Five ways to get MLS academies to notice you: join by age 8-12, hit 300 ball-juggles by 12, send highlight videos, contact academies nationwide, and try USL-affiliated clubs. The speaker took eight years of rejections before landing an academy spot, a D1 scholarship, and a ten-year pro career.
5 ways for you to get noticed by MLS Academy, saving the best one for last. Number 1, if you can start around the ages of 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 to get in those organizations, your chance of playing in those organizations goes up by like 80%. So the short answer is you have to start at 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and you need to get your juggling record to about 300 by the time you're 12 years old. Number 2, if you've got your juggling record that good at that young age, you're probably a pretty good soccer player. You need to get video. You need to make video of yourself and you need to send it to the academies. Number 3, do not limit yourself only to the local academies. I know you guys are, if you live in LA, you're like, I wanna play for the Galaxy or LAFC. That's only 2. If those coaches don't like you or if they already have your position filled, that's not enough numbers to get recruited to an MLS academy. You should email all the academies across the country and that would of course require moving or you email the other academies, they might respond to you, we really like you. And then you can go back to Galaxy and LAFC and say, well, I don't want to go to New York. I really want to go to you, but New York's responding to me and I might leave. And then they will respond to you because they don't want to lose a local kid. Number 3, don't only aim for the MLS academies that are pro-affiliated. If you only do the Galaxy and LAFCs, it's going to be very difficult. But if you aim for Sacramento Republic or Orange County, these are USL academies that are affiliated with MLS teams and have a pro organization. Number 4, do not go abroad. People are like, well, if we go abroad, it's better, and then our kids are more likely to get recruited. You want to get recruited to an MLS academy, you must stay here and go to the tryouts every year and start at their open tryouts. Number 5, don't give up. This, I know, is the hardest one, but I tried out for what was the equivalent of MLS academy every single year starting at 8 years old, and I didn't make it until I was a junior. Took me 8 years, but I did eventually make it, and that led to me getting a full-ride scholarship to play Division 1 soccer and then going pro for 10 years. If you want help playing college soccer, give me a call. Links in the bio. Talk to you soon. Goodbye.
