch, the club is coming off its second consecutive coach who wasn’t just intimately invested in the success of the academy system but actively pushed kids into first-team roles before it was obvious (to us anyway) that they were ready. This is the hallmark of a youth-first club, and from their pre-U-12 U.S. Youth Soccer roots all the way up through the USL side, the Red Bulls have crafted something special.
It’s entirely possible the Red Bulls could have two real, homespun Homegrowns on a World Cup XI in 2022 in Tyler Adams and Matt Miazga. But more than that, the club is still churning out top quality academy players. Their biggest problem is in hanging onto them long enough to sign before they leak abroad. Ripping fullback Chris Gloster signed for Hannover earlier this year in lieu of a Homegrown deal, the same path Matthew Olosunde walked two years earlier with Manchester United. As long as the Red Bulls continue what they’ve been doing under Chris Armas, they’ll have what is, for my money, the best academy system in MLS, even if it’s a relatively close shave.
Top prospect: Ben Mines (forward, 17)
Mines made an enormous splash when he scored on his MLS debut in March. A slithery forward who’s as comfortable poaching as he is running in space is hard to find, but RBNY has one in Mines.
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Ibra, oh my goodness...
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Back in the playoff race
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Keep this thread alive -
I’m liking the rebranding for USL
https://www.loudoununitedfc.com/news_article/show/968611
https://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/968611
I’m liking the rebranding for USL
https://www.loudoununitedfc.com/news_article/show/968611
https://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/968611
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Huge game today. Really really hope we can get a great result against Red Bull’s. Wouldn’t feel safe with a 1-0 2-0 win but Red Bull’s are too good to get 3-0ed. Gonna be tough.
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Holy **** we 3-0ed em I’m at a loss for words lol
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Rooting for ATL to take the Cup. Necessary for the culture.
