By RYAN TOLMICH
Left in club purgatory as a result of Barcelona’s transfer ban, Ben Lederman has returned to the U.S. with the aim of earning more game time.
The highly-touted 15-year-old midfielder, whose family moved from California to join Barcelona’s academy in 2011, has joined the U.S. Under-17 Residency program in Bradenton, Florida, according to Goal USA.
Lederman’s move to the residency program comes in the wake of FIFA’s strict ruling against Barcelona. Penalized last spring due to illegal transfer activity, Barcelona has seen numerous prospects, like Lederman, limited to only team practices, unable to play in games after seeing registration cards revoked.
The registration issues come as a result as Lederman’s status as an international prospect. As a non-European prospect, Lederman would be unable to feature for Barcelona until reaching his 18th birthday in May 2018.
Currently, FIFA has three exceptions that would allow a player to feature prior to their 18th birthday: if a player lives within 50 kilometers of a country’s border and the potential club is within 50 kilometers of the same border, if a player is moving from one European country to another and is at least 16, or if a player’s family is moved to a different country for reasons unrelated to sport.
The New York Times reported Monday that Lederman’s family has seen numerous appeals denied by FIFA, leading to the potential option of taking the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in an effort to challenge the rule that has left numerous young prospects throughout Europe unable to play for the teams they train with.
“It is killing him,” Ben’s father, Danny Lederman, told the New York Times. “And as his dad, it’s killing me, too, to see him like this. A year? Kids need to play; he practices, he practices, he practices, but he can’t play? It’s not right.
“I understand the rule was made to protect kids from being pulled away from their families. But our family made a choice to move to Spain together. Why should FIFA be able to tell our family where it has to live if we want our kid to play soccer?”
Lederman will now join the U.S. Under-17 Men’s National Team residency program, linking up with head coach Richie Williams, who is currently preparing his team for October Under-17 World Cup.
What do you think of Lederman’s situation? How will he fare with the residency program?
Share your thoughts below.
The real tragedy is that Lee Seong-Woo is under the same ban. Now that’s a future superstar.
This sounds like a future Cosmos signing. Thank goodness Cosmos are here to so these kids have an alternative to the oppressive (and disappointing) mls academies.
Why do you want this kid’s career to be over before it starts?
Somebody who knows more than I do, what are the odds he gets signed to another academy of a top club?
Seems the odds are zero based on the NYT article. This isn’t just a Barca issue.
Thanks! I had initially misunderstood and thought that this was the result of Barca’s punishment. From the NYT article it’s clear that isn’t the case.
Exactly what Slow says. He has no shot unless he can prove that his parents moved to a country in Europe with non footballing reasons. This is going to lead to two things:
– Kids without European passport will not move to Europe until they are 18 no matter who wants them. MLS should love but US Soccer might not if it means kids who are wanted by elite academies (Arsenal, Southampton, Barcelona etc) won’t get developed by their elite coaching.
– Parents who want their kids to pursue footballing academy options in Europe will abroad earlier to give the appearance that their move 2qs not football related. E.g. move at 5 yrs to get residency
Interestingly enough, 2 of the Americans who are in foreign academies somewhat legitimately, have parents who work for SAP, the German software company. They arranged foreign transfers that fit into the places where their kids had a chance to get into an academy.
So it will help the haves and not the have-nots.
Btw… I really hate the auto-fill on my phone. It deletes words and adds things when I type. It makes me seem borderline illiterate.
Only an American club (or Toronto or Tijuana since they are close enough to the US border) or an Israeli one (since his parents came to the US from Israel).
Oops… meant Vancouver, not Toronto.
The NY Times articles is very well written. It actually shows a law with good intentions that was poorly written. This will need to be challenged in court.
I’m truly curious what changes you would make? Obviously, the rule would need to apply to the Barcas of the world as well as lesser clubs.
A few things:
– Make exceptions for players whose parents get jobs not dependent on the club
– Make exceptions for parents who make a legitimate attempt to immigrate (that does not mean citizen only, but legal resident)
– Make exceptions for players whose parents can acquire a job transfer or a skilled job near that club location.
Essentially, allow parents who can move to another country for an extended period and maintain their careers, get clearance. You would hurt more blue collar players who parents cannot get jobs there, but you do not want kids moving here by themselves, without their families (too dangerous/exploitative). You also do not want to burden the national systems of countries with hundreds of families who cannot support themselves. Do not allow splitting of families either.
This if off the top of my head.
How about he just go to his high school and not miss out on his teen years?
How about you let him live his own life? His parents aren’t forcing anything on him. They actually didn’t want to move to spain, thought it’d be best to stay in California. But they saw what it meant to HIM, and how much HE wanted to go and become the next Messi.
A real question then. Should any family with a promising child athlete be allowed to move wherever a club will enroll their kid?
Should Barcelona be allowed to temporarily relocate the best 100 or even 1,000 child soccer players from West Africa for years 10-15 — along with their families? Suppose the top super-clubs do this. And then make the necessary cuts when it is clear which child is worth keeping a hold on at age 16.
Should this be completely unregulated?
Is it ok if it’s just 30 kids? Is it ok if the kid’s family comes from a rich country and/or from something other than dire poverty?
Should we let every “next Messi” do this? The next Messi of the Appalachians? The next Messi of the Central Vally? The next Messi of the Twin Cities?
Read the NY Times article if you haven’t. It goes into further depth than the short blurb about Lederman.
this is cute.
Most likely regardless if he stayed at Barca or not, he will be an amazing U-17 player, a great U-20 player a average U-23 and might get a sniff or two at the MNT.
I hope he succeeds and does amazing his entire career but the odds are stacked against him.
Most youth prospects don’t pan out. That’s why teams have hundreds of players in their academies and only a tiny portion of those ever play for the first team (or anywhere as a pro). Not sure we can make any determination about what will happen to Lederman though.
It would be silly to say that Barcas Academy is not a better environment than Bradenton, but it would also be silly to say the U17 Residency program is crap. Further if this kid didn’t show promise neither door would be open to him. Barca will survive the ban and Lederman will still have good opportunities. The real issue here is FIFA misapplying a good rule.
This article does a really poor job at explaining why he can’t play. It is this an issue affecting Barca only or anywhere in the EU?
Ok the NY Times article is clearer. Sounds like it’s basically impossible now for an American to join a foreign club unless they have a passport for that country of, if it’s in Europe, they have an EU passport and they’re at least 16.
An underage (16-18) American player can sign with any club in the world if the parents moved to that country for non-football reasons.
Yes I think the point of that article is that particular loophole is now being greatly scrutinized whereas in the past no one paid attention. In reality that’s unlikely to occur very often (i.e. an American parent with an elite youth soccer player who just happens to get a job in another country where their kid just happens to sign with a club). So most American players without the ability to get a foreign passport will be stuck here until age 18.
What about the Dortmund kid? I forget his name. Isn’t he in the same situation as Lederman?
Pulistic had to get a Croatian passport to be able to stay with Dortmund.
As a USMNT and Barca fan this is really disappointing. We get someone in the best academy in the world and now they have to join Bradenton because of red tape? Infuriating.
It’s not really red tape so much as a rule that hasn’t been enforced aggressively in the past. Anyone with knowledge of the rules knew there was potential for this to happen.
This kid is playing for Barca and we sit here talking about practice…. not a game…. practice. How silly is that?
His dad sounds like a piece of work.
Cap tie him & start him vs Mexico.
I heard that he is the next Freddy Adu!
The ban is ludicrous and seeing that RM will soon be hit by a similar ban, I’m more inclined to think this originated from the Premiership where youth development doesn’t exist and instead poach talents away. An attempt to ‘level the playing field’ by handcuffing clubs with better academies
Club and national biases aside, I think this is a very good rule and it is about time that it gets enforced a little. In the long run, for the game, it should even things out a little, with regards to the divide between superclubs and penniless local teams where the fruit actually grows.
There is a lot of underhanded activity in the game, including charging young players from Africa to go to Europe and ultimately abandoning them without money to fend for themselves. The rule is an attempt to stem some of this.
I hope he looks bigger than in this photo. He looks more like Hyndman v.2 at age 10
This photo is from one of the initial articles about him after he joined Barca, so he was probably 11 or so in this picture.
Being short never held Messi back.
When was the last time Bradenton produced a quality player? He could play anywhere in the world and that’s where picked? Who advises these kids?
Did you even read the article? There are rules against clubs signing under age players from other countries. So, no he couldn’t play anywhere in the World.
No, he has to leave because of the transfer ban applied to Barca. He could play for any other youth academy in Europe or S. America.
No, You misunderstand. Lederman was there before the ban existed. They revoke his work permit because he violated an existing but never enforced rule banning non-EU citizen or resident players moving to an EU country just to play football. He cannot play other club before he turns 18.
He could go to Buenos Aires and play at one of the world’s best youth academies and he chose Bradenton instead. That’s sad.
+100000000000000000000000000000000000
Pardon my ignorance of the age/birthday cut offs, but does this mean Lederman will be a part of the next U17 cycle? He’ll play in the Nike friendlies, WC qualies, etc?
He looks about 10 in that picture
In the Times piece there was a caption saying it was from 2 years ago. But he is on the small side.
American Messi confirmed!
Ugh hate to see him rely on the U.S. Coaching system. Prob learned more in a week at Barca then he will 3 years under U.S. Coaches. I guess he will learn kick and run soccer and how to get continuously hacked.
I hope this is sarcastic
It seems as if he hasn’t impressed the U15 coaches because I don’t think he has featured with them this year and when he did last year he was almost always a sub. Eurosnobs can blame that on the US coaches, but they play and value Hyndman and de la Torre a lot and they aren’t exactly kick, run, and hack players.
I think there may have been some other issues involved in why he wasn’t in camps. It’s rare for the US to pass up a chance to trot out a kid at Barca.
You would think it’s sarcastic given how clueless it is but Martha means it. He/She hates all things US Soccer.
I actually agree with Martha’s general point. The quality of coaching at Barca’s academy is much higher than anything you can find in the US and even our best coaches are several notches down from their coaches. Ben’s aspirations are to become a world class player and our system does not have a good record in producing such players. I am not criticizing the kid for going into the residency program here, this move is out of necessity. But as his dad said, “it is killing him.” I hope that Ben would be able to overcome this adversity and continue to pursue his dreams.
I agree that’s the conventional wisdom but I’m not sure how true it is. I think Barca’s track record in producing players has more to do with the fact that they recruit the best players to begin with than the incredible quality of their coaches.
Not to mention that people also act like Barcelona fields mainly homegrown talent, which they don’t. Yes, that 06-12 had a lot of Academie products, but not a majority and that generation was a bit of aberration.
It is true that they have their pick among the world’s best youth players, but even the best ingredients require a skillful chef. Big clubs have advantage over smaller clubs in signing youth players, but not all of them have reputation for developing talent. Barca does.
Si Si Si
Oui oui oui
Yes yes yes
well put! even the best ing req a good chef!
ps add butter nd then more butter = delish cooking!
No.
Soccer isn’t like other sports. Coaches have a much bigger impact on the development of their players. Furthermore, most prodigies don’t pan out. Only a fraction of youth players turn out to make it professionally. Even if you were to assemble a team of the best 13 year olds in the world, there’s a good chance that none of them would end up becoming top-flight professionals.
Barca is what it is because La Masia is the best youth academy system in the world. Real Madrid, Chelsea, etc. also have access to the best youth players in the world and they don’t produce half the talent that La Masia does.
Sorry to correct you, but most sports I know are like that. Coaching REALLY matters, not just raw talent, and most star athletes don’t pan out. Whether that is basketball, hockey, baseball, football, golf, tennis
Yeah but it matters most in soccer.
If you’re born with incredible size and athleticism, you can become a professional athlete in football or basketball despite not having had elite coaching up until the university level.
Didn’t realize that Barca coaching was that good. Seems odd that the team has to break the bank every transfer window?
U expect Barcelona to have a starting team of all academy products? Look around at all the top teams and tell
Me how many academy players start for them. Clueless
Carles Puyol, Sergi Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Pique, Pedro, Messi, Victor Valdes, Jordi Alba… Don’t all start right now but all did just a couple of years ago. On a couple of occasions every last one of the eleven on the field were La Masia products. And I’m not a Barca fan. But, come on people, they clearly must run some pretty nice training sessions.
Dr. Varela,
No one saying that Barcelona doesn’t produce high level quality players. They always have academy products in their 1st team, since Johan Cruyff set the Barcelona Youth Academy in 1979 (for those of you who don’t know, he modeled it after the Ajax Youth Academy). However, people act like Barcelona 1st 11 is mostly academy products with a few exceptions, and that generally isn’t the case.
The team of 06 – 12 was unique in terms of quality and strength as well as number of La Masia graduates in the first team. Even then, a majority pf the 1st team Barcelona put forth in games were not La Masia products (sometimes, but not a majority). Btw, I don’t how much Puyol and Pedro can really count as academy products since they joined at about 17 years old (unlike other players who joined at 9/10/11). If you are going to say that, then Arsenal, (typically under Wenger) puts a bunch of youth academy products in their first team if you include other youth players they got at 16 from other academies.
shouldve sign for the galaxy academy
Naa….should’ve signed with FCD Academy. He’d be getting pro minutes in 2 years tops.
Not to mention our championship winning academy teams…he’ll win one or two with the U17’s and U18’s then get promoted at 18. He probably wouldn’t start getting minutes right away, but FCD is best in the league in Homegrown minutes however many years running now for a reason.
That’s because FC Frisco took the club and stadium to the ‘burbs where the teenage players are.
The real loser here is Nike, who is desperate for an American they can market to the world.