Matt Kassel could not have asked for a much better freshman season in college than the one he just finished. The New Jersey native just helped Maryland to an NCAA title in what could wind up being his only season of college soccer.
According to multiple sources, Kassel is leaning heavily toward turning pro and is presently exploring his options, which include seriously considering signing with MLS.
If you think Kassel's MLS options begin and end with the New York Red Bulls, think again.
If Kassel decides to sign with MLS (and sources tell SBI the league is ready to offer him a Generation adidas contract if he does) the Red Bulls would then have the right to add Kassel directly to its roster as a homegrown player. However, if the Red Bulls pass on Kassel, he would then go into the 2009 MLS Draft.
MLS Director of Player Programs Alfonso Mondelo confirmed to SBI that a player in Kassel's situation would indeed enter the 2009 MLS Draft if the Red Bulls were to pass on signing him after he had already been signed by the league, which means the Red Bulls will have a tough decision to make. The club didn't think Kassel was MLS-ready last summer and didn't want to exercise the Generation adidas homegrown player mechanism on Kassel for that reason (in part because the team would then be prevented from using the mechanism for two to three years). Do the Red Bulls sign Kassel and take their chances that they won't miss out on the next big homegrown prospect, or do they let Kassel go into a 2009 MLS Draft where he would be a potential first-round draft pick?
As for whether MLS will actually sign Kassel to a Generation adidas contract, the league was ready to do so last spring so now that Kassel has a year of college soccer under his belt he is an even more attractive option.
So what will the Red Bulls do? It is tough to say. If not for the possibilty of him entering the draft I would see the Red Bulls passing, but can the club really just let one of its most highly-coveted products just head into the draft?
What do you think of these developments? Do you think the Red Bulls taking Kassel if MLS does? Could you see the Red Bulls passing and Kassel winding up on an arch-rival like D.C. United (which has two first-round picks)?
Share your thoughts below.
Ives,
Is there any chance that rules governing Generation Adidas and signing academy players will change during the next CBA negotiations? If so, in which ways do you think? Based on that, what course do you think would be best for RBNY regarding Kassel?
what makes all of you think it’s really Agoos’ decision to make— WAKE UP PEOPLE!!! The coach makes these decisions- not Agoos….
Ives have you asked Agoos about this and can you mention a lot of Metro fans want Kassel on the squad, please?
Metro have to sign the kid imo its win-win the odds are against him but you just dont let a homegrown player slip from your graps You Do Not Do That. If he fails its on him, if he succeeds and its with someone other than NY that is An Epic, and I mean fire immediately, Epic failure on the FO.
That what I believe will happen. …That this idiots will do exactly that, pass on him and Seattle will pick him up in a super draft…
C’mon, you just know that RBNY is gonna f**K this up and not sign him
100% agree with the previous posters that these restrictions on how many players you sign from your academy are ludicrous. Get rid of ’em
Let youth be served! Red Bulls need to take some chances on the young, American talent in the New York area. It’s supposedly full of good youth soccer, so why not sign as many young players as possible, including the occasional GA player, and see who rises to the top? In the end, it’s not that big of a risk. We’re not talking about maxing out on a Claudio Reyna.
If I were him I would go for European money if it were available, or stay in finish college. I think a college degree is worth more, even in a crude money oriented way, than a Generation Adidas contract.
Just let him go in the draft and hope you draft him; if not, just trade with the team that does–problem solved.
MLS is ridiculous. To really grow the league, you should be allowed to bring up as many academy players as you want and not be penalized. Likewise, you should then be able to sell or loan out academy players abroad or to USL teams. This just makes too much sense. What other sport in America can you train for a team at a young age and work your way up to the first team? None…think of the PR
The problem with soccer in America is that they need to get the kids that are playing on the pitch at a young age to be inspired and think one day,they can play for there local MLS team, much like kids dream of stepping to the plate, bottom of the 9th runners in scoring position in baseball. By encouraging teams to A. have decent academies and B. not penalizing teams from bringing up academy players, the league would help create a new generation of fans/players AND create a buzz that does not exist in American sports. That being the case, sign the kid.
A lot of interesting issues here…NYRB lost a year by not signing him to a GA contract this year (the blackout period on another homegrown prospect would be a year shorter). That is, unless NYRB admits that Maryland is a better training ground than the pros. Why sign him now when not last year? I expect them to pass.
I have not seen Kassel play; I’m assuming he played in the middle. You cannot judge him based on stats or whether he takes over games. I used to watch Maryland a fair amount and catch some ACC games live when I lived in the DC area, and people need to understand that college ball essentially bypasses central midfielders–they are there to win the occasional ball and distribute one pass. This is b/c defenders as a unit at the college level (even on the best teams) cannot distribute the ball out of the back–teams tend to have the tall positional central player and then small, tough mugging outside defenders w/limited skills. Outside mids tend to be in there run like hell and flame out and be subbed back and forth; so there is not much interpassing. Shoot, I saw enough games where Maurice Edu might have touched the ball 5x if he was lucky, and I don’t think he ever scored more than a handful of goals in a season.
I saw him play for two minutes in a game one time and he didn’t nutmeg anybody. Obviously, he sucks.
Eugene,
If just one MLS team is interested they will still sign him to a GA contract. However, that team has to sign the player if no one else does. So if for some reason the kid has a terrible combine and no one else takes him you have to take him with your last pick of the draft. That is my understanding of how it works at least.
So does the fact that MLS is ready to offer him a GA contract even if NY is not imply that ANOTHER team is also interested in him?
I was under the impression that for MLS to sign underclassmen to GA contracts multiple teams had to be interested in that player. They don’t just sign talented underclassmen because one team is interested.
So if the Red Bulls are one of the teams, who are the others?
Independently, I think it would be very bad for NY to pass on one of it’s best homegrown players to date. It would send the wrong signal to the academy and would set the wrong precedent. The fans would also be understandably upset.
In the times I have seen Kassel play for Maryland, I also thought he wasn’t ready to make the jump to MLS. I don’t think he stood out on this Maryland squad. However, put him in a pro environment and perhaps he could considerably accelerate his development. Kassel clearly has an opportunity to force the issue with NY and honestly I don’t believe NY can afford the fallout of passing. If another, better candidate comes up within a year, NY has the option of trading Kassel or perhaps moving him out of GA to a senior contract. So Kassel would need to show solid development next season.
Red Bull have to sig up. n him because if he ends up a star somewhere else i dont think the fans will every forgive management. Also with the new collective bargaining coming in 2010, the call up rule for academies might change and then they can call someone else and if it doesnt change they still have a first round pick talent without using the draft pick.
do you know that if we get him as a GA now…. we can get even more GA in the draft…. kinda common sence….
ok…I’ve seen him play at Maryland and he started the first 19 games, beating out one of the captains. After he got injured, the coach rotated him and it was obvious that he was better especially when he played practically the whole final. He never has been a flashy player and he is in a defensive role which is not his position and he still excelled being named to the ACC freshman team. So, I think it’s fair to say that he has more than potential to be pro!
He’s solid…… a solid project, he still needs a couple of years on the vine !
Robbie Rogers was a similar deal, players freshman year at the same school and won the championship with 7 goals and 5 assists.
The rules should be changed to sign players, but what is with all this whining?????
Someone said this is another Eddie Gaven? Is that a bad thing? The guy who did well in his first year and in his second scored 7 goals and 7 assists in his 2nd year and was voted MLS best XI???? The guy who helped lead his team to win the double this year, including a nice semi final game winner?
I love reading the comments, and I know I drop some silly ones now and again too, but come on.
“The league should reconsider that only one homegrown talent can be signed every “two to three years.” They should encourage clubs to sign as many of its academy players as they see fit.”
I’m amazed at how few people understand the rules.
1. You can sign up to two players a year from your academy.
2. If you sign two players, other teams can poach one of your academy players, but only if they have their own academy and it can only happen once.
3. You can only have one homegrown, Generation Addidas player on your team at a time.
He is a freshman playing on the best team in the country so yeah 1 goal and 7 assists is good, i don’t want these people are thinking. Just the fact that he got playing time at all on the best team in the country as a freshman should tell you he is more than your run of the mill players. The Red Bulls should pick him up NOW, he may be a year away from fully contributing but that year will go a lot faster if we have him now.
Our management is stupid so I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t sign him.
Can someone explain to me what the big deal with this kid is?
Have seen him play 5 times and each time I was not impressed. Yeah, hes decent but nothing to awh over.
Personally, I think Casey townsend is better.
Youth Academy players shouldn’t count against the roster or the salary cap unitl they’re 23. THAT would provide incentive to the clubs to strengthen their youth academies and would build connections to their communities. I know this idea would need to be tweaked to avoid abuse, but I like the basic concept. I could get behind a team full of academy graduates and a DP. That should be the future of the league.
I think RBNY should sign this kid. Take a risk for once Agoos. CHRIST!
This situation is totally clouded by the new roster size. If there were 29 players on a roster, there is room to keep a player and work with him through the reserve games and practices.
But at 24 players, and more and more games on the schedule thanks to all of the great new tournaments, teams need at least 22 of their 24 players able to play first-division football and have them not get burned by MLS first XI players.
I’m not sure what that means in this case, because I don’t know enough about the kid. But these new roster restrictions make the situation much more difficult than previously.
When he came in against St. John’s, i was so hyped to see him play after hearing so much about him and reading about him on different sites, he was mentioned hear a couple times and of course on bigsoccer. But, he’s not all that…So…No brainer…Pass…Did nothing in the College Cup except being part of the team. If he’s sooooooooo good, then why hasn’t one of those Lower level German teams come calling or how about a Danish team. This is the second coming of Eddie Gaven, bunch of hype and then nothing.
These stupid rules though really have to be changed, there shouldn’t be a limit on how many players you can sign from your youth setup.
It seems strange for the league to have a rule saying homegrown players can only be signed every two or three years. NY should sign the kid and they should be allowed to sign another next week if they have a good one.
This may not be the place to ask this question but what are the chances of getting those bulls off the front of our jerseys and just replacing them with “Red Bull” instead. I don’t know about anyone else but I think our tops look bush league with those bulls on them. The color schemem is cool especially the dark blue away kits but those bulls have to go.
GO TO EUROPE!!!!!!!!!DEVELOP
This is exactly why MLS sucks and always will suck. Way to discourage teams from uncovering and developing young talent, MLS. Did I mention you suck, MLS?
If you are going to call someone “retarted”, at least spell it correctly.
Do the Red Bulls really think that a better player is going to emerge from the academy in the next 2-3 years? Is there really such a hotshot prospect that they have their eyes on? If not, I really don’t understand why they would pass on Kassel. It would be overly conservative. It’s not like there’s some rule that he has to step in and instantly become a big time player.
Ives,
What about Casey Townsend? should he be considered a Gen Adidas player….
I love it when someone says something is “retarded” and then misspells it-retarted. Sorry pwip
RBNY should not claim him as a “home grown” player. That would prevent them from signing anyone else in the next 2-3 years and that would be a mistake. The team should consider drafting him. That’s because as someone else wisely pointed out, with a 20 man roster and with RBNY playing extra games this coming year, no guarantee of moving the second DP slot (which creates cap issues), having a Gen Ad player who doesn’t count on the cap is a big plus. That said, JCO has demonstrated that while he’s willing to play youth on the outside or even at forward if you’ve got speed, he wants his central players to have some degree of pedigree. Just look at the foreign signings–almost all central players, almost all foreign, almost all offered big deals, Pietravallo and Rojas appear to be coming back.
with ALL the extra games the RB will have this year they will need every available option to fill holes due to injury, rest top players, etc… I say sign the kid and take a chance on a known talent rathar than an unknown.
George, Kassel was identified as a “homegrown player” while in the RedBulls youth Academy system.
I would automatically say sign him, but I don’t know the full extent of our academy players.
If there’s another “talent” out there in our academy who is a year away from being signed and is seen as “much better” than Kassel…then we should wait.
If the “talent” in our academy is two years away or more… then it’s a no brainer to sign him.
(Sorry, I’m enjoying “quotations” today)
What constitutes a “home grown player”
PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SIGN THIS KID.
HE IS THE REAL DEAL, THERE WON’T BE ANYONE BETTER THAN HIM IN 2 OR 3 YEARS. TAKE THE CHANCE.
MLS is retarted. mind as well mothballing the youth intiatives along with the reserves. Use that money for more DP slots.
The league should reconsider that only one homegrown talent can be signed every “two to three years.” They should encourage clubs to sign as many of its academy players as they see fit.
i agree with stephen – lots of NY hype but the truth is that 1G, 7A is not exactly lighting up college – ACC or otherwise. let him play at least another year in college or let another team have him – hes not ready to contribute for a bit yet. with reduced roster sizes teams need players who can contribute right away, not projects
You know how this works. He’s valued highly by RedBulls and they want to sign him but somehow he magiacally ends up in Chicago.
LOL!!!
I think with the way the roster sizes will be next year (20 senior plus 4 developmental) that these GA players will become more valuable than ever.
I don’t see the Red Bulls passing on him this time around.
Could they pass on him as a GA homegrown player, draft him in the SuperDraft, and still have their GA Homegrown player spot open?
I saw him play a few games for Maryland, including the College Cup. I was not that impressed with him. If I were RBNY, I would not offer the kid a GA contract. Let him go into the draft. There’s a HUGE step up from college ball to MLS. He is at least 2 years away from being a useful MLS player.
FIRE AGOOS.
Seriously this is a no brainer now, it was a no brainer back last spring.
Unless they can tell me someone in the system that can sign next year they would rather use a GA on (if the league even allows it).