Why I disagree with youth transfer fees in football
Should a kids soccer club receive training compensation [youth transfer fees] when an ex-player ends up signing a pro contract? The amount of American Soccer players signing pro contracts abroad is growing each year! How do you identify if the player learned from several clubs and trainers along the way? Maybe there should be a rule where the player had to have grown up in the system for so many years. Let’s look in detail more below.
Choosing Sides
To be clear.. Just because the article says ‘I disagree with club transfer fees’ doesn’t mean I totally disagree or even have a strong feeling about either position. This is an interesting topic and while I want it to be educational more than anything else, it is a deep and complicated issue. If I had to choose a side, then I would have to say that I disagree. The reason is because some of these players might have 5 Private Trainers & 3 Youth Clubs from the time they are age 10-16, so who would be responsible for ‘developing’ the player?
Some of these professional players have had multiple private trainers & played on 3 youth clubs from ages 10-16...so who would be responsible for 'developing' the player? - Jeremie PietteClick To Tweet
This perspective eliminates the player [& their parents, natural skill & athleticism, drive & determination, support, etc.] from the equation. I would think {& hope} that all of the various clubs & trainers helped in some way so how can just one club get the transfer training fee?
But yes – what if you are just lucky to have that player who was blessed with God-given talent, which they are, and also the player who worked with the ball on their own every week for several hours a day, year after year? Should 1 club get credit for that or should we leave it to the pro clubs, agent and players?
Should we be charging youth transfer fees in soccer?
I do think if a player played for 1 Youth Club all the way through their youth career and then played for that same club’s pro team then that should be something to talk about, but also that club can just hand money down to the youth club. Now if a player plays for 1 club who is not a MLS USSF Club and then at age 17 signs with a MLS Club, then that can also be something to talk about because the other non-MLS Club did develop the player. And then why should the private trainer not get some of the pie too?
And this is why I think it’s all just too much to say who should get money. For example, you have Carli Lloyd, US National Team star, who has had a personal soccer trainer for over 10 years. There is the story of her at one point wanting to quit soccer before she was a big name player but her personal trainer helped her to keep a strong mind and keep playing. So in a situation like this, the clubs had nothing to do with her wanting to give it another shot and keep playing – it was the private trainer.
Top youth soccer clubs in America
In 2015 there were some youth club teams in America [Crossfire & Texans] who were wanting to get some of the transfer fee monies [Training Compensation] from the MLS Pro Clubs for player development. After trying to contact the bigger pro club in Europe and receive money, they found out the club had already paid their part to the smaller pro club. The youth club wants to receive a portion of that money, which just won’t happen. This needs to be something that was in contract before all of this takes place which means youth clubs would have to agree with young teenage kids about the potential happenings.
While this seems crazy, I do know that in Brazil that 13 year old boys are signing contracts with agents in hopes that the agent can get them signed with a pro team years down the road and, vise versa, the agents hope that 1 or more of the players will make it big and sign pro. In America we are more about wanting to go to college after high school while in other countries they are thinking pro all the way.
America is changing
Now things in America are changing to where 13 year old kids are moving away from their families in America to clubs in Europe who take care of their medical, food & housing while at a sports school. Then when they are old enough and good enough to sign pro they move on to a pro contract and get paid.
So you hear about young teenagers [13-15] signing with big name clubs like Barcelona. Understand that most of these are not a pro contract. It just gets them into the system which would be great opportunity, better training and all that but they are not getting paid wages.
The Training Compensation stated above is interesting to where once a player signs their first pro contract with another club & each transfer after there is a compensation to the training company/club up until the end of the season of the players 23rd birthday. You can read more about this below on the link: Training Compensation.
Youth transfer fees off the players talents
I guarantee you that the players who make it this far trained on their own at home for several hours. So for an outside organization to want transfer money for a player signing pro soccer is a little bit too much to have to look into & I’m not sure FIFA will want to take this on these youth transfer fees.
The argument is valid because club teams do develop players to a great degree and take them to a level that other clubs might not have and they give opportunity but I think it’s also taking away from all the hard work from the players.
If the players want to donate to their youth club or trainers in the future that can be up to them. Some of these youth clubs and coaches do amazing work and I just think it’s cool that we can even have this discussion because it shows how far US soccer has come and it will only continue to grow not only in the Youth level but also the NCAA/College game as well as the MLS & 2nd Tier Clubs.
Other sources covering youth transfer fees
– DeAndre Yedlin (USMNT Player), Crossfire Premier, Tottenham Hotspur & MLS that first drew attention to all of this http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/2015/06/29/us-soccer-youth-club-compensation-crossfire-deandre-yedlin-mls-fifa After all of this blew up the Dallas Texans Soccer Club also took action about their bringing up of US Star Clint Dempsey, which you can Google
– Training Compensation http://www.lawinsport.com/articles/item/a-guide-to-training-compensation-and-solidarity-payments-in-football
sports