Following the Canadian U20 team's recent two-match tour in Mexico, Steven Sandor from the11.ca wrote an article highlighting the disparity in resources between the Mexican and Canadian youth development programs. To the point, following the tour the Canadians scattered back across the world while the Mexicans went jaunting across the Atlantic as a unit to compete in more tournaments.
A report from Mexico today reinforces just how gaping that development chasm really is. The piece checks in with the Mexican squad one year after it won the U17 World Cup and expresses general disappointment that only eight of the 21 players have achieved any playing minutes in Mexico's top flight.
The point here is not to lambast the CSA for lacking the resources Mexico enjoys but simply to point at the difference in expectations and exclaim, holy fuck that's big.
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The eight players from that supremely talented Mexican U17 squad have racked up 2,416 minutes in the Primera Liga over the course of 59 games. A big chunk is accounted for by Chivas' striker Carlos Fierro, with 892 minutes in 21 games.
Contrast that with the Canadian U17 squad. If even one player from that group was already nailing down first-team MLS minutes Canadian supporters would probably be over the moon. But that's comparing different fruits. And it doesn't take into account the progress that Samuel Piette and Keven Aleman seem to be making in Europe.
A quick glance at the England U17 squad and the only player I see who's played any minutes in the Premier League is Liverpool's Raheen Sterling. Again, completely different league. The point I'm trying to make is that there is a large enough public commitment from the Mexican soccer authorities to develop their best youth players in the domestic top flight. To such a degree that the editors of the country's most popular futbol portal thought it was worth an article about the lack of progress on that front.
The fact the Mexicans are quietly constructing a global football powerhouse from nursery to retirement isn't necessarily a bad thing from the Canadian football fan's perspective. Mexico will qualify for the World Cup through Concacaf from here to eternity, therefore Canada isn't really competing with the Mexican program to get to where it needs to be. In fact Canada would only benefit -- from the youth programs on up -- in that its teams would test themselves against the some of the best footballers in the world. (Ignoring for the moment that all the teams we are competing with for World Cup spots enjoy the same perks.)
Mexico will have to advance past the quarterfinals of a senior mens' World Cup before we can truly start to get jealous, but their development model is something to be envied and emulated in as much as it is possible.