In the US, 1.4% of college soccer players actually get picked in the Major League Soccer draft. Out of that 1.4% of athletes, 46.7% end up signing a contract. That doesn’t make playing college soccer a bad experience, it’s a great experience for every athlete, but it certainly is not the best way to go pro. Unlike other sports, such as basketball, football, baseball, and hockey, where there is a draft in which hundreds of players are picked and signed on contracts, the Major League Soccer (MLS) draft only allows 89 picks. For example, the NFL has a minimum of 256 picks, and because this is the only way for these players to sign a contract, many of them end up playing and having good careers.
The reason for the MLS draft only having 89 picks is that most teams decided to pass on picks because they rather sign a player who has played for their academy since they were young. An academy, like the New England Revolution Academy, is the youth squad of a pro team, where they can develop young players and sign them when they are older. Academies also compete at a much higher level than normal club teams, giving players so much more exposure. Author Johnathan Wright in “Is playing College Soccer the best route to making it to the MLS?” Stated that from 2013-2019 there have been 632 draft picks, and every team has passed on about ten. This resulted in only 576 players being selected, the percentage being 46.7% that sign a contract for an MLS organization.
To answer Johnathan Wright’s question, no, playing college soccer is not the best way to make it to the MLS, or pro in general. What is the best way? The best way to go pro is to play for an academy and rise up through the ranks. Of course, you need to be an incredibly talented player to achieve this, but it is much easier than trying to go through college. In the US, it costs about $2,000-$5,000 to play club soccer, which is a lot of money just to play. Fortunately, if you are good enough to play academy it is usually fully funded.
But just because college soccer isn’t the best way to go professional doesn’t mean it’s a bad choice. For example, Michael Bradley, who got drafted by the New York Red Bulls in 2004 through the MLS draft, became a very successful American soccer player, playing in Europe and the American National Team. Playing high-level soccer and getting an education at the same time is a great choice for some people. Boston Latin Academy Gym Teacher, Soccer, and Hockey Coach, Patrick Mudie said so himself as he has a past in Division 3 soccer at Springfield College. “A goal of mine was to compete at the next level… to try to compete against myself to see how far I can go and, and get an education at the same time.”
Nevertheless, if your dream is to go pro, college soccer is not the best route. People may say that it is because it’s less competitive than academy soccer and once you get picked for the MLS draft you are on a pro team, and although there is some truth to that based on recent data it’s much harder to get picked than you may think. As stated before, 1.4% of college athletes get picked in the draft which is an extremely low number that keeps getting lower. Playing in academies also helps you get exposure and build relationships with professional teams, which can help in the future.
“Clubs in Europe, they want to see athletes with their youth programs and in their academies and work their way up so that they get to know them, not only on the field but off the field, they get to know their character…” Mudie said. “I think a lot of the athletes that go through college and aren’t playing on these Academy teams maybe don’t have the best shot because they don’t have the most exposure, and they don’t have the relationships built with those clubs already.”
But can we change this? Well, we can make the US soccer system structured like most sports in the US, and only have a draft for players to go pro. Or, we can make it like everywhere else in the world and only have academies as the path to going pro. However, I believe the system in place is a great idea because it provides more ways to go pro, it just needs to be used instead of providing false hope for some of the amazing players that get drafted. So, that’s why playing in an academy is a much better way to go pro than playing college soccer. You get better exposure, you understand your team’s values at a much higher degree, and you don’t get false hope.
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