My take on US youth development

Just a few things that I think are more realistic than the typical stuff you see online like; Pay to Play and Pro/Rel (yes it helps and I actually look forward to USL implementing that)

1. MLS needs to get rid of the home grown territorial rule. What’s preventing an FC Dallas scout from going to Southern California or Florida to check out talent? Kid from there should be able to sign with whichever academy they feel is best for their development. If I’m from Portland and I know their academy is terrible with development, I shouldn’t have to sign there. Maybe that will make teams like Portland, Minnesota etc step up and have more investment in their academy to attract kids.

2. More academy teams. I’d mandate every academy, USL & MLS to have academy from U8 - U19 at the very least. Just think of how many academies that could be compared to now. I think teams should be able to build satellite academies in other states especially those that don’t have a team.

3. More scouts from teams. This is a really big country and I don’t think each team has enough scouts to scout all over the country. This would help with point #1. This also includes US soccer youth scouts, they’re too few of them.

4. Solidarity payments. Whichever club a kid is from should be able to get some percentage of future transfer if he moves on to MLS, USL or Europe.

5. Better and experienced youth coaches. Much respect to the ones currently since a lot of them are doing it out of the love of the sport or coaching because their kid is on the team. USSF could do a better job helping them make it easier to get licensed with the proper education. I remember Landon Donovan said one of his youth coaches at Leverkusen was one who had been coaching for over 30 years. Had been a coach for senior teams as well.