| Finally, at 31, he reached the promised land, the Premier League - On Giggs and Howard |
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| on 10 Dec 2007 | |
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Can you imagine a player in the US making the professional ranks at
31 years of age? Most players are selected at age 16-17 for college.
Few, outside of the players selected for Bradenton (who are selected at
age 15-16?) will still be in the game, at a high enough level - at age 22 much less 31. You will come across these stories often, in other countries, because they have a structure which allows players to keep playing soccer, often while pursuing another career, into adulthood.
In our recent Coaches Education Tour to Italy, we had a lecture from a 93 Boys coach, who had reached the Serie A at age 26. He then had a 6 year Serie A professional career. This is a major problem with the US Soccer Structure. We need to be able to keep players playing at a high level, as long as possible. Will players improve after their college careers are over? Of course they will, but if they are not willing to become soccer nomads traveling across the country in pursuit of A League opportunities what else is there for them? How many youth clubs, after their players have graduated from High School offer them a team? In Northern California, I know of Santa Clara Sporting and San Juan Soccer Club who have first teams but not many others. These means we will offer a soccer club for youngsters but not for players once the reach their late teens and twenties. Soccer is a sport for all ages. Most amateur clubs, the world over, would not think of providing soccer to kids only. The club I played for in Germany has an Alteherren Team - Old Man's Team - for players over 50 in addition to a first and second adult team. Somehow our Soccer Clubs have become children's clubs ignoring the adult soccer playing masses. This is probably because our soccer teams come from leagues rather than clubs and USYSA has set the soccer table for us while the federation, until recently abdicated any responsibility for providing soccer. There structure has been to let others organize for them. Adult Soccer - go to USASA, a local Hispanic League or to the USL. Youth Soccer - go to USYSA, AYSO or know the Y League and US Club Soccer. The people providing most of the youth soccer are soccer volunteers, involved in soccer between baseball season and basketball season. While their volunteering should be applauded, their passion for soccer is probably limited. Imagine youth soccer clubs becoming Soccer Clubs for adults and children. Imagine soccer clubs forming life long membership programs for players through their teams. Most clubs in Europe have members who played in the club, their kids played in the club, their grandfathers played in the club and they are still members and supporters of the club. For club support alone one could argue youth clubs should expand to adult soccer.
In any case - enjoy the article. Click here to read the article SOCCERManchester United's quiet man makes a big noise
Published: December 9, 2007
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It seemed completely in character that Ryan Giggs, the quiet man of Manchester United legend through 16 consecutive seasons, reached a milestone with comparatively little applause by the 75,000 witnesses in the stadium. |
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