Zev Taublieb breaks down what MLS NEXT scouts look for in young soccer players aged 10-13. A strong first touch and technical skill matter, but scouts care more about how a player fails than the failure itself. The real signal: a kid who chases the ball when his team scores while teammates celebrate, showing the kind of drive that matters at the academy level.
What do MLS Next scouts look for for ages 10 to 13 years old if you want to end up playing for an MLS academy? So this student sent me their video for review, and I want to show you something that's really important. In this first clip, you're going to see a really good first touch. I mean, that's a really good first touch. This kid is 8— oh no, he's 9 years old. Now immediately too, you can see that this particular player doesn't know maybe he's left-footed, and just the way his body reaction is tells us Maybe he watches soccer, but he's not maybe the most athletic. And him, this, this just technique here is very good. You can tell he watches a lot of soccer. He drove to the left, and look, this one kid did good to recover. Now you'll notice he ends up still getting the ball, which is awesome, and missing. He misses the target here. Coaches at this age don't care if you mess up. It's how you mess up, and his technique was very good already at the age of 9, 10. Now here's the most important part of this video. So you're going to see his team score here. He's this guy right here. Watch after they score what happens. His team scores and look what he does. Everyone else is running away. He's going to get the ball to try and win. Okay, that right there is why this kid I think can play MLS NEXT. That's something that can be taught, of course, I'm showing you right now. But the fact that he did it through his own passion is what these MLS scouts are looking for. Do you have the drive and the energy? Because you're 10 years old. How good are you going to get? That's only based on drive, and this kid has it in flush. If you want more help playing MLS Academy, give me a call. Links in the bio. Talk to you soon. Goodbye.
