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Interesting blog post looking at the same problem from a slightly different perspective ...
The trademarked motto of the American Youth Soccer Organization is, “Everyone Plays.” As comforting and class blind as this sounds, and as somewhat true as it is for the most basic youth leagues in the country, it’s an empty slogan if your aim (or, let’s be realistic, the aim for your kid) is to develop into the kind of player that might one day interest professional clubs and national youth teams. Because if that’s your aim, you need to get out of AYSO and start paying a lot to play a lot.
Consider the following: Seven of the 23 squad members for the 2014 World Cup USMNT are graduates of IMG Academy.* This is not an academy in the sense of European pro club academies, which do not charge a fee for your child’s enrolment and usually pay for equipment. No, if you want your kid at IMG, you’ll need to fork over $70,000 annually. Your child would be very lucky indeed if he ever made that kind of money playing annually in the MLS.
Even for those in the squad who didn’t go to IMG, a significant time and monetary investment was required. DeAndre Yedlin, for example, one of the most promising of young players to emerge in the US in the last few years, was groomed in Seattle’s prestigious Emerald City FC, Northwest Nationals, and Crossfire Premier programs, each of which charge annual fees of over $2000, with uniform fees and significant travel expenses added on top of that. If IMG is near the top end in terms of cost, the types of programs Yedlin attended are near the lower end. $2000+ (or $50,000+) annually may not seem like a lot of money to some, but it really is if you’re struggling to make ends meet, and, say, if you can’t get out of your evening shifts to drive your kid to four or five different training and match events every week.
If that’s you, and you still value sport, and you think your kid has talent, you’re not thinking US soccer.
Look down the line at past and current American soccer stars, and you’ll discover backgrounds dotted with private schools, expensive soccer programs, well-educated families, and suburban bliss. Look down the line at past and current stars playing for almost any other nation (and at the world’s best clubs), and you’ll find the opposite narrative.
I realize I’m generalizing here, and there are exceptions. But even some of the more marked exceptions highlight the situation I’m describing. Clint Dempsey grew up in a trailer park, but was undoubtedly talented from a very young age. Yet, the only reason he was able to enroll for the elite Dallas Texans youth system is through benefactors with means. Not all kids are as fortunate.
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