For elite athletes with aptitude in soccer and one of the

by BillyGoat , At Thanksgiving with Joe Bethersontin, Tuesday, July 07, 2026, 07:05 (15 days ago) @ Mike (bart)

major US sports, the financial incentives are enormously different.

But should we be able to find a pool of like 100 players who are elite athletes and committed to soccer and who can fuel our national team programs? I'd think so.

I don't know the backgrounds of ANY of our players (other than the dynamic that we are starting a handful of guys who are in the pool for other countries but aren't good enough for those teams). But I will say that I think there is something to the notion that a decent number of US-born football and basketball players -- to say nothing of the Latino baseball players -- who come from little or nothing and who have a gigantic chip on their shoulder as a result.

US soccer seems, speaking broadly, to be a "rich kid" sport. And it seems like the for-profit club system described at length below reinforces that notion. I believe there is something to the notion that those types of kids are going to have a little less motivation or edge or whatever.