Why MLS and Generation Adidas Kids Aren’t the Best Mix

By: Laurie | March 12th, 2008

So how is MLS at developing talented youngsters? Ask Freddy Adu.

In 2004, Adu was the Next Big Thing. He was the fourteen-year-old Phenom. He was going to take MLS to the next level. He was the highest paid player in the league.

And in 2007 he was… More than a little bitter, and seventeen years old. Traded from DC United to Real Salt Lake after never quite reaching his expected potential, which was that he play older than he was. And then he was traded to Benfica in Portugal — where he’s still working, with some success, on becoming someone who can play with the big guys.

He’s now eighteen years old. He’s a talented kid, and that’s the problem. MLS saw the “talented” and forgot the “kid.”

MLS is working, at last, on youth development. They’re getting a few things right. They’re requiring youth academies for MLS teams. And they have (at last) removed ridiculous barriers that kept team-run youth development programs from having any advantage in signing their own homegrown talent. These are steps in the right direction.

But they still have a ways to go. And one of the issues that will need to be sorted out is “Generation Adidas.”

Generation Adidas (formerly Project-40, back when it was sponsored by Nike), is the main means through which young players can enter MLS without graduating through a college program. There are some great things about Generations Adidas, namely that — unlike in countries with strong youth development programs — it’s pretty much the only way in the US for young players to go pro.

And, since going pro prevents players from ever playing for a college team, it guarantees tuition for these young players in case soccer doesn’t work out. (I’m not positive — I can’t find anything in writing — but I believe that this money may come from Adidas rather than from the league? Anybody know?)

But if there’s a double-edged sword to the program, it’s the fact that Generation Adidas salaries don’t count against the salary cap. And in MLS, the salary cap trumps all. Generation Adidas players frequently go early in the draft, taken by teams who like the thought of bringing in young talent, risk-free. Players who might be given an extra year or two in youth or college programs are instead brought into the pros. And then they…um…well…

Some, like Michael Bradley — who got off to an explosive start for the New York MetroStars (now Red Bulls) before leaping to success at Heerenveen in the Netherlands, or Jozy Altidore, starting for the Red Bulls at seventeen — manage to jump right in and thrive.

Others, though? The ones who can’t leap in right away? MLS doesn’t quite seem to know what to do with them. If a kid doesn’t have the skills right away to play for the first team, the options are limited. They can play in practice. They can play in the reserves. They can… Umm…

The problem is that they need to rely on a team and coaches who are willing to put in the time and energy to develop their skills for what might not be an immediately payoff. In sports, where the only thing that matters are the most recent results, how many of those coaches are there out there?

And let’s not get into the social aspect of a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old thrown into an environment where he’s easily five or more years younger than the next youngest player. It might work for the twenty-year-olds who’ve just chosen to leave college a couple of years early. But sixteen-year-olds? Would you want your kid in that environment?

If the US is ever going to really accomplish things internationally and do right by our young players, we’re going to need youth development systems in place similar to other leagues in the world, where the teams develop youth through their own programs, and the ones who aren’t ready for adult play learn and advance by playing others of their own age, at (or only slightly above) their own level. We’re moving down that road, and we will eventually get there.

Until then, though?

Good luck at Benfica, Freddy.