Zev Taublieb breaks down youth soccer recruitment: MLS NEXT gives the best shot at college offers, while 85% of recruited players get scouted at showcases and ID camps, not high school games. High school still matters for video footage and development.
What are your thoughts on NAL or MLS Futures so they can still play high school? If you want to play high school, that's an awesome— but if you want the best chance of playing college soccer, you must be playing MLS NEXT. Now, that does not mean you cannot play high school and still play college soccer, but if you're saying, oh, I'm going to play NAL or MLS Futures so I can play high school and expect there to be no consequences to that, that is wrong. Nobody's recruiting high school games. Nobody really cares about high school games. They are the exception to the rule. 85% of players who get recruited were seen at a showcase or an ID camp. They were not seen at a high school soccer game. Now, getting video from high school High school can be awesome. And for this person, I would have to ask you, like, what's the age of your son or daughter? Because maybe as an 8th, 9th grader, you know, there's room for this. High school is really similar to college soccer, so you might find out if they don't like high school soccer, they're not going to like college soccer. But from an exposure perspective, the opportunity to get recruited, that it is better to not worry about high school soccer other than it's really good for video. If you cannot play MLS Next and therefore you're playing NAL or MLS Future and you're playing high school, make the most of it because it can still be really helpful in the recruiting. If you want more help, comment "call" and we schedule a call with you and your parents.
