There is no mistaking it, Charlotte Soccer Academy is a powerhouse. From the moment you enter onto their website’s landing page to the time when Brad Wylde, the academy’s executive director and one of its founders, explains the doubts that the club faced as it grew: none.
Lionel Messi es uno de los jugadores de habla más suave del mundo. Si no fuera constantemente uno de los dos mejores, si en vez de eso fuera un jugador medio que saliera al campo para el Stoke City cada fin de semana, entonces hay razones para creer que sólo los fans más duros sabrían quién es. Es increíblemente irónico, entonces, que haya subido a la fama en los albores de la era de las redes sociales, en un momento en el que todo el mundo se está haciendo un nombre a través de sus personalidades.
Jesus “Tecatito” Corona and Jurgen Damm have been on our radar for quite some time. They are 22 and 23 respectively, and are the future of the Mexican national team; it’s hard to not get excited about them, especially Corona. Against Honduras in a World Cup Qualifier, the young Mexican stars justified our excitement.
Rayane Bounida is ridiculously good at soccer. It’s comical. He’s 9-years-old and makes you wonder if he is even aware of the level of embarrassment he puts defenders through on what seems to be a daily basis. Honestly if someone told me that this kid jumps out of bed in the moring and nutmegs his teddy bear I would believe them. He’s the most amazing youth soccer player I’ve ever seen.
The FIFA Golden Boy award shortlist was announced and, surprisingly, it foretells of a European continent dominated by England, Belgium and, more traditionally, Spain.
With a whopping five nominations from each of these countries - the award is given to the U-21 player who displays the highest footballing prowess - the tides appear to be turning in Europe.
Vlad Dragomir arrived at Arsenal in June, signed from ACS Poli Timisoara in Romania for £71,000 ($107,000). The 16-year-old Arsenal phenom was largely an unknown at the time, a central midfielder who liked to get forward on the ball and whom Wenger thought had a bright future. The only other thing we could tell was that young Vlad was a fan of posting copious selfies to his Instagram account (to be fair, what 16-year-old isn't).
July 14, 2012 marked the first-team debut of a 13-year-old kid from Drammen, Norway. Since then, the world has been witness to the record-breaking career of one of soccer’s fastest rising stars: Martin Ødegaard.
When you are a kid, it’s easy to get caught up in your own fantasies. You can day dream about having superpowers, find a cool looking rock and think that it has magical properties, see something totally explainable but think you’ve just witness a miracle. There are no ground rules when it comes to interpreting situations as a kid, and the situation in which these 55 kids were placed in 2013 was ridiculous to begin with. How would you react if you were seemingly between the ages of 7 and 10, and had to face two professional athletes? In soccer kids fail sometimes, but this a unheard of.
It's obvious that the overall development of USA youth soccer is critical to ever seriously be a men's World Cup contender.
If American soccer clubs continue to focus on team training in age group sessions, plus focus on excellence in speed and agility work and functional training, players can reach their maximum potential. This needs to be done on a comprehensive basis.
It appears this is the case, as a sampling of recent All-American prep players would indicate.
Unless you are a diehard fan of Spanish football, you may not have even heard of Unión Esportiva Cornellá (or UE Cornellá as they are more commonly known). This small team from Catalonia was founded in 1951 and plies its trade in Group 3 of the Segunda División B, which represents the third tier of Spanish football.