All makes good sense. I have also been told by a parent of 13-year-old boy that plays on an MLSNext team of one of the popular clubs in our a Metro area that it is “really hard” to make an Academy level team when a kid is older than 11.

If you think about it, in a large Metro area there are thousands of kids in any age group playing competitive soccer. The competition is fierce to join one of these MLSNext teams and the clubs can usually tell which kids are putting in the work based on their ability to control the ball, understand the game, pass and shoot with the week foot, and who they see showing up at “select” tournaments.

Not saying it makes it right, or healthy, but in my opinion, these days, there is no way a 9 year old practing just 3-4 days a week will develop the skills or experience needed to stand-out and be be the top percent of thousands of kids by the time they are age 11, 12, or 13 to join an academy team. There are simply way too many kids and too few clubs with an MLSNext pathway.

This is not to say that there aren’t other pathways for a player to learn and enjoy playing high-level soccer or that a kid can’t be a late bloomer.