MLS plan on player development

The US Soccer Development Academy has changed youth soccer in our country.

Opposed to having only one academy for our Under-17 national team, we now have the top clubs in the United States hosting academy settings.

The concept has evolved to an even larger stage with the Major League Soccer franchses, and the MLS clubs are starting to see the benefits. DC United has Andy Najar, Bill Hamid and Jordan Graye all having graduated from their youth academy into their first team.

The MLS academy teams have been able to make it cost-effective as well. 10 of the MLS academies are free for its participants, taking away the 'pay to play' mentality and attracting players solely on their abilities.

Leander Schaerlaeckens of ESPN.com writes of the link between the MLS academies and the first team, a plan for the future, and about a grassroots rule that allows academy players to go on to college and still return to their MLS franchise.

Letting young players go off to college is encouraged by MLS, which created a rule that allowed the club that had brought up a player to retain his rights after he goes to college. In essence, the club gets first dibs on a player when he is ready to turn pro. If the club demurs, the player goes into the draft. (Graye preceded this rule, which is why United had to draft him.)

"When a player is 17 or 18 and about to go to college we didn't want there to be pressure to turn professional," explains Durbin. "We wanted to make sure the decision is made on where he is on the development curve and that the player still feels he can go to college and that that is still a good path to develop his skills and move forward."