Editor’s Note: We’re pleased to republish this article from The Soccer Business with permission from the author. Thank you to Simon Evans for generously allowing us to share their reporting with the U.S. Soccer Parent community. Please support their work by subscribing to their newsletter and podcast: newsletter link I podcast link
The most striking and interesting aspect of the MLS season so far has been the emergence of a cohort of confident and talented homegrown teenagers making their mark with impressive performances and standout goals.
Last weekend in the shiny Nu Stadium, 18-year-old Julian Hall of the New York Red Bulls made a fool of Inter Miami’s World Cup winner Rodrigo De Paul before perfectly setting up 17-year-old Adri Mehmeti who clinically converted. Two players who had come through the Red Bulls academy, into their MLS Next Pro team, had provided a moment of top quality in a high-profile game and both played with composure and class throughout the contest.
But they were by no means alone – earlier that day 17-year-old Jude Terry had scored a wonderful long-range goal for LAFC while Real Salt Lake’s 19-year-old Zavier Gozo has been the talk of the league for some time and his even younger team-mate Aiden Hezarkhani is also attracting attention.
For all the talk of the failures and faults of America’s youth soccer development (and there are many) there is strong evidence that the MLS Academy system is now delivering the desired results – a production line of talented young players ready for the professional game at the age of 17 or 18. This is important as the old system of drafting out of college, while well established for other American sports, delays development until it is too late for soccer – players entering the pro game in their 20’s are years behind their counterparts from other countries.
But now the question arises as to what MLS should do with this talented class of 2026 and those who are likely to follow in the coming years?
Modern scouting through video and data means these players aren’t going unnoticed outside of the U.S. I spoke last week to a foreign club that already had two of the players mentioned in this article on his club’s radar. MLS is actually a very easy league to scout for European and South American clubs with ample video and data.
So these kids aren’t going unnoticed and you can bet their agents are already receiving calls. All of a sudden, MLS clubs can see a return on their investments in academies over the past decade and the players (or rather their agents) can sense the opportunity for rewards beyond the self-imposed limits of MLS salaries.
The temptation then will be to cash-in quickly, flip the teenagers to European clubs and replace them with the next talent on the club’s production line or another import from Central or South America. That is, after all, how it works for most selling leagues in the world. Brazilian and Argentine starlets don’t tend to hang around long with the club’s that have developed them. They same with talent from Europe developed outside of the elite leagues, such as in Eastern Europe.
But while MLS still is a selling league, it is also different from most of the other competitions that feed the insatiable desires of the big five European leagues in that it aims to become one of the top leagues in the world itself.
That is why it would be a major mistake if this generation of players is quickly moved on to Europe. From a club revenue point of view – the transfer fee for a teenager from MLS isn’t going to be huge but will grow significantly if they are allowed to develop further for a few more years, breaking into the national team and building up a more significant body of work at a high level. There is a financial reward for patience.
For the player too – it is better not to jump at the first offers that come in after just a handful of appearances in MLS. Chances are that the buying club will view the player as another development project, along with their own academy products, and place them in a reserve team or loan them to a less demanding league. We have seen many case of young Americans head to Europe, not develop or not get opportunities, and then return to MLS a few years later, their progress having been slowed and their value having vanished.
Clubs in many selling leagues, sell early because they have serious cash-flow problems and the departure of the 18-year-old ‘wonderkid’ can solve many issues in the short term. MLS clubs aren’t in that position though and can afford to stand firm and let the players (and their values) mature.
At a league level there is another big reason why it would be prudent to hold firm when those early offers come in: American soccer fans love watching American talent – and there is something different about supporters becoming attached to a local hero. There hasn’t been enough of that yet in MLS. What message it would it send about MLS if the first serious wave of homegrown talent the league has produced is quickly sent off to the reserve teams or feeder teams of mid-tier European clubs?
Moving to Europe can help an American player grow to the next level – and every player wants to test themselves against the best. But a 22-year-old with four years of MLS and international football under his belt is going to be in a much stronger position to thrive than an 18-year-old with a single season in MLS to his name – and will cost more for the buyer too.
For player, for club and for the league, MLS needs to hold on to the Class of 26 for as long as they can.
Simon Evans
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