By RYAN TOLMICH
Left in club purgatory as a result of Barcelona’s transfer ban, Ben Lederman has returned to the U.S. with the aim of earning more game time.
The highly-touted 15-year-old midfielder, whose family moved from California to join Barcelona’s academy in 2011, has joined the U.S. Under-17 Residency program in Bradenton, Florida, according to Goal USA.
Lederman’s move to the residency program comes in the wake of FIFA’s strict ruling against Barcelona. Penalized last spring due to illegal transfer activity, Barcelona has seen numerous prospects, like Lederman, limited to only team practices, unable to play in games after seeing registration cards revoked.
The registration issues come as a result as Lederman’s status as an international prospect. As a non-European prospect, Lederman would be unable to feature for Barcelona until reaching his 18th birthday in May 2018.
Currently, FIFA has three exceptions that would allow a player to feature prior to their 18th birthday: if a player lives within 50 kilometers of a country’s border and the potential club is within 50 kilometers of the same border, if a player is moving from one European country to another and is at least 16, or if a player’s family is moved to a different country for reasons unrelated to sport.
The New York Times reported Monday that Lederman’s family has seen numerous appeals denied by FIFA, leading to the potential option of taking the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in an effort to challenge the rule that has left numerous young prospects throughout Europe unable to play for the teams they train with.
“It is killing him,” Ben’s father, Danny Lederman, told the New York Times. “And as his dad, it’s killing me, too, to see him like this. A year? Kids need to play; he practices, he practices, he practices, but he can’t play? It’s not right.
“I understand the rule was made to protect kids from being pulled away from their families. But our family made a choice to move to Spain together. Why should FIFA be able to tell our family where it has to live if we want our kid to play soccer?”
Lederman will now join the U.S. Under-17 Men’s National Team residency program, linking up with head coach Richie Williams, who is currently preparing his team for October Under-17 World Cup.
What do you think of Lederman’s situation? How will he fare with the residency program?
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