Future world-class players from the United States? – Szabolcs Schön is also on display

Ten years ago, in the 2010-2011 season, some experienced European players such as then-32-year-old Frenchman Thierry Henry, 31-year-old Rafael Márquez from Mexico, 30-year-old Brazilian national team member Geovanni or 39-year-old legendary goalkeeper Faryd Mondragón from Colombia all signed with MLS. By contrast, there are 25 players aged between 18 and 25 who are signed by American clubs in the 2020-2021 season. Szabolcs Schön could join this lineup in the summer; his transfer will be announced by the clubs during the March team break. As we've reported, the winger is signed by Dallas from MTK.

On the other hand, we also can see that many young players come from MLS clubs or North America to Europe. For example, AS Roma borrowed defender Bryan Reynolds from FC Dallas. In addition, previous years also include players who have already proved themselves in Europe: only-20-year-old Canadian national team player Alphonso Davies joined Bayern München from Vancouver two years ago; 22-year-old Christian Pulisic became Dortmund's player at 16 before even playing at MLS, now plays for Chelsea; or 22-year-old Weston McKennie signed with Schalke from FC Dallas Academy five years ago, now Juventus' midfielder). Germany has seen a particularly high number of young people from overseas in recent years: Giovanni Reyna (NYFC Academy - Dortmund), Tyler Adams (New York Red Bulls - RB Leipzig), Josh Sargent (St. Louis SGM - Werder Bremen), Ulysses Llaenz (Los Angeles Galaxy - Wolfsburg).

In addition, Henry Wingo plays in the Hungarian League (NB I). He was discovered by Norwegian club Molde in 2019 when he was playing for Seattle Sounders FC in MLS, and then joined Hungarian club FTC in 2021.

EXTENSIVE DATABASES - A HUGE IMMERSION OPPORTUNITY

According to István Kovács, the Hungarian representative of international InStat Football, one of the triggers for the change is that the widespread mapping and video analysis of players in football, modeling after other major sports like ice hockey, baseball, American football, and basketball, have gained more importance in recent years.

“It's not easy to get into American universities because there are a lot of applicants, but an athletic scholarship is a great opportunity – this applies to football, ice hockey, and basketball just like to any other sport. However, in order for higher education institutions, so-called colleges, to be able to sort out applicants, video statistic systems have widespread. We are talking about thousands of colleges, but the use of these tools is now starting to appear in high schools too which provides an even greater immersion opportunity since the number of high schools exceeds 20,000 in the United States,” István Kovács told NSO about how the technical tools can help North American selection in team sports.

“At InStat we have built a system in which the users can search for specific player profiles through various narrowing options, and it's not just in football. In ice hockey, for example, we work with 90 percent of the NHL clubs. Through our databases, they also can select European players while European clubs can also look around the farm teams of American franchises, the hinterland of NHL. A good example is Hungarian Fehérvár AV 19 that regularly uses our system to search for overseas players that fit their profile. This type of scouting is increasing in football, too,” the analyst said.

REDESIGNED YOUTH PROGRAM - YOUNG PLAYERS ARE ON DISPLAY

From the football side, we were also interested in Iván Militár's opinion who was formerly raised by Puskás Academy, went to the United States on a scholarship and now works as a coach there. The coach of Barca Residency Academy, one of the leading institutions of American farm teams, experiences the development of the farm teams on a daily basis.

"The American youth program was transformed in 2007 when the first centralized and national youth team championship, the U.S. Soccer Development Academy (USSDA), was established," Militár said about one of the most important stages of development. “We see the results of this program today. There are a lot of players from this program who now play football for European teams. Among others: Matt Miazga (raised by New York Red Bull, plays for Anderlecht now), Aron Jóhannsson (IMG Academy, Lech Poznan), Zack Steffen (Continental FC DELCO, Manchester City), DeAndre Yedlin (Seattle Sounders, Galatasaray), Matthew Hoppe (Barca Residency Academy, Schalke) and of course Christian Pulisic (PA Classics, Chelsea). The great advantage of this program was that it brought the youth players of the highly fragmented United States with a huge number of players under one platform. It broadly standardized the expectations of the conditions and allowed only clubs with the best players to compete. This meant that even in secluded places, it became clear to all players that if someone wanted to become a footballer in the U.S., they would have to find a way to get to the USSDA. The best players were then brought to such a club where they were able to make progress quickly under the hands of highly educated coaches, on good pitches, with intensive training, and at weekends they could train in matches played in accordance with the European rules."

This organizational step, combined with the widening of the monitoring methods outlined above, made it possible for millions of active young footballers to be available for professional clubs and youth training workshops.

"Last year, under the auspices of Major League Soccer, the program MLS Next, based on very similar principles to MLS, took over the organization of the highest level of youth training. The now-entrenched MLS has now extended its powers not only to adult football, but also to youth football, making the best players sign with them,” the Hungarian coach added. However, Militár explained that there is no youth development cost payable between amateur clubs, meaning that MLS teams can get talents of non-MLS clubs for free, and European clubs can also get valuable players gratis.

“Matthew Hoppe signed with Schalke for free from our academy while Pulisic transferred to Germany from a smaller club in the state of Pennsylvania. Overall, the achievements of the American farm teams, the ratings of the world-class players and the general development of MLS have created an opportunity for MLS clubs to put young players on display.”

"MAKING A BIG STEP FORWARD" – SZABOLCS SCHÖN'S OPPORTUNITY

And Szabolcs Schön can also be on display in the summer after joining Dallas.

“The quality of MLS beats the average European level.I am thinking of the Belgian or Dutch topflight, or the English second division. If we look at it this way, then Szabolcs Schön makes a big step forward. The American league definitely demands a higher performance than NB I,” stated Militár of the 20-year-old winger's transfer.

“I think he's made a great choice and he'll have another trip back to Europe. Dallas is already a nice place to be at; he'll have a good time in the city of Texas. FC Dallas is a special place because it's been building on youngsters to a long time. For example, Weston McKennie joined Juventus from here. The team is not only successful in MLS, but its third division team North Texas FC also won championships several times. This shows that not only do they build on young people but can also succeed with them. In the current lineup, there are players who have appeared in well-known European clubs: Franco Jara (Benfica, Olympiacos), Bryan Acosta (Tenerife), or José Martínez in Barcelona B.”

At the same time, the young Hungarian expert also explained that, despite the spectacular development of recent years, an important factor remains lacking in football overseas which makes it unlikely that American talent will significantly redraw the international balance of power on a national team level.

"I see that the ideological background is lacking in American football. Because a lot of people play football, everything is given everywhere, so it's not surprising that talents are being produced under the Law of large numbers. Without an ideological background, however, this development can only take football in the U.S. as a whole to a certain level. In order for the U.S. national team to be among the top teams at the national level, it would require its own style, a unique football philosophy stemming from the diverse American society. English, Dutch, Spanish and German influences can be experienced at national level, but there is no single professional concept that can lay the foundations for progress and breakthrough success in the long term, even at the level of the national team. Nevertheless, we can count on raising players who will reach the European top level in the future."

(Translated by Vanda Orosz)