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Union add Hernandez as Homegrown player

HernandezUnionGetty

By JOEY SAMUEL

The Philadelphia Union added another piece to their young nucleus on Monday, signing 18-year-old Cristhian Hernandez as the team's third-ever Homegrown player.

Hernandez, who immigrated to the United States from Mexico as a child, debuted for the Union in a friendly last July against Premier League side Everton FC. He quickly made a name for himself in that contest, coming off the bench to score a late winner in a 1-0 Union victory. Hernandez also appeared for the Union in reserve matches last year.

A product of the Philadelphia Union Academy, the young forward previously played for youth club Players Development Academy, a Union affiliate. His strong play in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy led him to be named the 2010-11 Player of the Year for the U-17/18 age level.

Hernandez is the third player to be signed as a Homegrown player by the Union. They added midfielder Zach Pfeffer, then only 15 years old, in December 2010, and they added 18-year-old midfielder Jimmy McLaughlin in December 2011. Unlike Pfeffer and McLaughlin, Hernandez will occupy an international roster spot.

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Comments

  1. That’s funny, because you’re confirming that Philadelphia Union merely takes advantage of the homegrown rule without putting the requisite resources and energy into developing an Academy that identifies talent and develops it on their own, i.e. the whole point of the Academies, adding to talent development in the respective region, instead of partnering with preexisting programs.

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  2. I’m no expert on the Union, but it appears to me that the Union are simply partnered up with various top Philly and surrounding clubs. The Union actually have academy clubs at the U14, U16 and U18 ages that comprise from the top talents from those affiliate programs.

    If anything, the Union have a WONDERFUL academy setup in place where they are working with the local top clubs rather then competing for talent. Chicago Fire has to compete with two other DA clubs (Magic and Sockers). Philly has all these top clubs doing the ground work and the Union Academy can simply step in and take the top talents from each team to play in their Academy games. They practice at their own facilities and compete within the same division.

    I’d be curious to find out how much $$ the Union are paying into YDA (Union/YSC Youth Development Affiliate). YDA includes teams like FC DELCO, PA Classics, PDA, Lehigh Valley United, Penn Fusion and YMS

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  3. He plays high school in Red Bull territory but plays club ball in Union territory. Christian Francois also plays PDA and St. Benedicts and Union Academy, precedence and standard seem set. Also, are you sure about minimum training requirements? because he has been playing for Union academy starting pre-2011 season.

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  4. Thats funny because their U18 academy team last fall went 6-0 and was compiled of the best players in the region and practiced 5 days a week. Their academy is not the standard one but it seems like a viable option. They already have kids practicing with their coaches at the U14, U16 and U18 level and now benefiting the best teams in the region instead of competing with them. PDA and Delco are both improved for having these players signed, more players will continue to see them as viable options. My only gripe would be if the players who are identified as the U16 and U18 team on the website don’t have their clubs fees paid for by the Union,

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  5. The Philadelphia Union does not have an Academy. What a joke. Oh well, they’re the ones who’ll end up paying for their lack of commitment.

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  6. Hernandez did not meet the training requirements of the league and he is in another team’s territory. The mls is joke

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  7. unless of course it’s a common variation in a certain culture, but that would just be ignorance of a certain race or cultures way of spelling, not racism. Somebody mentioned “jhonny” is a common spelling in hispanic cultures (although peralta’s quote above suggests that’s not true). But again, so God forbid I didn’t realize latin americans spell it Cristhian instead of Christian or Jhonny instead of Johnny. That’s neither racism nor insensitivity…just ignorance at best. The person’s race never once even crossed my mind, only the variation on the spelling in their first name.

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  8. how is that racist or even insensitive? I see a variation on a spelling of two common names and make a stupid comment about it. That has absolutely nothing to do with anybody’s race or background.

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  9. Steph…don’t quit your day job to be a talent scout. Hernandez is really special but he is about as homegrown Manny Ramirez. Just makes me laugh how we pluck these kids who clearly developed in other countries then call them homegrown and say they came from our MLS development system. Next, they will be telling us the Statue of Liberty was actually made in Gary Indiana

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  10. As the Union’s website states, “A graduate of the Union Academy, the 18-year old Hernandez has made appearances in Reserve League matches, as well as a first-team friendly against Everton”, and “Hernandez netted 16 goals in 26 appearances for his club team, Players Development Academy (PDA), a Youth Development Affiliate of the Union”.

    The Union’s academy arrangement might be a bit different than others, but it seems legitimate for the Union to claim him as one of their own.

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  11. No, there should be no such inference. It’s home grown in the sense of the clubs developing players (something that could be debated here due to Philly’s unconventional approach, but that is an uninteresting debate).

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  12. not to sound xenophobic, but doesn’t “home-grown” infer US citizenship? I don’t know the details of the designation so I could be wrong.

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  13. I just did a google search on “jhonny spelling” and this tidbit came up from peralta’s wiki:

    “In an interview with the Santo Domingo Times on March 11, 2007, Peralta claimed that he is the only person named “Jhonny” with the name spelled correctly; all other “Johnnies” are misspelled.[7] He has refused to have it changed.”

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  14. how the mls let philly sign him is crazy. The league makes homegrown rules and then completely ignores them. Not only does philly no have an academy. he lives in redbulls 25 mile radius. It will start to destroy the infrastructure of academies. Why would teams spend money developing players when you can just fly one in from mexico and call him homegrown

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  15. Actually I just thought of Jhonny Peralta of the Detroit Tigers. Good stuff.

    And obviously people can spell their names however they want…just makin’ a joke really.

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  16. Arteaga is spelled correctly, it’s a Hispanic name, so who are you to tell people how their names should be spelled? lol

    As for Cristhian, I’v seen worst and among US people I have seen certain names chopped up with weird ways to spell them so no biggy here, my neighbor’s name is Cristyan….

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  17. He doesn’t necessarily have to have a green card, he could just have a permit that eventually when he was of enough age would let him work. He could be here on assylum…there’s a couple of ways he might be here. After a couple of years playing pro he should either A have his Permanent Green Card or be able to get one and thus him no requiring an International Player Slot anymore

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  18. Christian Hernandez was not the best player on Former St. Benedict’s Prep …. New Jersey Boys Soccer Player of the Year: Christiano Francois and He is going to play at Maryland University ……..ESPN Link : http://espn.go.com/blog/high-school/player-of-the-year/post/_/id/5990/new-jersey-boys-soccer-poy-christiano-francois ……….St. Benedict’s Prep’s Christiano Francois headed to Maryland
    http://www.nj.com/hssports/blog/boyssoccer/index.ssf/2012/01/st_benedicts_preps_francois_headed_to_maryland.html

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  19. I drove up from Baltimore to watch that Union/Everton game. This kid was a little ball of energy. He was all over the place when he got in and took his goal well. And the emotion after he scored was awesome to see- he started crying as he hugged his teammates. I think this is a good signing and I hope he goes on to do well.

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