By Cyote Williams | Times Vedette
I relive the same discourse about the U.S. men’s soccer team every four years. The country unites around the team, gets excited, sets unrealistic expectations for a team they do not follow regularly, and gets irrationally upset when they lose. I’m here, along with a growing contingent of U.S. men’s soccer supporters, to say what the problem is.
In the aftermath of the USA’s embarrassing 4-1 loss to Belgium in the World Cup round of 16 game, the same tired excuse came rattling out. If our best athletes started playing soccer instead of other sports, then we would be the dominant force in world soccer. Simply put, this is not true.
What is true is that across the NBA and NFL is where you can find some of the world’s greatest athletes. Speed, strength, agility and balance are all found in our country’s most popular sports. But, those games lend themselves to the most athletic. There is skill and nuance to them, sure, but nowhere near as much as soccer. It’s why someone like Dennis Rodman could go from never playing basketball until he was 21 to becoming a hall-of-famer. Patrick Mahomes, currently the best QB in the NFL, didn’t start playing football until his junior year of high school. That would have made him roughly 16 at the time.
The best soccer players in the world have already been playing soccer, daily, for a decade by the age of 16. Take Spain’s Lamine Yamal, who broke into FC Barcelona’s starting lineup at 16 years old. Currently, he is 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighs 150 pounds soaking wet and is one of the best players in the world. Those are the same measurements of France’s Ousmane Dembélé, who won soccer’s greatest individual award last season, the Ballon d’Or. Lionel Messi, the greatest player in the history of the sport, is 5 feet, 7 inches tall and 148 pounds. None of them would sniff professional basketball, football or baseball. But they did grow up playing soccer.
The main reason we start so far behind is not because we don’t have the athletes to do so; it’s the youth soccer system in the U.S. Clubs in the states operate in a completely different fashion than they do in the rest of the world. Here, it’s too expensive. Landon Donovan, one of the America’s best talents quoted a 2016 study, saying “Only 2% of kids playing organized soccer in America come from households that made less than $50,000.” He added, “The majority of those kids came from families earning between $100,000 and $150,000 (a year).”
To note, the median household income in the U.S. in 2014 was $83,730.
Don’t take my word for it. Listen to current men’s national team starter Chris Richards. His mom worked at a law firm, and his father owned a moving company. When the economy crashed in 2009, even his family, one that would normally be considered “well-off,” struggled to pay for fees, hotel stays and travel costs. They even roomed with another family to make it work. Clint Dempsey, who is arguably our most talented player ever, had to be discovered by pure luck while playing at Furman College, which was an opportunity he had to fight tooth and nail for just to play at this small South Carolina university. His family had to drive three hours to Dallas just so he could play on a club team. If you are a parent, would you do one of those two things, or just send your child off to the local middle school and high school teams?
Teams across the pond make money through developing talent and profiting from eventual transfer fees for their stars. That money is reinvested into the team and allows the sport to be cheaper for those entering it. It is the other way around in the U.S., where teams charge big fees upfront to make their money. The difference in models is explained well here.
Until the U.S. gets serious about making the sport affordable at the youth level, too many of this country’s admittedly incredible athletes will get pushed into other sports. Even with baseball and basketball growing with international followings, other countries are catching up because they make it more affordable at the youth level. The NBA hasn’t had an American-born MVP since 2018. The U.S. just lost the World Baseball Classic to Venezuela, and Japan back in 2023. This country has proven to do a lot of great things. Becoming great at soccer could be one of them. The solution is clear. Make it more affordable, and watch America rise up in the rankings.
Reach out with comments, suggestions, story ideas and more to cyote@dmcityview.com.