The College Soccer Youth Guy walks through how to get recruited by elite MLS Next or ECNL clubs when your local team won't cut it. Make a 30 to 60 second highlight reel, email out-of-state clubs like Sacramento Republic or San Jose for trials, then use an offer as leverage with your current team. A 9-year-old did this and got Portland Academy to reconsider.
How do you find the right MLS Next or ECNL team to play for? I'm the College Soccer Youth Guy and I help you play MLS Next or ECNL. Obviously, the obvious ones are to start with the local teams, but let's say they're not taking you, right? They're not interested. You need to make a highlight video. It can only be 30 seconds to a minute long, and you will email other teams, other teams in different states. Yes, different states. I was working with this one 9-year-old and he was very good for his age and he wanted to play for Portland Academy and they wouldn't look at him. And the parents are like, he's really good, he scores all the goals on his best team, there's other kids from his team going to Portland, how come they won't look at him? Soccer is subjective. Sometimes you don't know why. So I said to the family, let's email Sacramento Republic, let's email Chicago, let's email San Jose. These are other teams that have really good youth programs. And again, it's subjective. So every person kind of loves a player or doesn't, especially when they're good. And then Sacramento said to them, hey, we'd love to have you on trial. Then we went back to Portland and said, hey, I'm planning to go on trial with Sacramento. I'd like to stay in Portland, but I'm looking forward to this opportunity. And Portland were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, we're not going to lose you. Like, that's insane. We'll take a look at you. And then the student did really well, and now they're playing for Portland. So sometimes you have to use other teams as bait, but you can only do that with video, and only if you're very good. And you have to be very mindful on how you email, and you don't want to aggravate the team you're on, because if nobody likes you, you end up with no team. And your coach probably is looking out for their best interest and not yours. And this does start at that age. If you want more help, give me a DM. We'll talk soon. Bye.
