Former University of Michigan striker Soony Saad was the leading goal scorer in college soccer in 2010, and that track record was enough to lead Major League Soccer to sign him to a contract over the weekend.
Saad completed a deal with MLS and now the 18-year-old Michigan native will be made available in a weighted lottery on Tuesday.
Saad scored an NCAA freshma- high 19 goals for the University of Michigan last year, helping the Wolverines to a Big Ten championship and place in the NCAA Final Four. He left school after his freshman season to pursue European options, but ultimately returned to the United States, where he has signed with MLS.
The scouting report on Saad is he's a natural-born finisher, with a nose for goal, but needs maturing physically to handle the professional level. At 18, he's still young and should have a chance to develop, but will need to get stronger to earn minutes in MLS.
What do you think of this development? Hoping your team lands Saad in Tuesday's lottery? Think he should have stayed in school?
Share your thoughts below.
He’s 18. He’s not going to be a savior for the team that gets him, and probably play, much less start, for 2-3 years.
That said, there is no comparison to the development a player can get playing in a pro environment, coached by pro coaches, plying his trade year round compared to being restricted on playing time by the NCAA and coached by college level coaches.
You don’t take 18 year olds to drastically improve your team this year. Those types of players are few and far between. You need youth to build for the future. Look at the roster of the Philly Union, tons of “kids” getting minutes and improving every game.
Because… I HAVE seen “the kid” play!
+1
If you guys are worried about too much hype with this kid than all you have to do is ship him over here to New England, where he would be viewed by roughly 30 people per game and be the recipient of a continuous stream of aimless longballs that will, no matter what the circumstance, end up uncontested in the keepers hands. Then he will learn the valuable lesson of putting chances away when they arise, like Rajko did on the only good cross of Zak Boggs career like 8 weeks ago. In all seriousness, we’ve been lacking a true finisher since Twellman so I really hope the revs make a move for him. We’re so bad he would get plenty of playing time
how can u be skeptical if you’ve probably never seen the kid play?…….Sheesh.
Football is not learned in school…
I’m skeptical about Saad having the talent to be a worthwhile MLS-level striker in the next year or two, if ever.
Last 30 games eh…So not including Vancouver and Portland, my calculations suggest:
TFC (27pts)
Chivas (28pts)
New England (29pts)
DC United (29pts)
Chicago (30pts)
The others all seem like they’d be up around 35+, unless they lost the final 12 games of last season…(I didn’t check any teams currently with more than 21pts, since they’d need to get at most 6pts from at least 10 games)
The easiest answer I can give you is that the league wants competitive balance.
They might take him if they are under the impression that Davies won’t be back next year.
I believe DC United would still have the inside track, with only 30 points in those 30 games. The Revs have 37, including 2 wins over DC.
I hope that DCU doesn’t pass this time around.
Can someone explain to me how and why MLS has this dumb lottery system? Why does MLS count as one team in the eyes of FIFA? So confused.
So the Revs will get him.
So true MArtha. If someone is any good at all they’ll ed up in Europe and not MLS. Good call. :p
He trialed in Germany nothing worked out and trained with NSC Minnesota
no that’s not what i’m implying, but there are plenty of US players who have taken that route over MLS (Josh Gatt for example)…however it would not bode well for his future IMO if he couldn’t even get a contract with one of those type clubs. If he just chose MLS cuz he preferred it then congrats to MLS and good luck to Saad.
I think he’s still trialing with RSL along with 3 other players.
Good question!
Saad trialed here in Minnesota with the Stars. The team had already pretty much spent their budget on salaries for players and had a number of decent forwards. They tried to strike a deal with him and a former coach who is now working as his agent, but they were not able to get it done with the money the Stars had to offer him. Also, MN was trying to be careful with him as a young player.
Word from those who saw him in training said he has lots of raw talent but raw is the key word. He worked hard but was not at the level of the D2 players for the Stars and he would have been a project, which the Stars would not have minded taking on, as stated didn’t have the budget to get it done.
I’m sure Soony will spend considerable time in the reserves getting up to speed. But the kid most certainly has the talent to take it to the next level – eventually.
Glad he was able to work things out with MLS.
From MLSSoccer.com: “The weighted lottery takes into consideration each team’s performance over its last 30 regular season games and the most recent postseason. The team with the worst record over its last 30 regular season games (dating back to previous season if necessary and taking playoff performance into account) will have the greatest probability of winning the lottery. Teams are not required to participate in a lottery.”
Plus, Vancouver and Portland got tacked on at the bottom of the lottery list.
Speaking of lotteries, anyone know what happened to Chris Agorsor after the Union cut him? All I’ve found on him is that he went of trial with RSL unsuccessfully.
Definately not another Zizzo…..pure goal scorer and good at free kicks too. He played club ball on the same team as Josh Gatt. He’ll suprise some people
calling it, he will end up on Houston. As a Houston fan I will be glad with this, and it will be great for his development like it was for 18 year old stuart holden,and other young underrated prospects that have succeeded when at Houston.
Another Sal Zizzo perhaps?
Good grief that was full of spelling errors.. That iPod auto correct did me no favors on that one smh
+1 to that, living in those small cities where you know no one can be different especially for an 18 year old who probably isn’t use Tri living on a different continent than his family. Then throw in that there really isn’t a talent gap between some of the lower divisions and the mls them it definitely makes sense to stay home. Some players are ready for Europe earlier than others so if you’re not ready stay home and mature and they will always come calling when the time is right
Are you implying a lower division team in the countries you mentioned are better options than MLS? Because they’re not.
I’m not so sure he is building the same level of hype as Adu, or even Agudelo, but the prospect is always there with the magic combination of “American” and “good finisher”.
Thinking about the next Wondo-esque USMNT callup only makes me saad.
i wonder what happened in europe…
was he not able to find anything at all or anything that he would have preferred over MLS…hard to believe he couldn’t have found a place on a lower division team in austria, netherlands, or scandinavia.
So true even I got excites before remembering the Marcus Tracy’s and Ibrahims and all the other hyped up kids.
And if he was so good someone would have picked him up on Europe he wouldn’t have cost that much and he woulda made more in say Norway thenMLS. If even Marcus Tracy’s team didnt want him….
I smell another hype machine building up. We want to believe the hype. Let’s just leave him alone and let him develop without the unnecessary attention
How many teams would he work his way in and get some minutes with this season?
How is the lottery weighted? Based off of last year’s standings?
He’s a natural born finisher like me! Watch out usmnt 😉
The kids a natural born finisher. He has that Pipo Inzaghi style where he doesn’t really impress you throughout the game but ALWAYS shows up on the score sheet.
I saw Saad play once in 2010. He’s got a lot of talent, but might have benefited from another year or two in Michigan. Hopefully the team that picks him up will know how to treat the young talent.