Quote:
Originally Posted by Ksyrup
This is pretty cool - a guy who is graduating high school with my daughter this year signed a professional deal with Louisville FC that includes an academic scholarship.
I don't know anything at all about college vs pro for soccer, so does this mean he shows more promise than to let him play in college to develop? Basically, like a high end baseball prospect being drafted and playing in the minors?
Dude was unreal this year - scored 48 goals in 19 games.
EDIT - here's an article about it (although it may be behind a paywall). Sounds like it is a somewhat unique arrangement.
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Generally speaking the best players will go through an MLS Academy system early on. But the US being so massive and the MLS Academy system really getting off the ground only a decade ago, a lot of good players will fall through the cracks. Those will go through HS soccer to college soccer. It's at the stage where really the first 10 picks of the draft have meaningful players.
So this means that this person may not have been good enough to be picked up by an MLS Academy but he was good enough for a USL team to sign him out of the high school (edit: though I just read the article and it appears he was in the Louisville City Academy for the last two years - so a way to entice those players to come play for the USL team and not miss out on college education). And a nice touch to pay for his education in case the soccer thing doesn't work out.