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Posted

Question for those with futbol knowledge as mine is very limited...

My son just turned 15. He plays for a non-academy team that plays its games in MLS Next. This non academy team is new (<3 years old) but they have serious money backing them and they have international alliances (mostly in Spain and Mexico). My son is now starting to play with the u19 team, which is a very good team, and discussions are being had for him to start working out twice a week with the USL2 team...

All of this sounds great, however, the local MLS academy team is also recruiting my son heavily. They say he would practice with u18s and get some game minutes + play games with his proper age group (u16) in the MLS Next league.

My question to the group is, what do you think is the better pathway? USL2 and then possible international clubs? Or local MLS academy and their pro pathway?

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

How does school work with USL2? I’m assuming he’s a freshman, so I’m assuming training in the morning, academy online schooling, then training again in the evening, correct? I think that’s how ATXFC does it. Is USL2 free and will they pay all expenses, including travel? Will they pay for a parent to travel with their 15yo?
 

All things being equal regarding playing minutes, obviously ATXFC has more prestige and likely better coaches and far superior competition, but from what I’ve seen you can get dropped pretty quickly from the club and they are ALWAYS trying to recruit someone better than who they have. USL2 may seem safer to latch onto for longer but likely have fewer pro connections at the highest levels and therefore fewer opportunities to advance up the pyramid, IDK. 
 

I would ask about QOL outside of soccer/training, talk to other players and parents in the club. Are they happy? Is their kid happy? Is your son absolutely obsessed with soccer? Because you kind of have to be to basically be a 365 day athlete, especially at 15. Will he miss going to his high school to do online courses? There are a ton of questions to ask even before you start getting into playing time and prestige of club. 
 

My own son is 13 and on the highest level team for his age at his club but with ECNL. He chose that over MLS next because he still wants to do a lot of shit outside of soccer, including playing other sports, basketball and American football might actually be his favorite.
 

Ask A LOT of quality of life questions of the clubs and talk to your family about the answers. Burnout and confidence loss is super common at those levels but you prolly already know that. Talk about what he will do if/when that happens. It sounds like he’s awesome, so what’s his ultimate goal? MLS? Europe? College? Just having fun at the highest level for as long as possible?
 

I think another poster on here has a son who’s at the professional level through MLS or MLS2 but I can’t remember whom. Hopefully he sees your post.

Out of curiosity what position does he play? Mine moved from the 9 to a winger and finally to RB which is a hot position right now because, at least on his team, he’s a box to box wingback style RB due to his physicality and speed and that feels like that’s a position of need and novelty in the game rn. I’m wondering about if your kid plays an attacking spot where it feels like there’s always gonna be another Messi coming up right behind him. 

Posted

USL2 is not a good league and has 144 teams vs MLSNextPro that is, obviously, much better connected to moving up. Him getting minutes with a NextPro team would be really impressive, but are you sure they didn't mean MLSNext which is not the same as NextPro. 

Posted

USL is supposedly starting a pro/rel top flight league to compete with MLS and has four tiers to their pyramid so that could be interesting (especially if MLS is interested in a merger 🤷🏽‍♂️

  • Like 1
Posted
1 hour ago, Bottlecap said:

USL is supposedly starting a pro/rel top flight league to compete with MLS and has four tiers to their pyramid so that could be interesting (especially if MLS is interested in a merger 🤷🏽‍♂️

I thought they dropped the Pro/Rel talk recently in their championship level announcement

  • Like 1
  • 3 weeks later...
Posted
On 2/17/2025 at 9:47 PM, Bottlecap said:

How does school work with USL2? I’m assuming he’s a freshman, so I’m assuming training in the morning, academy online schooling, then training again in the evening, correct? I think that’s how ATXFC does it. Is USL2 free and will they pay all expenses, including travel? Will they pay for a parent to travel with their 15yo?
 

All things being equal regarding playing minutes, obviously ATXFC has more prestige and likely better coaches and far superior competition, but from what I’ve seen you can get dropped pretty quickly from the club and they are ALWAYS trying to recruit someone better than who they have. USL2 may seem safer to latch onto for longer but likely have fewer pro connections at the highest levels and therefore fewer opportunities to advance up the pyramid, IDK. 
 

I would ask about QOL outside of soccer/training, talk to other players and parents in the club. Are they happy? Is their kid happy? Is your son absolutely obsessed with soccer? Because you kind of have to be to basically be a 365 day athlete, especially at 15. Will he miss going to his high school to do online courses? There are a ton of questions to ask even before you start getting into playing time and prestige of club. 
 

My own son is 13 and on the highest level team for his age at his club but with ECNL. He chose that over MLS next because he still wants to do a lot of shit outside of soccer, including playing other sports, basketball and American football might actually be his favorite.
 

Ask A LOT of quality of life questions of the clubs and talk to your family about the answers. Burnout and confidence loss is super common at those levels but you prolly already know that. Talk about what he will do if/when that happens. It sounds like he’s awesome, so what’s his ultimate goal? MLS? Europe? College? Just having fun at the highest level for as long as possible?
 

I think another poster on here has a son who’s at the professional level through MLS or MLS2 but I can’t remember whom. Hopefully he sees your post.

Out of curiosity what position does he play? Mine moved from the 9 to a winger and finally to RB which is a hot position right now because, at least on his team, he’s a box to box wingback style RB due to his physicality and speed and that feels like that’s a position of need and novelty in the game rn. I’m wondering about if your kid plays an attacking spot where it feels like there’s always gonna be another Messi coming up right behind him. 

Great advice here...thanks!!  Lots to consider for sure.  Most notably that the track record here has been abysmal for home growns.  Not a single home grown player has made the first team in over a decade.  Two years ago, wholesale changes in the academy were made and the new academy director seems to really have his stuff together. So that will be changing as several kids under 18 are playing and excelling with the 2nd team.

Update, HE chose the MLS Academy.  Came up with a pros and cons list, talked to the academy directors from both clubs and made, what seems to me, a very informed decision.  Gotta say, I'm pretty proud of his maturity for a kid that just turned 15.

He is a number 10 though since we have made the move, he has been playing primarily as a "false 9" or out on the left wing.  First two games, he played with his age group, but the next three has been with the u19's...starting and playing the full 90.  Has picked up one goal and two assists so far...

He is practicing in the AM sessions with the an integrated 2nd team/u19 workout.  They tell him if he keeps progressing, he could get a few minutes with the the 2 by summertime...
Fingers crossed...

 

  • Hook 'Em 3
Posted
On 2/18/2025 at 12:21 PM, Bottlecap said:

USL is supposedly starting a pro/rel top flight league to compete with MLS and has four tiers to their pyramid so that could be interesting (especially if MLS is interested in a merger 🤷🏽‍♂️

Supposedly, they are going to invite a ton of universities into this mix.  Several college scouts have told me this.  The universities dont believe the NCAA has any legs to stop them...

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted
On 2/18/2025 at 10:57 AM, SimonBolivar said:

USL2 is not a good league and has 144 teams vs MLSNextPro that is, obviously, much better connected to moving up. Him getting minutes with a NextPro team would be really impressive, but are you sure they didn't mean MLSNext which is not the same as NextPro. 

Playing with u19's on our local MLS academy team.  If he steadily progresses, they are telling him he could get a few minutes with 2nd team this summer...

  • Like 1
Posted
4 minutes ago, Soccer Dudes Dad said:

Supposedly, they are going to invite a ton of universities into this mix.  Several college scouts have told me this.  The universities dont believe the NCAA has any legs to stop them...

I've heard this from some podcasts and I think it would be great to get universities involved with the tree even if that isn't the best path to creating pro soccer players.

Posted
1 hour ago, SimonBolivar said:

I've heard this from some podcasts and I think it would be great to get universities involved with the tree even if that isn't the best path to creating pro soccer players.

Agreed.  And maybe it does help the development pathway.  I think I read where USL is putting more kids into European clubs than MLS...

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