An experienced college soccer recruiter explains why American players without European passports typically need college soccer to turn pro. He outlines the recruiting path: elite club teams like ECNL, video highlights, ID camps, and boarding schools like IMG or Shattuck-St. Mary's, then weighs signing a pro contract at 16 against college to boost draft stock.
College soccer guy, this is for you. I hear you talking all the time. I'm in 8th grade and you're saying worry about college. Hey, why would I worry about college? I'm gonna get signed any day now. I'm great. The girls in school like me. And you say write emails, contact coaches, and you talk a lot about practicing, and that's kind of ridiculous when you have as much natural talent as me. You don't have to worry about all that technical stuff. So let's plan the future. College, it's so far away. By then I'll be signed, I'll probably be living in Spain or Italy. And you know what, I, I was thinking of even contacting Ronaldo over there in Dubai or wherever he is, play over there and that. But you know, so planning the future, don't worry about it. College Soccer Guy does not know what he's talking about. Listen to me, I'm an 8th grader.
I'm the College Soccer Guy and I help you play college soccer. When I was in 8th grade, I pretty much thought the same thing. I told my parents, look, I don't really want to do this college soccer thing. 'College soccer sucks, MLS sucks, I'm gonna be playing at the best levels in the world.' And it's that attitude that actually is what's going to make you a very good soccer player, because you're going to work really hard, you're going to try and be like Bellingham, you're going to try and be like Vinícius Júnior, and you're going to try and be like Haaland, who are all so young playing at the highest levels of pro soccer. But unfortunately, as an American who lives in the United States, and I can tell you because I learned this the hard way, without a European passport, going abroad is really not an option for you. Getting a work visa is really difficult. At 14 years old, I moved to England. I played for Fulham's youth academy, and they told me the moment I arrived, you're not going to be able to sign here because you don't have a European passport. So I even looked into getting adopted. I looked into getting married because getting a work visa, especially in the UK, is extraordinarily difficult. So then I had to ask myself, what was I going to do? And there was no college soccer guy to tell me all of this. So my parents and I had no idea what the heck we were doing. And we learned the hard way that actually, if you really want to play college soccer and you want to play pro soccer, college soccer is really the best way to do that. So I had to go start the recruiting process, but I was clueless. I didn't know what to do because my parents are both not from here. They never played soccer. As you could tell, that's my dad in the video. So we didn't know what to do. I eventually went on to earn a full-ride scholarship, and then my brother also played college soccer. And my brother had a miserable experience. His coach was a complete dick, and my brother wasn't quite suicidal, but, you know, it was a conversation we were having because that's how miserable he was. And for those of you who have had college coaches, and there's some really sad stories of players who have gone on to hurt themselves having a miserable experience in the college soccer environment. So as an 8th grader, this is what I want you to do. I want you to create a list. I want you to collect video. I want you to work on advancing your way in the club levels. There are some boarding schools like Barstow Academy, IMG, Northwood Prep, Blackrock, Shattuck-St. Mary's. These are some of the best education-oriented and academic and athletic schools in the country. If that is not an option for you, then you really need to think about how you're going to get into MLS next. Then if that's still difficult for you, you need to start prioritizing your video and going to Division III college ID camps. You can even start going to Division 1 college ID camps if you're an elite-level 8th grader. Elite-level 8th grader would mean you're playing ECNL or MLS Next, or you're really, really good on your club team and for whatever reason you cannot go to those places. If you get college interest, you can then seriously talk about playing pro soccer. And if you want to play pro soccer, then you have to get a pro contract by 16, 17. Now I know multiple players who have been offered pro contracts by LAFC who instead decided to go to college. One of the reasons they do that is because if you sign a pro contract with the second team in MLS, there's a good chance you're going to be stuck with that second team your entire life and you'll never break it into the first team. MLS does not prioritize many youth players depending on which MLS team you play for. So instead, these players said, I'm going to go to college, but I'm going to kill it in college, and then they'll be able to get drafted. And if you get drafted, you can really earn yourself a first-team contract. Ledley, who plays for UCLA, got offered a Sporting Kansas City contract, didn't feel he was going to make the first team, so he played college soccer UCLA, and then he just got drafted by the Galaxy. So if you're in 8th grade and you really want to play pro soccer, the best thing to do is to play college soccer. If you want more help, give me a call. Links in the bio. Bye.
