College Soccer Opening Opportunities for Foreign Players

Today I stumbled upon a rare gem about US Soccer on the front page of the normally American phobic Soccernet.com. (You have to click on the US Soccer tab to access the excellent columns by Jen Chang, Frank Del Apa, Steve Davis and others). Jason Dasey has written probably the best piece I have ever seen on the impact of American college soccer on foreign players and the doors it opens to those same players making it eventually to Europe.

Dasey’s subject area are footballers from New Zealand and the opportunities provided to them by the American College system and MLS that don’t exist in the Australian based A-League. I agree wholeheartedly on this premise and found this article to be very interesting.

In parts of the world where the footballing infrastructure is less advanced than in Europe and South America college soccer provides those players not identified as a teenagers in places like New Zealand, Sub Saharan Africa and the Carribean an opportunity to develop their skills and become noticed to play professional football.

This piece is further evidence of the value provided by NCAA Soccer and how it can co-exist in an environment in the United States which is rapidly moving towards earlier and earlier development of players.