There’s no lack of opinions on how Major League Soccer’s youth academy setup should and will look like following US Soccer’s Development Academy shutting down.
Add Sporting Kansas City coach and sporting director Peter Vermes as the latest to give his opinion on the future of youth development.
On 810WHB's “Sporting Kansas City Show,” Vermes gave a three-point solution to maximizing youth development.
The first part, he said, would be having teams aged 14-and-under strictly compete locally and regionally.
“I don’t think kids should be flying all over the country at 12, 13 and 14. It’s not necessary,” he said. “We should be training and playing games. We can do that in and amongst our local and regional markets.”
For the teams aged 15-19, Vermes said what should be “phased in incrementally” is regional, national and international competition.
“It gets more aggressive as you go up the ladder,” Vermes said.
The final part, Vermes said, would be making sure every MLS team had a second team in order to “bridge the gap from academy to the first team.”
