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Maryland midfielder Matt Kassel has spent the past three years as a potential Homegrown Player signing for the New York Red Bulls.
The wait is finally over.
Kassel has reached a contract agreement with the Red Bulls to become the team's third Homegrown Player, sources told SBI on Monday.
One of the Red Bulls' first highly-regarded academy products, Kassel spent three years at the University of Maryland, winning an NCAA title as a freshman before establishing himself as one of the better midfielders in the ACC over the past two years.
He joins forwards Juan Agudelo and Giorgi Chirgadze as Red Bull Homegrown Players on the senior team roster.
What do you think of this news? Glad to see him finally sign? Think he can make an impact quickly?
Share your thoughts below.
Are the USDA organizations also pay to play? i.e., just like the private clubs. If the kids/parents have to pay (not talking about $ xx here but $ xxx – $ xxxx), then no clubs (USDA or otherwise) should “own” anyone since they are paying their own way.
I’ve seen fees around $800 for a season, plus a small one-time reg. fee. Then more $$ for travel and tournaments–the bread and butter for those clubs.
Meant to say USDA of course
Top players don’t participate in ODP any more, as they play in the USDcom you can’t do both.
HT, you’re viewing this through your RSL blinders. The really bigger issue is: academy programs (and the homegrown players) will boost soccer in the US, help the USNT, and provide an additional revenue source for MLS teams. And that’s what matters.
Some teams got an early start on this (DCU for example send a team to a FIFA-sponsored tournament for clubs in 1997 in Paris). And while we’d all like to think the area our team is in has great youth soccer, the reality is that some areas have got a big head start over others. I absolutely get all that. But if we were to only do what was most competitively fair for MLS teams, we would not have any home grown players at this point (which would have the affect of reducing the importance and value of academies to the vast majority of MLS teams). And that would be bad for soccer in the US and bad for MLS in the long-term.
Everything Ives said about Kassel is true. The guy’s even a local, native-born US citizen…you can’t even make the argument about NYC having an advantage b/c of immigrant populations or temporary workers or anything along those lines.
But to put this in perspective, Kassel (like most home-grown products) in this year and the next and maybe the year after that are still going to be mostly like having an extra first round or second round pick. Meaning…that’s nice but it’s usually not what makes a team a dominant team. Some teams will use those “picks” wisely and others won’t. In the meantime, clubs that started academies late (TFC) or are recent expansion sides will get an opportunity to catch up. B/c ultimately, for all the improvements MLS teams do, what is having an even bigger impact on the quality of young players in the US is the momentum of the game. You’re seeing 2 years with no reserve sides, expansion by 2 teams and yet I think the overall quality of the league will be higher this year than it was 2 years ago (and that will be do due to a combination of expanded DP rules and the rising quality of young players coming into MLS).
I think so, and i think he projects as not only a centerback but a really good right back too from what i hear. He has good attacking qualities. Look for him to prob sign, others that could follow in the comming years are brandon allen, sean davis, gk santiago castano , dan metzer, GK keith cardona, and bryan gallego, – Castano and gallego imo have the most potentiol of the bunch. Castano is the youngest yet has even trained with the first time as a 14 year old, and gallego is going to akron and i think caleb is deff gonna be giddy when he sees him play especially after loosing all that talent in the draft. As for matt kassel, great signing ppl have varying opinions on him but i think hes a solid player that in a year or two can contribute alot. Hes got a hell of a long shot and good passing ability, kinda looks like a mini frank lampard imo.
spell it backwards and u got Hatu
ah.. ya forgot about those freeloading Canadians, who also have fine youth systems.
Is that a joke?
Huh?
MLS academies are essentially in direct competition with youth clubs, where the MLS teams find the talent for their academies. Few youth players can just enter the draft. They’d have to sign GA deals. The complaint isn’t that MLS teams are signing Homegrown players from their academies instead of exposing them to the draft. THe complaint is further back in time — years before — it’s that MLS teams are filling their academies with the best talent form local youth clubs — like DCUnited keeps tabs on the Baltimore Bays and other local all-star teams.
In Brazil most of the top teams have youth teams not only in their home city but elsewhere around country, where parents ‘pay to play’
Difference is scouts from pro team go around and check out the kids every month or two, and take cream of the crop back to the academy of the pro team – with parents consent.
That’s probably how Kaka went from growing up in brasilia to playing in Sao Paulo for example.
Anyway, my point is it is possible to have a variety of workable structures – as long as there are real quality youth academies attached to pro teams. Those are very new in US but making progress it seems.
Really happy about this. I watched Kassel the last 3 years at UMD and you could tell from his first game he was a talented player. I’ll be disappointed at his leaving UMD, but happy for him and happy that I’ll get to see him in an RBNY uniform next season.
Any news on Scott Garlick’s comeback?
They are not getting a “free” education. They have to earn it in practices and games. When I was on scholarship (academic), I could work for pay. Athletes can not be otherwise employed. In fact, they are prohibited from earning professional money for their talent, while a music scholarship student can earn money professionally. The universities aare benefitting to the tune of millions for low-paid athletic workers and the coaches are ripping off the team members with enormous salaries including endorsements that their students are prohibited from doing. The system of professional atheletics (otherwise known as the NCAA) is utterly corrupt and exploitative.
“Most big youth clubs make plenty of money as it is from players.”
————————
Huh. Really? I’m wondering how this is so. I don’t know the economics. I suppose these kids pay some form of fee to be on the bigger youth clubs, but it can’t be that much money. Do these clubs make money in other ways?
Everything I’ve read before is that the youth clubs really do resent seeing their best players being cherry=picked by MLS academies, but I know nothing about how the money works. Frankly, if the clubs are making money off their top players if they represent a financial investment — they probably should be compensated when MLS clubs come calling.
(SBI-Fischy, if clubs, particularly the bigger clubs, didn’t make money, they wouldn’t be in business. They make money off their players as it is. You can’t have it both ways, and if any clubs try to pull that they’ll see top players staying away from them with a quickness.
Big youth clubs aren’t happy losing their top players to MLS academies? No kidding, but they’re losing them because the academies offer better opportunities, so who can blame the kids and why should they be prevented from seeking out the best possible opportunities? In no way should youth clubs essentially own the rights to players who are already paying for them to stay in business.)
+1, Free educattion and I’m sure he is getting some under the table as well, well atleast his mom is.
The dude from the Bouncing Souls song? He is a real person?
Terelle Pryor gets paid $33,768 a year for his professional apprenticeship. That’s the current out of state tuition at The Ohio State University. part of that deal is that he can’t sell the stuff the school gives him while he is still a student. he is getting both a free education (with support systems that are unavailable to the average student) and a professional training that may well earn him tens of millions of dollars. cry me a river.
did you get you undergraduate education and professional education for free? he will immediately be one of the highest paid first year graduates of the school.
Not going to find transcendent talents with the tiny number of kids that can afford to pay to play from age 10 to 17. We won’t find our $50M xfer fee world-level stars until we get much fuller scouting of the youth–which means Pros shouldering more of the burden.
PU has a weird setup, as it stands. They’re partnering with a number of local leagues, installing standards and practices, and then not putting fielding teams in USSFDA as far as I can see. They have a PDL affiliate too.
Timbers are working on a setup.
why? any reason MLS would bother to sponsor what, a hundred thousand kids in ODP? does the NFL sponsor Pop Warner or NCAA football? does Major League Baseball sponsor Little League? why put millions of dollars a year into a developmental system if someone else is willing to pay? right now, clubs can cherry pick the best 15 year olds and put a few resources into them, and maybe sign them. but without exclusive rights, no one is going to put more money into them, only to have another club take them away. (and yes, colleges count as another club)
and if you are a twelve year old, are you going to forfeit a college scholarship opportunity to sign a contract, knowing you have maybe 1-5000 odds of playing professionally?
Red and coaching classes,’along with gate from NT games are a big fraction of all money coming in to the USSF. Make coaching classes free and uSSF, at it’s current level of effor, starts drawing down the principal of it’s endowment: a BIG no-no for the future.
Let us hope Warren Buffets heirs love soccer and want to offset their inheritances.
Seriously, find some rich geezers and have NT hopefuls/urchins show up and do a Shirley temple song and dance about a hard knock life.
No (and this is a separate issue), but it’s ridiculous how much colleges and their athletic directors/coaches make off of the free labor of student athletes. Why can Ohio State sell authentic jersey’s with Pryor’s name on the back for hundreds of dollars and pocket the money for themselves but Terell Pryor gets suspended and is fined for selling rings or awards that he earns?
He said 15 American (as in USA). Portland will be the 16th.
This seems like another example of US soccer/MLS fans wanting it all right away. Ten years ago was there a single MLS academy?
I don’t know much about the development academies but it seems like they’re making strides and we should acknowledge that. Yes, academies that provide top notch training with youth from a younger age and then filter the best to the older teams is the goal that I assume most everyone wants…but that takes time (and money, probably lots of money).
Good question. I’m sure SBI is swamped, but it’d be cool to do an expose on these academies. We (the public) still know very little about them. What teams have them? What’s the budget? How does one become a member? At what age? How many players are in the system? What happens to the kids that get cut? Etc.
Man, we’ve got some haters in Utah.
Shuold Green Bay pay U of California for Aaron Rodger’s “development”?
The idea would be that the club would be able to lower the cost to players in its club, either across the board or offering more scholarships to players from depressed socio-economic backgrounds. Most youth soccer clubs in the U.S. are non-profits, not making tons of money as you assert, so the money would be put back into the club to help support its programs and not into an investors pockets. However, as one commenter put (and you pointed out) is pay to play, so unfortunately ODP and soccer success in general today in the U.S. has as much to do about who can afford good training. Clubs also concentrate on winning at the expense of their players longterm development.
This is getting a little off track but I see Youth Soccer supporting the MLS and the National Team and not the other way around. Kids pay hundreds of dollars for ODP (I believe ODP makes money over expenses), Coaches pay hundreds of dollars to get their USSF Youth License or C, B licenses (I believe these courses MAKE money for USSF, instead of being supported). Why doesn’t US Soccer make its coaching courses free or very inexpensive? Why isn’t ODP close to free? Why isn’t the money that USSF makes from its friendlies with Mexico going to grass roots developing? Ives, as a youth soccer coach I can’t get answers to these questions. Maybe with your access to Claudio Reyna and position for youth development, you can get answers to some of these questions.
is sacir holt next?
Haters gonna hate.
so ives says there are 15 mls academies .. what lazy MLS “franchises” haven’t set up a youth system yet?
the alternative to going the “home-grown” route is just entering the draft where the youth system/team/club/school doesn’t get any compensation either.. so your point about MLS club “swooping” up talent is unavoidable in the end.
good for Kassel and NYRB!
Hopefully soon MLS will be making big block grants to USSF and that will be the net result.
Ives, thanks for the info. I had thought they had changed but didn’t run into that on my brief search.
If the MLS teams were footing the bill for the players in the ODP program that would be great. Right now the ODP program favors players and their familys that can afford the expenses as well as being able to take time off work to transport their children.
I stand corrected, I mis-read your post about the three years. However, I stand by my basic assertion that MLS teams do little to actually develop soccer players but merely cherry pick players from clubs when the players are 16 or older and the majority of their development has already been accomplished by clubs who get nothing.
Why don’t MLS clubs divide up the state ODPrograms, sponsor them and get rights to the players of the ODPrograms they sponsor? Or why don’t they reimburse clubs for players they adopt? That way it would encourage clubs to think more about their players long term development and less about winning at the expense of development.
(SBI-Here’s a question for you. Why should youth clubs be “reimbursed” for players who move on to MLS clubs when those players paid to play? Most big youth clubs make plenty of money as it is from players. Why should players have their rights owned by the very teams they’re paying to play? Now, if there’s a youth club that is footing the bill for these players that’s one thing, but don’t you think it would be just a tad shady that youth clubs would not only be making money off all the players who pay to play, but ALSO making money of the players who actually develop into good players. Now, if a youth club was willing to pay for everything, then I could understand a team having a right to claim some sort of rights, and in that instance, wouldn’t be out of line to ask those players to sign some sort of contract.)
I don’t know anything about him but I’m happy that players are being developed at younger & younger ages. College is too late to start being exposed to the professional game. We need to be like other countries and give kids soccer balls in the play-pen and make them watch videos with metal brackets holding their eyes open like Alex in A Clockwork Orange.
Ives, any chance of an in depth look at which academies are doing the business and which are not. Some teams seem to have several legitimate home grown players, Dallas comes to mind, while others have produced nothing despite having many years invested in their youth set up. Thanks.
The rule should change to be a bit more stringent, I agree. Like one year ON their development academy roster or something.
(SBI-The rules have been loosened to be one year in the academy BEFORE college. used to be two years. Kassel qualified under the old system, so he’s hardly a good example of the rules being too lose.)
Let me preface this comment by saying I have no problem with NYRBs taking advantage of the system as it is set up and signing Kassel.
But I think the system sucks. How is Kassel really a NYRB homegrown product, meaning what significant resources did NYRBs put in to Kassel? He was 18 before he became an academy product and either already or just about to enter the U of M program. The vast majority of his soccer development had nothing to do with the NYRBs so why should they get “credit” for “developing” this “homegrown” player?
I guess it eats at me, because at least in the SLC area, RSL really does very little to help develop good youth soccer. Kids pay hundreds of dollars to do ODP training. Why doesn’t the MLS sponsor the ODProgram? As it stands now, private clubs do the heavy lifting of training players and then get nothing when the kids turn 15-16 and MLS clubs MLS clubs swoop in and “claim” them, let them play a few weeks in some program and claim they developed them, with no reimbursement to the clubs so the clubs can have resources to develop other players.
(Where did you hear that Kassel only joined the Red Bull Academy when he was 18? He was already an established member of their academy by then. He was eligible to sign with the Red Bulls in high school, and back then the rules were more strict, meaning he had to have at least two years in the academy. That’s before he went to Maryland. Since he went to Maryland he has trained multiple years with New York and played for their youth teams while at Maryland. There are examples out there of questionable Homegrown Player signings. Kassel is far from that.
I hear what you’re saying about the system though Tim, and I’ve raised that question for years. To be fair to MLS academies, particularly the stronger ones, they’re developing players at younger and younger ages. As for them poaching players, ultimately as the academy becomes a pipeline to the pros more of the better youth players are going to want to play for the MLS academies.)
In some corner of the world, Johnny X is silently weeping.
Good for Matt Kassel, NYRB, and MLS. This guy can play. I saw him play at Maryland a few times living in the Washington/Baltimore Area.
Finally!!!!
Ives, re: your twitter comments. The USSFDA is doing a good job *concentrating* high-caliber players for identification and further development. What’s the next step beyond all US teams having academies? Better scouting network for poaching kids in non-rivalrous territory?
Ives,
Anything notable ever happen to Exantus?
if memory serves correctly, it was b/c he was willing to take a lower, developmental deal (not GA) and the others weren’t.
Woohoo!
So psyched to see Red Bull this season and adding Kassel makes it even better. Do you know how much $ and years are in the contract agreement?
Any info from anyone on Giorgi Chiradze? I mean they passed over Kessel and that kid who went to Netherlands to sign Giorgi- also, when the rule was you could only sign one per year or something like that.