American soccer has a lot of exciting young prospects coming down the pipeline. Several of them are playing at high levels in Europe, as well as coming through American youth clubs and MLS academy systems. Several are already plying their trade at the professional ranks.
U.S. Soccer released its finalists for it’s Young Male Player of the Year on Tuesday, and the list is highlighted by 17-year-old forward Josh Sargent. Sargent captained the U.S. U-17 National Team at the 2017 U-17 World Cup in India, where he helped them to a quarterfinal birth. He was also the youngest player on the U-20 World Cup squad that also made it to the quarterfinals of the tournament.
He shares the record for most goals for the U.S. at youth World Cups with seven, the same tally as Freddy Adu. Overall, he had 15 goals in 2017 in 17 international matches.
Joining him is Paris Saint-Germain youth prospect Timothy Weah. The son of one time FIFA World Player of the Year George Weah signed his first professional contract this fall before featuring for the U-17s at the World Cup in India. His crowning achievement of the tournament was a hat trick against Paraguay in the round of 16.
Also on there is Tyler Adams, who is in his second season with the New York Red Bulls. The defensive midfielder/winger featured in 10 matches for the U.S. U-20 National Team that won the U-20 CONCACAF Championship and made the quarterfinals of the U-20 World Cup in Korea. He scored twice for the Red Bulls while playing in 32 of the team’s 34 regular season matches.
Also on the list are Jonathan Gonzalez of Monterrey, who are playing for the Liga MX title this week, Erik Palmer-Brown, who recently joined Manchester City after captaining the U-20s in their World Cup run, and Luca de la Torre of Fulham, a key fixture of the U-20 National Team.
On the women’s side, Tierna Davidson, Jaelin Howell, Savannah McCaskill, Sophia Smith, and Kate Wiesner are up for the award.
I would like to also nominate Bradley and Altidore for this award.
Yes!
And Freddy Adu too.
Until reading this article, i had totally forgotten that Freddy Adu had had some success on the U20 team that did actually support some of the high hopes that people had for him. It just serves a as a reminder that even a prospect like Josh Sargent still has a long ways to go before he gets first team minutes in a big league.
A much better group than with the adult men with several who are deserving. I like Sargent because he was so outstanding in the U-20 tournament despite being the youngest player on the team. I think Gonzalez and Adams would also be good choices.