Like this one...
Damn, I am so jealous of the guy who started the wunderbar Big Soccer thread with a clever way to use college education as a lure for youth soccer players to MLS (found that thread here, by the way). Titled, “Why Can’t MLS Teams Provide Scholarships?”, and posted by a guy named Bora Fan, it forwards a nice formula for giving money for college education to aspiring American soccer players, while simultaneously laying out a sound path to a pro career.
The question of when it’s reasonable for a young athlete to turn pro constitutes one clear dividing line between the soccer in the U.S. and the rest of the world. In broad terms, Europe’s future soccer stars - not to mention their journeymen counterparts - embark on their careers at an early age, typically in their early teens, though, if memory serves, places like Ajax of Amsterdam pick up players as young as 10. These youths continue their regular education inside a given club’s “academy” the quality of which varies considerably (Ajax’s, for instance, has an impressive reputation). But, whatever these kids do for studying, the emphasis remains on manufacturing professional soccer players.
Outside Nike’s Project-40, and something called Generation Adidas (info on both here), this method has never taken off in the U.S. It could be that long-established traditions in the major sports - think football and basketball - established the pathway through college as the norm. Whatever caused it, it’s an anomaly in the world’s game; albeit one that doesn’t necessarily add up logically. On a personal level, and knowing what I know about higher education, a key fallacy in support of this system is the idea that one can’t postpone the beginning of their college education. Given the clear falseness of this idea, what’s the harm in a young man (or woman if WUSA, the women’s league, ever comes back on-line) trying his hand at playing professionally? If one college won’t take money from a 25-year-old washed-up soccer player, the next one almost certainly will.
But the concept forwarded in that thread does even better. Under that proposal a player joins an MLS clubs developmental squad, now that it seems they’ll have such things, during their teenage years. Upon turning 18, the club/league offers those deemed capable a contract under which they’re paid the league’s (underwhelming) minimum salary and “a 4 year college scholarship that vests 25% for each year they are an active developmental player.” I didn’t quite know how to interpret that, but Bora Fan goes on to use the figure $12.5K per year of a four-year education.
What’s not to like? It’s hard to say. Parents know that the kids who enter the system are earning money for college as they follow their dream (check); the kids will find out, in almost definitive terms, whether they’re cut out to be pros, or whether they should just stop dreaming and go to school (check); even if the contracts aren’t guaranteed, these athletes would get paid to do what must be the one of the coolest jobs to have right out of high school (check). Someone in the thread points out that they’d lose their college eligibility for getting paid to pay, but...well, who cares? They’re not going to cut it, so why shouldn’t the washouts focus on their studies and play intramural soccer for the fix.
Anyway, bang up idea. Wish I thought of it.
In other news...
- Six MLS teams are in action tonight. The blabbing above points to the wisdom of keeping it short here, so let’s do it:
The New England Revolution hosts the Kansas City Wizards tonight (preview). With the Revs finally having (nearly) all their players available, and with KC more flaccid in the face of scoring than Hugh Hefner sans Viagra, the safe call here would be a Revolution win. But, with a nod to form - specifically, the Revs penchant for draws - I’m calling this one a draw. Some habits die hard; I’m thinking the Revs won’t shake this funk till 2007.
The LA Galaxy visits the Houston Dynamo in Reliant Stadium - and this one is on the TV. The preview lists Donovan as “questionable” and that’s something. The Dynamo isn’t losing much, but, by common consensus, they’re not winning enough either. That changes tonight...for no better reason than they’re good enough. Houston wins.
Finally, Real Salt Lake heads to Colorado to fight the Rapids (preview) for some trophy the fans titled the Rocky Mountain Cup. As much as I don’t like going this way, because it’s a home game, I’m calling a win for Colorado...and wait on the rumored return of Alain Nkong, a thug with talent enough to make the violence palatable.
- Paul Gardner, a famously curmudgeonly pundit, had some nice things to say about MLS in the wake of the All-Star game, but his most interesting of his points was this:
“Most of the players on the Chelsea team earn as much in a week as the average MLS player takes home in a year... Those colossal figures ought to mean a huge gap in caliber between Chelsea and the MLS team. They ought to mean that Chelsea could stroll through this one. Instead, they labored.”
If you think he’s exaggerating about the “salary gap” compare the $240K new Chelsea signing Michael Ballack will reportedly take home with this list of MLS players and their salaries. It’s a whopper of a comparison, even if it points to the insanity of what Europe’s pros can earn as much as it compares dollar for value.
- Whoops. Another MLS team is in action tonight: DC United plays Real Madrid in Seattle tonight. Even as I’d like it if DC beat the Spanish giants, I’m not too bothered with this one. Enjoy some previews (LINK, LINK).
- Word of Alain Nkong’s potential return to the league appears above, but there’s more trades happening ahead of the transfer deadline, which (I think) falls on August 15, 2006. Costa Rican midfielder Jafet Soto (not to be confused with Yaphet Kotto) is headed to Real Salt Lake; given that the Costa Ricans don’t play so bad, this one looks like a plus. But the bigger(-ish) deal comes with Santino Quaranta’s trade from DC United to the LA Galaxy. Given, however, that Quaranta’s spent much of this season picking splinters from the bench out of his butt, this isn’t nearly as big as it could be. As a U.S. fan, I hope he finds his feet - though, I have to confess that I’ve never been as high on Quaranta as the rest of the world.
- Finally, every year, EA Sports issues updated editions of a FIFA-sponsored video game. An LA newspaper reports that the game is popular with many of the Galaxy players, even as they found some surprises in the “recreations” of themselves:
“Defender Tyrone Marshall, for example, is seen sporting a bushy mustache and goalkeeper Kevin Hartman is dark-skinned. Midfielder Pete Vagenas has short hair in real life, but he's bald in the video version. The game also has Landon Donovan with a full head of hair.”
“’I paid them off,’ Donovan joked. ‘They used rogaine or something on my guy.’"
Yeah, OK. That’s bum-fluff. And kinda cutesy-weak to boot. I couldn’t resist.
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