The price of playing a high level of soccer in the United States is extremely high, and can cost tens of thousands of dollars per year. This is very detrimental to the development of young players, as it completely bars people who are not incredibly wealthy from playing a high level of soccer. As a result, the United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) suffers.
One common youth soccer pathway in the United States is a club soccer system called ECNL, or Elite Clubs National League. This pathway can easily cost $10,000 per year or more depending on what tournaments the club chooses to enter. The club registration fee is $2,995 not including the cost for uniforms, sweatpants and sweatshirts, bags, cleats and shin guards which can add on another $800.
Furthermore, each member’s family is expected to cover the cost of traveling to tournaments, of which there are at least two per year in most high level clubs. This includes the cost of flights and hotels to costly destinations such as Orlando, FL, San Diego, CA, and Honolulu, HA. For example, a flight to Honolulu, a rental car and boarding at a hotel for eight days straight at about $500 per night can easily add up to $5,000 or more just for one tournament.
While youth soccer clubs in the United States often have fundraisers in place to help families cover these costs and fund travel expenses, these only contribute a drop in the bucket compared to the expenses that they need to cover.
Unsurprisingly, the United States men’s national team historically has not seen success on the international stage. The farthest they have ever progressed in the world cup is third place, which they earned in 1930. They again qualified in 1934 and 1950, but did not return until 1990.
Since 1990, the closest the USMNT has gotten to the World Cup trophy is when they placed 8th out of 32 teams. They even missed qualification in 2018.
The amount of talented players that the USMNT has missed out on because they cannot afford soccer is hard to quantify. However, since the United States has such a large population compared to other countries that see lots of international success, there have to be numerous talented players that have not had the privilege of training at a high level.
In contrast, the Netherlands is an international soccer powerhouse. While they are yet to win a World Cup title, they have been runners up three times and have reached or passed the round of 16 every time they have qualified. When compared to the United States, this is not bad for a country with almost 1-19th of the population.
Unsurprisingly, their youth soccer systems are much different, as families in the Netherlands have to pay on average 149 euros for their children to receive a high level of coaching. This goes for many top European soccer nations as well.
Top tier professional clubs often have youth academies that they invest their revenue back into. This creates a culture of genuinely intention to develop good soccer players. In contrast, the youth soccer system in the United States enables clubs to be run like a business, aiming to merely keep customers.
