Hugo Tavares

[rydermike]

Also don't discount the value of getting a degree. We see it all the time in the CPL where players retire to get a job with their degree. Hopefully, Hugo can make it but should he not make it, he'll at least have a (scholarship paid-for which is huge) university degree to fall back on. It's a calculated risk. But how many pros have their careers stall in and then they go club to club in the lower divisions hanging on to dream at low salaries because they've basically committed to it being their only career path. I can't fault him for the decision. If the salary is as low as what was reported a couple posts ago, this seems like a wise and mature decision to expand future options. 

Jose Cunha (the Atletico Ottawa draft pick) was another guy who left a Portuguese club (Estoril) to come to university here. 

Edited November 9, 2022 by rydermike

[Bison44]

Its great to get an education, but its not the free ride we think it is.  I dont think most soccer players get the 100% or there is only a portion of the players get partials.  It used to be 9 per team for men split up by the coaches.  But you do see more and more european kids in NCAA soccer programs.    

[Bigandy]

50 minutes ago, MM3/MM2/MM said:

A full NCAA "contract" can be worth upwards of $70,000.00 with all the perks.   An American football player, probably more.  A real Football player, not so much.

Technically speaking, perks are a violation of NCAA rules...  Good thing there has never been corruption in sports. 

[Bigandy]

10 minutes ago, rydermike said:

Also don't discount the value of getting a degree. We see it all the time in the CPL where players retire to get a job with their degree. Hopefully, Hugo can make it but should he not make it, he'll at least have a (scholarship paid-for which is huge) university degree to fall back on. It's a calculated risk. But how many pros have their careers stall in and then they go club to club in the lower divisions hanging on to dream at low salaries because they've basically committed to it being their only career path. I can't fault him for the decision. If the salary is as low as what was reported a couple posts ago, this seems like a wise and mature decision to expand future options. 

Jose Cunha (the Atletico Ottawa draft pick) was another guy who left a Portuguese club (Estoril) to come to university here. 

Ya its definitely a worthwhile route. I just was hoping he was more of a sure thing like corbeanu is and therefore wouldnt consider an alternative to european soccer. (He may not end up at a top level but hes already shown he can make a living at the mens level.) 

[maccaliam]

8 minutes ago, Bison44 said:

Its great to get an education, but its not the free ride we think it is.  I dont think most soccer players get the 100% or there is only a portion of the players get partials.  It used to be 9 per team for men split up by the coaches.  But you do see more and more european kids in NCAA soccer programs.    

Unless something has changed since I was at university, each conference sets the rule for how many scholarships each university can offer. It can vary widely even between neighbouring conferences.  
From there, universities can break each scholarship up between players (or technically offer 100% to a few) to use all scholarships available to them.  
 

+often there are ways school get around it by offering various other scholarships to students (e.g. all the players on my team got a scholarship called “President’s scholarship” which no one actually knew what it was for, and that did not count against the total soccer scholarship money the school could offer)

[maccaliam]

15 minutes ago, Bigandy said:

Technically speaking, perks are a violation of NCAA rules...  Good thing there has never been corruption in sports. 

My coach sold me a pair of brand new boots for a dollar because he wasn’t allowed to give me a pair as it would be in violation of ncaa rules. 

[Bigandy]

1 minute ago, maccaliam said:

My coach sold me a pair of brand new boots for a dollar because he wasn’t allowed to give me a pair as it would be in violation of ncaa rules. 

Thats how it should be done. Im sure he wouldve sold his boots to anyone at that price so theres no violation there haha. 

I know players who had poor GPA's so they would take "art 1000" or whatever it was called so they would get an A+ and remain eligible. Whats art 1000.... well its when student athletes repaint parts of the school... Free labour, free A+. 

[Bison44]

39 minutes ago, maccaliam said:

Unless something has changed since I was at university, each conference sets the rule for how many scholarships each university can offer. It can vary widely even between neighbouring conferences.  
From there, universities can break each scholarship up between players (or technically offer 100% to a few) to use all scholarships available to them.  

I never got a scholarship that didnt involve my brain so if you the real scoop, I defer....but i did read this, it even had a handy chart.

https://www.ncsasports.org/mens-soccer/scholarships

 

[Corazon]

6 hours ago, maccaliam said:

Unless something has changed since I was at university, each conference sets the rule for how many scholarships each university can offer. It can vary widely even between neighbouring conferences.  
From there, universities can break each scholarship up between players (or technically offer 100% to a few) to use all scholarships available to them.  
 

+often there are ways school get around it by offering various other scholarships to students (e.g. all the players on my team got a scholarship called “President’s scholarship” which no one actually knew what it was for, and that did not count against the total soccer scholarship money the school could offer)

As a former player and coach at this level.  This is one of the most accurate posts I’ve read on here.  Spot on.  Although not all conferences even have the same amount of scholarships unless that’s changed.
There is probably as much or more scholarships/grants outside of the sport than there is athletic scholarships.  
 

A University program may have 9 full scholarships that they give out in full to 9 players or they may share those 9 full scholarships amongst 30 players on the roster.  And anything in between.  Many international athletes receive an additional International waiver that helps save on scholarships.  Many athletes from out of state were given out-of-state waivers to save on scholarships.  I believe both do have limits on how many can be given for each athletic program but I do know there are a lot of them for each program.  There are other additional grants and scholarships given as well but less frequently.  In addition, International players can be given one time stipends for simple jobs such as watering the field throughout the seasons.  There are countless way to help athletes afford their education.  

[sonic_fcpf]

18 hours ago, Bigandy said:

 

I still find that hard to believe but i dont know tons about the Portuguese league. Heres where i got my numbers... do you think they are accurate?  https://www.capology.com/pt/primeira-liga/salaries/

Looks like they are accurate...and just confirms for young players! Paços players that are making 20.000 €/year are already in their 3rd year contract or even 4th (like Matchoi Djalo that signed is first professional contract at the age of 16). Did you see Vitoria .... 90.000€/year.

 

[sonic_fcpf]

21 hours ago, rydermike said:

Also don't discount the value of getting a degree. We see it all the time in the CPL where players retire to get a job with their degree. Hopefully, Hugo can make it but should he not make it, he'll at least have a (scholarship paid-for which is huge) university degree to fall back on. It's a calculated risk. But how many pros have their careers stall in and then they go club to club in the lower divisions hanging on to dream at low salaries because they've basically committed to it being their only career path. I can't fault him for the decision. If the salary is as low as what was reported a couple posts ago, this seems like a wise and mature decision to expand future options. 

Jose Cunha (the Atletico Ottawa draft pick) was another guy who left a Portuguese club (Estoril) to come to university here. 

I agree. I think he made a good move. The transition year from Youth academy to professional is always difficult in the main leagues. A lot of players when they sign professional with good clubs they need to do 2 to 3 years loan in lower divisions. The problem is that even in these smaller clubs is not easy because the quality of the game is not so good and coachs prefer experienced players.....at the end they almost do not play (see the case of Justin Smith) and if they are not mentaly strong they enter into a negative spiral. At least in NCAA if they are good they play (I saw that Hugo was even the only player of the team that started all 17 games). Also you start to see more and more good players coming from Europe to NCAA. I was making a quick investigation and you can find players that  played Youth League (a former captain of Borussia Dortmund U23; in Hugo's team there is a player that until U19 was always the best striker for Real Madrid,.....) or players like Ben Alexander (Canada U20 GK) that moved to NCAA in South Carolina....and the championship  is more and more competitive. Also it seems the best players when it comes to summer are invited to play in USL2 teams which is the championship where 60 to 70% of MLS drafs come.

 

[Bigandy]

4 hours ago, sonic_fcpf said:

Looks like they are accurate...and just confirms for young players! Paços players that are making 20.000 €/year are already in their 3rd year contract or even 4th (like Matchoi Djalo that signed is first professional contract at the age of 16). Did you see Vitoria .... 90.000€/year.

 

20k in euros is probably higher than the average cpl contract or at least close to being higher. At the risk of being argumentative, i think we interpret these stats differently. Young reserve players making 20k euros a year is phenomenal compared to what a 16-18 year old cpl player would make.  once the player establishes himself and actually is part of the first team picture, that 20k jumps substantially.  I dont think its a very wise financial move to think youll make more at CPL level. If you compare 20 year olds who start in portugal vs starting in CPL then obviously theres no question that portugal pays way better. 

[Pottsy3]

17 minutes ago, Bigandy said:

20k in euros is probably higher than the average cpl contract or at least close to being higher. At the risk of being argumentative, i think we interpret these stats differently. Young reserve players making 20k euros a year is phenomenal compared to what a 16-18 year old cpl player would make.  once the player establishes himself and actually is part of the first team picture, that 20k jumps substantially.  I dont think its a very wise financial move to think youll make more at CPL level. If you compare 20 year olds who start in portugal vs starting in CPL then obviously theres no question that portugal pays way better. 

If you wander over to the CPL sub-forum, you'll see that they just increased the minimum salary to $30,000 CAD across the league. (20,000 Euros = 27,000 CAD).

[Bigandy]

3 minutes ago, Pottsy3 said:

If you wander over to the CPL sub-forum, you'll see that they just increased the minimum salary to $30,000 CAD across the league. (20,000 Euros = 27,000 CAD).

I stand corrected.... I was using last years reference point of 22k a year for cpl.  Quite the raise which is great to see in the cpl!

[maccaliam]

On 11/9/2022 at 6:24 PM, Bison44 said:

I never got a scholarship that didnt involve my brain so if you the real scoop, I defer....but i did read this, it even had a handy chart.

https://www.ncsasports.org/mens-soccer/scholarships

 

I got both athletic and academic scholarships  (and a few others) for my 4 years. At my school, we couldn’t offer anywhere near 9 soccer scholarships due to our school having an American football team and Title 9. We did well academically to more money to even it up a bit with some of the other conferences. 

Edited November 11, 2022 by maccaliam

[MM3/MM2/MM]

2 minutes ago, maccaliam said:

I got both athletic and academic scholarships  (and a few others) for my 4 years. 

Do you mind saying what that amounted to in $$$.   A friend of mine's daughter got a full scholarship in rowing to a top US University.  Full tuition, accommodation, meal allowance, $600.00 deposited to her bank account monthly for miscellaneous expenses, $100.00 a month gift cards to Starbucks and several other companies.  She figured it came in at around $70,000.00 a year.

[maccaliam]

6 minutes ago, MM3/MM2/MM said:

Do you mind saying what that amounted to in $$$.   A friend of mine's daughter got a full scholarship in rowing to a top US University.  Full tuition, accommodation, meal allowance, $600.00 deposited to her bank account monthly for miscellaneous expenses, $100.00 a month gift cards to Starbucks and several other companies.  She figured it came in at around $70,000.00 a year.

Nowhere close to that. Wow. That’s living the dream. I didn’t get a full ride but got 100% tuition, and then about 75% up to about 95% over my four years (accommodation, food all paid for, etc). My school was a small one in the south, so your friend’s daughter sounds like the American footballers time at university, but not us soccer players. 

Edited November 11, 2022 by maccaliam

[MM3/MM2/MM]

7 minutes ago, maccaliam said:

Nowhere close to that. Wow. That’s living the dream. I didn’t get a full ride but got 100% tuition, and then about 75% up to about 95% over my four years (accommodation, food all paid for, etc). My school was a small one in the south, so your friend’s daughter sounds like the American footballers time at university, but not us soccer players. 

Still sounds like a pretty good deal.

[Bigandy]

2 hours ago, MM3/MM2/MM said:

Do you mind saying what that amounted to in $$$.   A friend of mine's daughter got a full scholarship in rowing to a top US University.  Full tuition, accommodation, meal allowance, $600.00 deposited to her bank account monthly for miscellaneous expenses, $100.00 a month gift cards to Starbucks and several other companies.  She figured it came in at around $70,000.00 a year.

I’m not debating that happened as I totally believe it. But miscellaneous gift cards seems like such an ncaa violation 😂

[Pottsy3]

2 hours ago, MM3/MM2/MM said:

Do you mind saying what that amounted to in $$$.   A friend of mine's daughter got a full scholarship in rowing to a top US University.  Full tuition, accommodation, meal allowance, $600.00 deposited to her bank account monthly for miscellaneous expenses, $100.00 a month gift cards to Starbucks and several other companies.  She figured it came in at around $70,000.00 a year.

Women’s Rowing is a definitely a sport that benefits from Title IX, partially because the NCAA only recognizes it as a varsity sport for Women and not the Male side (similar to the inverse of gridiron football). Men’s rowing programs that provide scholarships are likely allocating them through academics, etc. 

 

I haven’t heard the perks going as far as the gift cards, but I definitely know quite a few rower’s who went down with basically no expenses.

 

[jordan]

 

[sonic_fcpf]

 

[sonic_fcpf]

 

[sonic_fcpf]

 

[sonic_fcpf]