When San Antonio FC midfielder Jose Gallegos discovered that there was a global power in football intrigued by his talent in the spring, he initially thought it was just a joke.
“I laughed because when you hear someone say,”Bayern Munich wanted to see you, “the first thing you do is say, ‘No, you’re crazy,'” Gallegos said.
Except they were serious, and Bayern wanted him to come as soon as possible. At 19, Gallegos had never been to Europe before but soon boarded a flight for a two-week trip to Munich.
USL Championship Finals, Tampa Bay Rowdies vs Orange County SC: Sunday, 8:30 p.m. ET; broadcast live on ESPN
It comes in April, just a few weeks before the USL Championship season begins, and he will be in quarantine for a week before training for another week with Bayern B. Although he struggled at first just simply simply stepping foot onto such wild lands, but Gallegos found he was well acquitted and returned home with confidence.
The fact that a young American player has the opportunity to train with a European power is not unique. It’s not even rare for young Texans to train with Bayern, in particular, thanks to the club’s partnership with Main Football League‘NS FC Dallas. But even as these kinds of opportunities have become commonplace, the arrival of Gallegos is proof that the United Soccer League is making progress towards the goal it has been striving for for a decade: developing talent. ability and participation in the global transfer market.
Though 20-year-old Gallegos has yet to decide on a move out of USL – he was the second team selected in the All-League and led San Antonio to the USL Championship Western Conference finals – his path is shaping up. shaped to become what the federation hopes could be the blueprint for the future. He started playing for San Antonio’s academy at the age of 14, made his first team debut at 17, and signed with the first team in February 2020 at the age of 18.
San Antonio reaching the Western Conference final was the deepest it has ever reached the USL knockouts, but fell to Orange County SC on penalties. After the USL Championship final was canceled last year due to the pandemic, Tampa Bay Rowdies will host Orange County on Sunday (8:30 p.m. ET, broadcast live on ESPN) won the tournament’s first championship since 2019.
If Gallegos secures a move this winter, he will join another USL production, 18-year-old Jonathan Gomez of Louisville City, who will join LaLiga beside Real Sociedad when the transfer window opens in January. Louisville City announced the transfer of the FC Dallas left-back and former academy player in September.
The hope for USL is that the pair represents only the tip of the iceberg.
USL’s first athletic director, Mark Cartwright, told ESPN: “USL is a league with a big footprint and the amount of talent that will be present in those areas is huge.” “It’s about helping clubs tap that talent and then nurture it domestically and internally.
“But if you think about the amount of talent out there – if it can be developed, coached and put on the right path, then the league and country has the potential to be a huge player in the market. world. That’s for sure.”
Cartwright, who served as technical director of English club Stoke City from 2012 to 2019, was hired in June to help usher the league forward with his player development. After years of expansion, the league has grown to 32 teams in the top tier USL Championship and 12 teams in the second tier USL League 1. The league is expected to grow to include 60 to 70 professional teams, USL commissioner Jake Edwards told ESPN, with most of the growth expected to come in League 1.
However, for that aggressive growth strategy to work in the long term, USL realized they needed to be able to develop players and move them to bigger clubs to make a profit. Whether it’s going to Europe or closer to home in the MLS or Liga MX doesn’t matter in the end. All are on the table.
“I always say the next thing Lionel Messi “We don’t know unless we already have the infrastructure in place,” Edwards said. You have to attract young players to the sport and have the right training and the right pathways to keep them playing the sport and develop them. “
For all the progress Major League Soccer has made in youth development over the past decade, the league’s geographic footprint doesn’t come close to covering an entire county. It’s a number game. Even if the league hits 30 academy clubs in the near future, that leaves some large promising markets for player development beyond its sights.
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That’s a gap USL is starting to show it can fill.
“When you think about the size and scale of USL now and where it will grow over the next few years, with teams in multiple categories, men’s and women’s football, and the academy program behind all the that club, and even with the MLS clubs, you’re talking about 150 or more professional clubs that now have academia infrastructure in cities around the country,” Edwards said. “And if it’s done properly, the common goal is [American soccer] will bear the fruits of labor. You will see players move to pro ranks at levels never seen before. Now there are more opportunities to play professionally in the US than ever before and that can only bode well for the national team and for the future of the sport. “
Orange County SC considers itself one of the USL clubs best positioned to pave the way to the league. Southern California has always been one of the country’s football hotspots, and even for both LAFC and LA Galaxy In the market, there are numbers that suggest there is more than enough talent in the region to supply both MLS academies, plus OCSC and potentially more in the future. The more players join the professional development system, the higher the rate of professional player development. It is not a complicated idea.
Goalkeeper Aaron Cervantes’ move to Scottish giants Rangers after the 2020 season is an early proof of concept. After a stint with Galaxy academy and the Patadores, a famous Southern California club team, Cervantes signed a professional contract with OCSC in 2018 at the age of 15.
“I didn’t get any USL minutes the first year,” Cervantes said. “It was a learning experience for me to go in and see how the guys roll and how the men work. Everyone comes in and takes it like a job.”
After debuting in 2019, Cervantes appeared in 18 matches for the club and represented USA at the FIFA World Cup U17 in Brazil. What stood out most for Cervantes when he started playing regularly for the OCSC was how different the match atmosphere was compared to what he was used to.
Cervantes, who plays for Rangers B., said: “It’s not like playing in front of screaming parents anymore”, “Honestly, it was a big shock for me. One of the games. My first professional match was in [Oklahoma City], and those fans gave it to me. They don’t care I’m 16 years old. They shouted and cursed at me. They don’t really care and I think that’s good for you. It molds you. It makes you tougher. “
For Cartwright, it is important to expose players to such environments at a young age.
“You want them to play in front of a crowd because it’s a completely different experience and the bigger the crowd, the bigger the experience,” he said. “Players have to, as part of their development, they have to be able to deal with these environments and situations. So that’s a huge part of the way.”
By transferring an 18-year-old prospect like Cervantes, the OCSC will never be able to command much in the way of transfer pricing. Where the club hope to see more attractive returns in the future is when their players succeed after their initial transfer and then move on to a larger club, allowing OCSC pays a resale fee. It’s a common practice in the global transfer market, but not something that American clubs benefit from much, with a few exceptions.
“When a player makes the second move, we still want to be in it, it’s going to be a move that’s more financially beneficial for us,” OCSC president and general manager Oliver Wyss told ESPN. . “The percentage of the secondary sale fee can range from 10% to 30% or 40%. This depends on how you structure it, and often if you want to pay more upfront, a percentage on the sales fee. will decrease.”
Against Tampa Bay in the final, the OCSC will field a roster of mostly veterans, including former USA player Michael Orozco (29 national team caps), former Rangers midfielder Rob Kiernan, Haiti international striker Ronaldo Damus, along with several former MLS players.
There are some promising young players on the list. Throughout this season, 18-year-old midfielder Kobi Henry has played 1,494 minutes in 19 games with 16 appearances. One problem first Inter Miami CF Academy player Henry was called up to the U.S. Under-20 team for the Revelations Cup earlier this month. The US U20 squad also includes El Paso Locomotive FC midfielder Diego Luna, and a number of other MLS players who have played in the USL Championship or USL League 1.
Tampa Bay, who entered the USL Championship in 2017 after six years at the NASL, led the league in regular-season points (71) and advanced to the finals with a win over Tulsa (6-2 ), Birmingham (1 -0) and Louisville City (3-2). Rowdies goalkeeper Evan Louro, defender Forrest Lasso and forward Sebastian Guenzatti are all in the USLC All-League first team.
After last year’s final was canceled, Sunday’s game offers the long-awaited opportunity to showcase the tournament in prime time and with it a glimpse into the future.
