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Alex Mendez wins U.S. Male Young Player of the Year

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The most impressive member of the U.S. U-20 Men’s National Team’s Concacaf U-20 Championship-winning side was named U.S. Male Young Player of the Year on Tuesday.

Alex Mendez, who currently plays for Freiburg in Germany, was awarded the honor after winning the Golden Ball at the November tournament, where he contributed eight goals and six assists.

“It’s a very proud moment,” Mendez said. “First, I want to thank U.S. Soccer for the nomination. I also want to thank my family, my teammates and the U-20 squad that won the Concacaf Championship. Obviously, this is an individual award, but none of this would be possible without them pushing me to be a better player.”

Before moving to Freiburg, Mendez scored five goals for the LA Galaxy in U-18/U-19 U.S. Soccer Development Academy playoffs and earned playing time in USL with LA Galaxy II, where he scored his first professional goal on July 1.

Mendez is the latest American phenom to win the award, which has been given to Josh Sargent, Christian Pulisic, Matt Miazga and DeAndre Yedlin in the last four years.

Comments

  1. Really liked what I saw of this kid during the CONCACAF Tournament. Hopefully he continues to develop @ Freiberg. Having another promising young talent at CM is never a bad thing. If he can break into his clubs 1st team in the next 18 months he could be another option for the Sr. USMNT by the time the Hex rolls around.

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  2. Another missed opportunity by the Galaxy. I don’t know how hard they tried to sign him before Freiberg came calling, but they shouldn’t be losing young players with that much promise. Maybe they should put more emphasis on players like this instead of has been former stars that are only good for a year or two. Their new GM said he wants to put more emphasis on youth development, so maybe this will change in the future.

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    • Not necessarily. I believe he can do a one time request and switch if he wants. There are many cases of a player for a youth national team and then switching to another country’s national (adult) team.

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