Guardian NextGen Talent 2015

[An Observer]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/oct/06/from-degaard-to-mastour-what-happened-to-next-generation-2015
 

I found this an interesting read.  This gives the top 20 premiership sides u17 players in 2015 and the top 50 globally for the same age and year and shows where they are now  

what is really noticeable is that even the cream of the cream at that age rarely go on to very successful pro careers. 

i post it as all too frequently we hear someone saying Canada is terrible at identifying young talent as x got cut from y youth team and now 2 or 3 years later is starring somewhere and is better than those on that team. What the Guardian list shows is that even the really elite fail to pan out most of the time at that age so there are tonnes of players who weren’t part of that elite at that age that even a few years later are playing at the highest level. 

i think it underlines the point that the most important thing is to keep as many of the good 15 and 16 years olds playing in a competitive environment into their early 20s as you just don’t know who will turn out and who will not. That is where the CPL comes in but also the Div 3 leagues like League 1 in Ontario and PLSQ in Quebec plus university soccer on both sides of the border. 

[dyslexic nam]

Yeah but it’s so much easier to shit on the CSA.  

[TOcanadafan]

4 hours ago, An Observer said:

I think it underlines the point that the most important thing is to keep as many of the good 15 and 16 years olds playing in a competitive environment into their early 20s as you just don’t know who will turn out and who will not

You compare to a sport like baseball that has a huge developmental league set-up behind the major leagues, and the same thing is true. Whereas sports like hockey, basketball and American Football, the top players at 15 or 16 most often stay at or near the top as the set up does not allow for late-risers to find their game.
As for the CSA (or any of the 3 MLS Academies for that matter) identifying talent, I think questions on many fronts can still be asked.

[An Observer]

11 hours ago, TOcanadafan said:

You compare to a sport like baseball that has a huge developmental league set-up behind the major leagues, and the same thing is true. Whereas sports like hockey, basketball and American Football, the top players at 15 or 16 most often stay at or near the top as the set up does not allow for late-risers to find their game.
As for the CSA (or any of the 3 MLS Academies for that matter) identifying talent, I think questions on many fronts can still be asked.

I don’t follow American football but I do hockey and basketball and with both, there are many very highly rated players for basketball going from high school to college (and they are older than the kids in the guardian article) that never pan out and never get selected to the nba and with hockey, the same going from bantam you junior who never get close to the NHL. Crap in the NBA, you have really highly rated Canadians that were much older than 17 when so rated that didn’t. Wiggins was suppose to be a generational talent akin to James and he is mediocre at best but I will give you the fact he made it to the NBA as the number 1 selection; and then there is Bennett who was also number 1 and frankly sucked big time and only played some garbage minutes in the NBA. I could list a bunch more Canadians who at 17 would have been rated as top 20 or 30 in the world but never came close to the NBA. 

[SF]

yes, seriously - just take a look through the last 20 OHL priority selections and for every Connor McDavid you will see 10 players you've never heard of.

Couldn't agree more with the argument that you need to have competitive avenues for your players until they reach their early 20s (at least)