Youth soccer academies have always existed for the purpose of developing young stars to potentially be able to play up to the senior levels. Some of the academies are La Masia, La Fábrica, and the AFC Ajax Youth Academy.
For Barcelona FC, the 2021-2022 season was the definitive end of an era. Many players like Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, Gerard Piqué, Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, and Luis Suárez had either retired or left the club. In addition to this, Barcelona was going through financial troubles and problems with finding talent.
The club had no choice but to turn their attention to focus on getting talent from their academy. In my opinion, Barcelona started to come back with the unveiling of Lamine Yamal. Labeled as the “star boy” for Barcelona, he contributed greatly in the stage when the team was rebuilding their squad.
Eventually the club ended up making some crucial changes to the squad, including firing a manager and adding a number of academy players to the starting eleven.
The idea of youngsters getting to play professionally is not very new to the game of soccer. One of the most notable examples being Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nascimento), a Brazilian legend that started his career at the age of 16 playing for Santos FC.
Players on the younger side (known as youngsters) usually range between the ages of 17 and 22. In some special instances, the ages can get as low as 15. There have been cases with talent like Cavan Sullivan, a 15-year-old professional soccer player currently playing for the Philadelphia Union.
Despite the similar age when starting to debut in their respective careers, there are several factors that differentiate these two generations. For one, Pelé’s generation didn’t have the type of scouting we have now.
The chances of getting scouted are higher with things like social media, better youth programs, and a way more elaborate networking system. ECNL (Elite Clubs National Leagues) is another example of more opportunities that have come up for young players.
In Pelé’s generation, it was really rare to get scouted without already being on a team that is high-level. Every club or team would have different approaches to how they look for players depending on their values, playstyle, and what type of players they are looking for. Teams like Sporting Clube de Portugal would get to develop players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Figo.
Another difference between the two eras would be the obvious evolution and understanding of the sport. Pelé’s soccer IQ was off the charts, but with the making of new tactics and experienced coaches to teach them, all the way down to the youth level, players can develop a lot quicker.
However, the constant social media presence on these young stars can be overwhelming for someone so early into their career and overall life. In the past, youngsters like Neymar had the occasional camera shoved in their face, as well as analyzing their skills, but it was nothing compared to today.
I’ve noticed that social media tends to get into the lives of a lot of mainstream soccer players who are in top-level clubs. Veteran and adult players have grown to adapt to this through experience and a ton of PR classes. But, someone like Cavan Sullivan, who’s only 16, might have trouble dealing with pressure to perform well and heavy criticism on top of his personal life.
Don’t get me wrong, players back in the 90s and early 2000s had to deal with critics just like players today do. But the intensity of the criticism for such young players can be detrimental when trying to raise them to their full potential.
I think players should take this into consideration before going up to the big stage at such a young age. If they do end up playing professionally, they should be able to take precautions, like getting trained for social media and press accordingly.
I’m not personally familiar with how clubs treat young players and if they are extra attentive to them. What I can tell you is that the game of soccer has seen many tragic downfalls of youth players getting to the professional levels and falling short due to burnout, stress, or other reasons.
Taking some of these basic guidelines with younger players should be standard in clubs to ensure their talent can be seen by all their fans.
