In this brief excerpt from the YouTube video "Comment quiz," two speakers discuss the growing interest among youth soccer players—specifically girls—in moving to Europe or South America to join academy systems. A parent asks about the advantages of such a move, prompting the conversation to focus on the considerations and potential benefits of sending female players abroad for development.
You know, Zev, I've heard this thing with some of my players where they're getting enticed to come over to Europe, maybe go to Spain, maybe go to Portugal, South America to play in the academy system. And so I've had a couple parents ask me, what's the advantage of that?
And to confirm, these are boys or girls?
Girls.
Okay, so to be very clear, and I feel very strongly about this, I moved to Brazil when I was 12, then I moved to England to play for Fulham when I was 14. This is very important. If you do not have access to a European passport, you cannot stay there and actually make it at any level because you will not be able to get a work visa. Cavan Sullivan, who's the kid you guys all know, the 15-year-old, why is he not in England? Because he can't get a work visa yet, so he's got to play pro here first. And on top of that, that kid is a superstar. He's a prodigy. I was not a prodigy. And for girls specific, there is nothing abroad. This is it. America is the best on planet Earth. So on top of all that, you parents, I know you're looking at me, going, education comes first. That is correct. I played pro for 10 years. You've got to go to school to get an education. Now, if you say, well, I want to go there to develop, right? I want to go abroad because abroad is better. First of all, if you're like under the age of 12, you can go do that. But every coach is going to say to you when you email them, I'm playing in Spain. That's great. Can I see you play in person? You're going to go, well, I'm in Spain. They don't care. They want to see you in person 4 to 6 times before they'll even have a phone call with you. And how are you going to do that if you're in Spain? So for boys, where I get this question a lot, I am a huge proponent of not going abroad because I've seen so many bad stories where they go abroad, the coaches say, you seem great, you're playing for some great academy in Spain, but I need to see you in person. And then the coaches come to Spain maybe once a year and they go, yeah, you're pretty good, but I only saw you once. It's not enough. You've got to be here. So if you're really little, you want to go abroad for like for fun, then it's a really cool experience. Go abroad. But it's an experience. You will not play college soccer if you go abroad. You have to stay here. You have to go to the showcases. You have to go to ID Camp. If you ask any international that's living abroad, they will say to you the biggest issue they get, and we do work with some internationals, they have to be seen in person multiple times. On top of that, don't you want to meet the coach and get to know the person and actually talk to the coach and be like, do I like you? If you're abroad and you get a call and the coach says I love you, you can't commit to that school. You gotta go for a visit. You gotta see if you like the players. You can't do all that once a year. You gotta do it 4 to 6 times. So do not go abroad. If you wanna know what you should do instead of going abroad because you really wanna play college soccer at a high academic school, comment the word quiz and I will tell you what you need to do.
