🇺🇸 The El Tri conundrum: Could MLS’ growth stunt the USMNT player pool?
Does Miles Robinson's free agent signing spell trouble ahead? PLUS: A very Caribbean Conca-catch-up!
Miles Robinson was announced last week as the newest signing for FC Cincinnati, the Supporters’ Shield-winning team now setting its sights on a first-ever MLS Cup.
Robinson is a tremendous addition for coach Pat Noonan’s squad, a 26-year-old U.S. international center back with a track record for shutting down MLS’ best attackers during five seasons with Atlanta United.
He fills a need the team had after losing Colombian center back Yerson Mosquera back to Wolves and continues to give Noonan the versatility desired to play with three center backs or to tweak his defensive alignment as he sees fit.
The move, as some supporters of the team made clear on social media, does not have as clear of benefits for the U.S. national team, with Robinson defending the same attackers he’s been defending the last several years and working in a similar environment to the one he’s grown accustomed to in the MLS Eastern Conference.
While there were rumors of interest from teams in the Netherlands and Belgium, it’s not clear what Robinson’s actual options abroad were. I also don’t mean to question his ambition. Yet, this move of a young MLS free agent to another contending MLS club has shades of the type of transfer that has the Mexico national team trading water at the international level.
Often, a promising Mexico youth player or a full international has opportunities to go abroad, only to be snapped up by América, Chivas or one of the big-spending northern clubs. That means that rather than working with top coaches or learning new playing styles, players are hearing more of what they already have heard, sometimes with a decreasing level of rigor.
Before the 2018 World Cup, Jesus Gallardo signed a deal to move from Pumas to Monterrey, locking in for a future in northern Mexico. During a good tournament for Juan Carlos Osorio’s side, European clubs started doing research only to find Gallardo wouldn’t be available for years - or a hefty transfer fee. He’s continued to be a fine international but never reached the heights he seemed capable of had he gone abroad as a 24-year-old.
The left back is hardly the only Mexico national team player who has opted for comfort rather than trying to raise his ceiling. Some even have returned to Liga MX (or taken a well-paid MLS deal) rather than fight for playing time abroad.
Carlos Salcedo was Mexico’s best defender at that same World Cup. He’s now set to leave Cruz Azul and is looking for his fifth team in North America. In 2018, though he was with a good Eintracht Frankfurt club where he put in performances that had him on the radar of even bigger European sides. Instead, he went to Tigres, closing the European chapter of his career before he reached his prime.
Sometimes those players excel at the club level, winning trophies or becoming a local legend. But often it means their development stagnates. The big-money signing brought in to be a starter won’t be coaches’ top priority. They’re going to start and, likely, do a pretty good job by the standard of the local league.
That means while a player may still work hard on the training pitch and grind in the gym during offseasons, growth will slow if not stop.
Often that hurts national teams the most, since they only convene so often. Time to actually work on a player’s game is basically non-existent with just days to prepare for multiple matches in a short window. And in the Americas, where the international game still rules, that means fans are going to get upset.
The easiest target for fans’ frustration is the player himself, but it’s hard to knock a guy for making what amounts to a pretty simple calculation: Stay near friends and family rather than going somewhere you don’t know the language, aren’t familiar with the cuisine and may risk losing a starting role.
In Mexico, the clubs certainly play a huge role, often spending vastly more than a player’s market value to keep him from taking an offer abroad.
That puts national team staff and the federations they work for in a tricky spot. If players and clubs are acting in their best interests but those interests work directly against the national team achieving unprecedented success, how do you incentivize players to make the decision to take the risk?
In the near future, U.S. Soccer may need to find fewer incentives than their counterparts at the FMF. Europe is still the dream destination for basically any kid coming through an MLS academy. Critically, most MLS teams are still eager to sell players to Europe as well.
Those MLS squads find it valuable to market themselves as a stepping stool to the next level. It’s been FC Dallas’ calling card for years and also has parents lining up to get their talented kids into academies in Philadelphia, New York, Orlando and San Jose - among other spots that have proven to be open to becoming ‘selling clubs’.
MLS teams also reap direct profit by putting sell-on clauses into the deals, something Liga MX clubs do but do less often, usually because the player they’re moving across the Atlantic is older and a subsequent move isn’t always apparent.
It’s also a huge help that so many American youngsters are able to get European passports much more easily than their Mexican counterparts thanks to ancestry, making them more desirable than if they had to occupy foreign player places.
Yet, U.S. Soccer must look at the Robinson deal as something of a warning. Right now, MLS franchises see huge value from pushing players abroad. The league may grow sufficiently in the next few seasons that there could be a shift in that thinking.
How do you respond? It’s not the current reality, but the utopian answer would be to make it so that players’ and clubs’ interests align with yours.
Federations should create a system where not only can players be comfortable and clubs happy to employ national team players but also one in which they can still develop. That is, make it so the best players aren’t produced outside of Europe but rather right here in North America.
The investment in coaching education, in facilities and even in marketing dollars to change the narrative around the region’s clubs would have to be enormous. The profits, too, from creating an actual winning team that found success at the highest level, one with locally based stars reaching a fan base increasingly in love with domestic soccer, would be huge.
The aspiration for everyone involved should be for a system that one day sees a move like Robinson’s, Vasquez’s or Alexis Vega potentially moving from Chivas to Cruz Azul as one that will only help those young players improve.
In the short-term, federations must find solutions to keep getting their players closer to the level needed to take down giants of the game outside the Concacaf region. If they can’t figure out those answers, results simply won’t come and fans will continue to direct their frustrations at the players, the clubs and the federation.
The Conca-catch-up is still 100% on its resolutions
🇯🇲 After many years of support despite oft-challenging circumstances, Cedella Marley resigned her post as Global Ambassador for the Reggae Girlz.
The daughter of Bob Marley, Cedella’s support was critical to the Reggae Girlz having some of the resources needed to make it to the World Cup for the first time in 2019 and do it again in 2023.
Even after making the knockout rounds, however, Jamaica’s players have been frustrated by treatment from the Jamaican Football Federation and the World Cup stars from Aus/NZ boycotted Road to W Gold Cup matches, saying they are still owed bonuses the federation is obligated to pay.
The Bob and Rita Marley Foundations also pulled its support of the JFF.
The important context here is that the JFF election is just around the corner, set to take place January 14 after being delayed from late 2023. Current president Michael Ricketts is up for re-election but being challenged by current vice president Raymond Anderson.
Marley announcing this decision Thursday gave Anderson a chance to tee off on the current administration and reiterate the portion of his manifesto dedicated to strengthening women’s soccer in the country.
🇫🇷🇲🇶🇬🇵 A pair of teams from our region were over on UEFA turf this weekend. The Coupe de France involves overseas teams and the last two teams in the competition were Concacaf teams. Both fell in the Round of 64, however, failing to become the overseas fourth team ever to make the Round of 32.
Golden Lion of Martinique rallied from 2-0 down in the previous round and set up a showdown with Lille of Ligue 1. It, predictably, was a bridge too far and Lille won 12-0 (including a goal from Canadian forward Jonathan David). Spirits were still high after, though, as Lille set up a tunnel to applaud the Golden Lion players before they begin their long journey home.
Guadeloupe’s CS Moulien had a better shot, playing against a fourth-division squad after beating a different fourth-division team from the mainland in a penalty shootout. They also struggled once in the Metropole, falling 4-0.
The vibes also were good there, with vibrant support for the visitors.
I made a TikTok before the games! I’d love to boost my following over there as I start to do more short-form video in the new year. Check out the page and follow if you have an account.
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🇸🇻 El Salvador will unveil new men’s national team manager David Dóniga today, but he already has named his first squad.
La Selecta is conducting a two-day camp with domestic-based players (plus Oakland Roots defender Bryan Tamacas and Thailand-based forward Nelson Bonilla) taking part. There may be additions, but expect this list to contain the vast majority of the team playing Lionel Messi and Co. in a friendly against Inter Miami on January 19.