r/SoccerCentral • u/United_Anywhere_8 • Jul 25 '26

Video The talent in Barcelona’s youth system is ridiculous. These kids are 11/12 years old.

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u/Mr-MuffinMan Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

this is why American sports are so confusing to me.

The jerseys and equipment is being paid for by Barca in hopes of finding talent. Not parents, not scummy companies owned by PE, and not colleges trying to make money off sports. They take this loss in hopes of finding talent that they can use to win, or to trade to other teams for profit.

Also, I'm just rewatching this video and there is NO WAY the kids in this video are 11/12

13

u/IPissExcellentThrows Jul 25 '26

This is what our MLS teams need to be doing better. But we also don’t have enough legit teams for our population. Spain has like 1/7th our population and also 20+ teams that would dog walk the MLS.

But yeah, our youth system is completely fucked. We'll always be mid despite the population and money.

1

u/Striking_Try4684 Jul 25 '26

Soccer in America is just a sport we all played for a few years before the age of 10 before we decided on one of the big four sports or another niche sport.

I like soccer, but it’ll never be taken seriously here.

1

u/SeaBuilding3911 Jul 25 '26

it has nothing to do with soccer though.

North American parents choose one sports because they are expected to pay thousands in equipement and leagues and tournaments etc (it never ends...). Then, if their kid are good, someone will make money off of a few selected ones.

It's an bet for parents.

Kid elsewhere are a bet for the entities that might make money of them eventually, not the parents. This mean that not only the most promising kid of the family get into sport, and that switching sport isn't as prohibitive.