The State Of U.S. Soccer
This article, published in the Telegraph, does an excellent job explaining the flaws with American soccer. Take this quote from Klinsmann:
“You are the only country in the world that has the pyramid upside-down. You pay for having your kid play soccer because your goal is not that your kid becomes a professional soccer player – because your goal is that your kid gets a scholarship in a high school or in a college, which is completely opposite from the rest of the world.”
Klinsmann said that following the USMNT’s loss to Ghana in the last World Cup, when he was a television analyst.
And just prior to this year’s World Cup, in an interview with the New York Times, Klinsmann also had this to say about American sports:
“Kobe Bryant, for example — why does he get a two-year contract extension for $50 million? Because of what he is going to do in the next two years for the Lakers? Of course not. Of course not. He gets it because of what he has done before. It makes no sense. Why do you pay for what has already happened?”
American soccer isn’t likely to surpass football, basketball or baseball in the coming years. But, the U.S. can continue to improve the structure of its soccer system. It can become a smarter system. That’s why I’m fully onboard with Klinsmann. He gets the problem — the one that he can hopefully solve.
[genericon icon=twitter] Follow Sean Wagner-McGough on Twitter @seanjwagner
