The MLS has seen a real youth revolution over the past few years.
The league that was once called a retirement home for ageing stars is now gaining global recognition as a development league - most importantly, from their own backyards in the U.S. and Canada.
In 2007, the MLS made global headlines with the capture of David Beckham. Beckham’s arrival ushered in a new era of MLS, but their best decision to date came the following year. It was decided that all MLS clubs must have a development system - an academy.
Academies take time to churn out results, but there were promising signs. In 2010 both Juan Agudelo and Andy Najar burst onto the scene for the New York Red Bulls and D.C. United respectively. Since then, in the past decade, there has been steady growth.
A good example is the emergence of Gyasi Zardes and Diego Fagundez. However, the results only started to show on a grand scale in 2016. One of the U.S. Football’s best prospects, Jordan Morris, decided to reject an offer from Bundesliga side Werder Bremen in order to stay home and play for the Seattle Sounders.
2016 was also a big year for MLS’ two most well known academies: FC Dallas, and the New York Red Bulls. FC Dallas had academy players play significant minutes like Kellyn Acosta, Jesse Gonzalez, and Victor Ulloa as they went on to win the MLS Supporters shield. And in the Eastern Conference, the New York Red Bulls won the conference with giving minutes to Alex Muyl, Sean Davis, and Connor Lade.
FC Dallas is capable of fielding an entire starting lineup made entirely of homegrown talents and could still make it to the playoffs. They have developed players who moved onto Europe instead of playing in MLS like Weston Mckennie and Chris Richards. Every year another FC Dallas academy alum is able to have his breakout season. In 2019 it was Paxton Pomykal, and fans are hopeful to see more of Ricardo Pepi when the MLS season resumes.
The Red Bulls organization went from signing older superstars like Tim Cahill and Thierry Henry to investing heavily in their youth setup and producing players like Tyler Adams and Matt Miazga. The pressing style that the Red Bulls use is taught at all levels of the system from the youngest youth teams to the senior squad. This is part of the reason so many Red Bull academy graduates have made such a smooth transition to the first team.
The trend is spreading
Other MLS franchises started developing their youth more seriously. In recent years, LA Galaxy, Real Salt Lake and the Philadelphia Union have become major players in the youth scene.
The LA Galaxy are in a hotbed of U.S. talent and over the recent years have had players leave their academy to sign in Europe. Kobe Hernandez-Foster and Ulysses Llanez both moved over to Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga instead of signing homegrown deals with the Galaxy. However, they hope that players like Efrain Alvarez and Cameron Dunbar will help convince these talents to get their feet wet first in MLS.
Real Salt Lake is in a similar situation to the Galaxy. Some of their most promising youth stars have left before making an impact for the senior team. However, the Philadelphia Union is in a completely different scenario - after years of disappointment they finally seem to be getting it right. This turnaround is spearheaded by their academy. Mark Mackenzie and Brendan Aaronson have led the charge. They are both under the age of 21 and were part of the USMNT’s last camp in January.
The MLS development scene has gained enormous popularity in the past year or so with the emergence of two young talents currently in the Bundesliga - Tyler Adams and Alphonso Davies.
Adams, who went through all levels of the esteemed New York Red Bulls academy, switched to affiliate RB Leipzig in 2019, and when not injured has shown well in a multitude of positions.
Davies is a bit different. Born a refugee in Ghana to parents fleeing civil war in Sierra Leone, he only joined the Vancouver Whitecaps’ residency program at 14. Less than two years later he made his MLS debut becoming the second youngest debutant after Freddy Adu. After two promising seasons in Vancouver he made the record setting move to Bayern Munich, where he gained a star status tearing up the left flank with his lightning-fast speed.
The sun is rising on MLS, shining its light on young and exciting talents from local communities. This will help MLS grow as a league and also help the United States Men’s National Team as well. Everybody loves going to their stadium and being able to identify with one of the players. Football is about community and with the development of homegrown players from local areas clubs are bringing the community into football.
