MLS as League 1
By: Clint | April 26th, 2007I just thought of this while in the shower. What caused France to go from the 15th-20th ranked team in the world to one of the top five teams over the last 15 or so years? Easy answer, of course - immigration from Africa. Seven international players from the current crop were born outside of France (Malouda, Makelele, Mavuba, Thuram, Boumsong, Evra, Viera) and many others were the first generation of their families born in France. Immigration? Sports? Lots and lots of money made available to young athletes from poverty-stricken countries? Sound anything like MLB?
The model is there for MLS - both the French League 1 and MLB have extensive scouting systems within their affiliated teams, both invest in young player development, both provide a symbiotic relationship between the sport and the talented athletes from poor families in countries like Brazil and Cameroon, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. However, where MLB brings over (and somehow takes care of Visas which is something MLS would need to do, as well) young players on the cheap and helps them grow into adequate players or stars, League 1 takes players as far as the finances can support them, then most prized players move on to Italy, Spain, or England.
Let’s see? Does MLS have rich owners? Check. How about a desirable place to live? Check. Immigration policies that make it easy for rich people to bring in athletes on work visas? Check. Other than the relationships with formal colonies that France has with many African countries (which MLS doesn’t need - that is a matter for US Soccer, if it cares), along with the knowledge and scouting talent (which can be bought by bringing in talented people from overseas), why can’t MLS have its teams set up strong scouting systems in Brazil and Argentina and the Ivory Coast? Why can’t Nie and Chivas and the Fire be the ones bringing over 16 and 17 year old talented kids for reserves/youth work and development. Then, when some of the kids grow for a few years and, if they are able to grow adequately in MLS given the competition level, if the team/league can no longer afford the player, sell them to Real Madrid or Milan for a huge profit. If it works for League 1, why couldn’t it work here? Would it be bad? Immoral? Impossible?
Of course, a 15 year old faced with going to Barcelona or the Rapids for training and development is going to take Barca every time, but there are more than a dozen great young talents throughout the world each year, right?
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I grew up in the Dominican Republic, where over a hundred young Dominicans have been scouted from and taken to play for the MLB (and countless more to the Minor Leagues).
What is most important is to show that it is possible to make a good living playing soccer in the United States. That playing soccer for the MLS will help them, and is worth the sacrifices.
This goes for the United States’ poor youth, just as well. There’s a reason that one of the MAJOR goals of the MLS is simply VISIBILITY. If you want to get prospective athletes to focus on soccer and bypass football, basketball, and baseball, a career in the MLS has to look just as lucrative. Baseball, for example, is said to have suffered an image problem with African American minorities, as they failed to portray baseball players making it big in the way football and basketball stars are heard of ALL the time living luxuriously (hotels, nice suits, the IMAGE). The MLB managed to make up for this by filling in for this gap by scouting for Latin Americans.
What the MLS most needs to do for the long-term development of American soccer, as a league and as a national team, is to ensure that soccer is seen as an athletic career opportunity up there as with the NFL or NBA.
Heck, not only will more MLS exposure help this, more European league exposure will help them.
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I agree with Mac; this doesn’t necessarily have to go overseas, there’s enough poor neighborhoods in the US. (and the scouting/development shouldn’t be limited there, there’s sure to be some decent players from middle-class families) Personally, I’d rather see more of a focus on developing American players, and MLS does have that rule of only a certain amount of players can be internationals.
I’d also assume that the clubs in Argentina and Brazil have extensive scouting systems in place in their countries, and I don’t think that the lure of getting developed in MLS could ever compare to what the hometown club offers to most.
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You two should write this blog for me! Those were two incredibly well stated comments (that I wish I had thought of).
I wonder what would happen if MLS was able to change perceptions for gifted athletic teenagers - that it was not only a viable alternative to working towards a basketball, baseball, or football career (even Arena Football and Australian hoops leagues get great athletes thanks to so many kids that spend their lives trying to reach the NFL or NBA and not quite making it), but it was potentially a lucrative one, as well. Would a 15 year old who was the best soccer AND basketball player at his school take soccer more seriously, try for a soccer-based college scholarship, become a great fan of soccer/football leagues if he thought he could make 500k a year if he “makes it to the big league”?
I agree with both Mac and Jilian completely. Visibility, marketing, and more money for players (both perceived and real income) will go a long way in attracting talented young players (especially the hungry ones that tend to neglect/get neglected by the U.S. youth soccer system). Granted we don’t have a great history with soccer as a society, but we have an insane amount of first and second generation immigrants (ex: Rossi) who DO have soccer/football in their blood and on top of that, we’re the United States, dammit! Other than little 14 year old girls who do gymnastics, what country has better athletes than we do? If guys like Dwayne Wade or Derek Jeter had a soccer career path available and were excited about it…
We have WAY too many superior minds and skilled kids in this country to not find a way to help them be great (and if MLS can’t afford to pay them as stars, at least pay them an enticing enough wage so that we’ll have a chance at seeing them develop and play here instead of having them flame out in their second year on a football field at Southwestern State University A&M.
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Clint, you’re hitting all of my hot-buttons as a beyond-all-reason France fan. So allow me to step up on my soapbox.
First off, very, very few of the France players are brought in specifically to play the game. Zidane, Henry and Gallas were all born in France, as were most players on the France NT. Most of the few who are currently playing for the team but who were not born in France are French citizens from way back. Mavuba was born at sea and came immediately to France. Vieira came to France at 8. I think Thuram came to the country at 9. Not exactly recruited to play the game. They came to France and established themselves as players, then were recruited by talent scouts. (I believe most were recruited by the French teams’ very strong youth system.)
If there is a lesson from France, it’s not that we should bring in people specifically to play the game. It is that we need to establish a youth system and scouts to search out talent at a very young age and get them into the system. If we’re following a French model, it won’t involve bringing in eighteen-year-old amazing players from other countries so much as it will involve finding those eight-year-olds with talent and expending the time and effort to develop that talent.
And yes, the majority of the France team is black. This really offends some people, but it is the strength of the team. Specifically, France has an immigration policy that allows people from former colonies to become French citizens. It’s this more than anything that has helped the France National Team become world class.
I’m not upset at your assumptions, but I take every opportunity I can to set the record straight.
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I said, “Specifically, France has an immigration policy that allows people from former colonies to become French citizens. It’s this more than anything that has helped the France National Team become world class.”
To clarify, what I mean is not racial — it’s that France is one of the few European countries to cast a wide net which catches the best players, regardless of race.
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Thanks for the clarifications, Laurie. I hope you realize how easy it can be to interpret the % of French national players who were born in countries other than France as something like a ’scholarship-based’ immigration policy. I stand corrected!
In fact, I’ll remove the original, incorrect remarks and focus on the original point - that like MLB and it’s scouting system in baseball-mad countries, and like French teams (not the national one) who take advantage of the country’s policies to bring in players from Africa (or first generation players from immigrant families), MLS can improve the quality of play without needing to spend 50 million dollars on players nearly as old as I am.
Actually, that point needs more clarification, too. I’m sure America has more superior athletes than France or England or Brazil, but passion for the game is not instilled and developed in American kids the way it is for kids who love baseball and basketball, for example. Or, tennis and golf for that matter. But take a kid from Argentina who moved to L.A. when he was eight and who has grown up playing soccer his entire, brief, life. One who has parents that support and understand the global impact and economics (to a degree greater than most Americans, that is) of the sport. And one who has the passion and desire that comes from being born and raised in a culture that prizes soccer above all other forms of sport/entertainment - hell, look at Adu. THAT is the model. Until we can get kids to believe that soccer is an acceptable “way out”, we’re stuck with guys like Landon and Twellerman. Are they better than I’ll even dream to be? Well yeah. But do they spend their lives addicted to the game because they feel (right or wrong) that it’s their best chance to get into college, or to get their family out of the projects (which Gallas, Henry, Zindane all did in France)? Not to paint all American soccer players as middle class mediocre talents, but on average, the players with the highest level of talent in the U.S. (for playing soccer) AND the highest level of desire for the game AND the highest level of personal incentive for playing for cash would tend to be those living in other countries who wish to migrate to the U.S. or those whose families have moved here recently enough so that the cultural awareness of soccer is still stronger than that of any other sport.
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Clint, I have to tell you: I love the way you handle debate on your page. Thoughtful, intelligent and respectful, and everybody ends up learning something.
There’s one very good blog that I don’t visit anymore because the writer’s only focus is on
Well done!
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That’s odd. What the second line of the ^^^ above comment said when I wrote it was, “only focus is on being right.” Then I think I said something else, but I’m old and my brain is going… So never mind.
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If I understand what you are asking for, I’m not sure I totally like it…
Remember the US National teams of 1994 and 1998? Remember the world-wide searches for foreign players that could play for the USA?
We ended up with guys like Thomas Dooley (German) and David Regis (French), neither of which spoke much English when first called for duty with the Nats. Guys like Roy Wegerle (South African) and Preki (Yugo) — when it was discovered that these guys could qualify and play for the US, they got their citizenship papers and bingo! On the team! Preki wasn’t a US citizen until 1996!
Heck, I love Earnie Stewart, but he’s more Dutch than he was American.
At least guys like Hugo Perez, Frank Klopas, and Tab Ramos emigrated here at an early age.
I think our domestic league rosters should be dominated by Americans. And I’m not the only one who thinks in this way:
http://www.worldcupblog.org/general-banter/donadoni-too-many-of-those-pesky-foreigners-in-serie-a.html
http://www.theoffside.com/world-football/the-call-for-restrictions-on-foreigners-in-club-football-grows.htmlI understand this may lower the quality of MLS in the short term, but I think it is the right move for both MLS and the MNT in the long run.
Italy’s WC-winning team was made up entirely from their domestic league.
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Good points, Chuck. However the problem with bringing guys like Regis and Dooley in as newly-Minted Americans was that… they were Regis and Dooley! I’m not suggesting the national team hunt for poor players from other countries who can’t even make teams in their home leagues.
If MLS was able to keep the McBrides and Kellers here, then I’d probably follow your flag to have American-dominated MLS rosters. But, if players of quality leave the moment they can in search of better leagues, higher pay, and a better chance to learn/grow (with one Landycakes exception), that leaves us with a league that is hardly watchable and DEFINITELY won’t attract a growing audience (aka - it wont survive) over time.
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P.S. - If we had Italy’s players here in America (as citizens), I’d be right in step with your sentiments about domestic players playing in the domestic league.
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