Perils of homegrown players
As MLS teams start producing youth players, other people are going to start noticing... esp when they are available for free
Sporting KC lost a GK to Atletico Madrid last week, now NYRB loses a player
http://www.mlssoccer.com/blog/post/2...-called-bosnia
MLS needs to start doing something to protect HG players, at least get compensation
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
This isn't a MLS specific problem. Since scouting has become modernized and teams have found developing youth prospects can be low-cost compared to transfers teams have been picking off each others youth players, usually without compensation. Everybody's eating each others lunch.
The issue for MLS is, they don't have a very potent development path and clearly haven't thought very hard about the problem beyond milking adidas for revenue. Youth development has never been in the DNA of this league, the focus has been on college players and free market signings. They've made incremental steps in terms of the rules but everyone is slow to adapt. There are a lot of coaches in this league that clearly do not know what to do with their young players.. how to develop them, when to play them, what to ask of them, figuring out how long of a commitment they need to make to get a finished product.
We're never going to stop losing prospects, but we could make youth development in north america a lot more appealing by filling in some obvious gaps.. ie 18-23 development, better compensation packages for young players, larger squad sizes, more loan agreements between NASL / USL & MLS.
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Its a double loss for the Americans in the Bosnian kid who was signed with NYRB. I think its easier to give professional contracts to under-18 players in the US or Canada than it is for a non-EU player to be signed by an European team, but im no expert in that area.
Players are going to jump at the chance to go play in the big European leagues - nothing we can do about that. Never going to convince a kid to stay in the MLS instead of going toa club like Athletico. I'm more concerned that we will start losing players to lower tier leagues that pay better.
It's easy. Raise the cap level and the minimum wage level.Originally Posted by Yohan
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