Blog Post 1
Thomas Caleb Pruett
Prof. Jenkins (PS 101)
3/9/2022
Blog Post #1
Pay-to-play Youth Soccer System in America
World renown famous soccer player Zlatan Ibrahimovic once said, “It has to be said the sport is expensive, very expensive. For example, in order for my children to play in a good football team, I have to pay $3,500 per child. It is not for the figure, but for the whole concept, I dislike it very much because not everyone has the money needed and the sport should be something for everyone, because it unites people of whatever origin.”. Around the world soccer or as most call it ‘football’ is a sport for everyone. Outside of the United States soccer starts and is learned in the streets, backyards, front yards, playgrounds, and so on. However, here in the U.S., this is not the case. Perhaps the reason for this is cultural but even beyond cultural reasons, many other issues play a role in why soccer in America has become a suburban sport instead of an urban one.
The pay-to-play system in the United States can be summed up simply. To play at a good level such as a club team or academy system in youth soccer you have to pay a large sum of money. Whereas in other countries a lot of these clubs and academies are free to get trials and once you make it onto the team’s roster, they will not charge you anything or at the least very little. If someone like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who made 7.2 million last season in playing wages alone is complaining about how much he has to pay for his children to play then there is a major problem. The main issue with this system is that you get a lot of talented kids who fall through the cracks and ultimately do not get picked to play at these high-level clubs and organizations simply because their parents or guardians cannot afford the steep prices. This directly affects the level that the U.S. national team and the MLS (major league soccer) here in the U.S. are at in comparison to the rest of the world.
Now, soccer is not the most popular sport in the U.S., and it is not even the second most popular, soccer is probably closer to the fourth behind American football, baseball, and basketball. From the global perspective, the U.S. is miles beyond any other country in these sports in terms of talent level. Why is that? This is because when you think about all of the kids who are being recruited to play for the top colleges are being recruited from high school which is the majority of times free to play for. On the other hand, to be recruited for college or professional academies in United States soccer a kid has to play outside of high school for expensive clubs just to be seen. This is the root of why the U.S. professional league and national teams struggle in comparison to the other countries around the world. One would think that with the massive size of our country surely there would be a large enough talent pool to make a top five competing national team, but this is not the case at all. In fact, at the time of writing this the U.S. men’s national team is sitting at 13th in the world while football, basketball, and baseball are widely considered to be completely United States dominated.
How does this get fixed? The answer is not so simple in actuality. It is not like the whole system can just be erased and the U.S. just mimics what other countries use for their youth systems. It is because soccer is not the most popular sport here that this problem arose in the first place. If you think of all the costs that come with simply running a soccer organization, they include things like paying the coaches, paying for a field to use, travel expenses, referees, and equipment. The United States is a capitalist economy but also a capitalist culture. If there is no money to be made through soccer, then nobody is willing to play. The good news shining through all of these issues is that the United States is a melting pot of so many different cultures. In time with the rate at which our country is diversifying eventually the United States will reach the level at which other countries are already performing. Evidence of this is that our national team is slowly, year by year, moving up in the national rankings, and more and more homegrown talent is finding their way into major leagues in Europe and abroad.