A modest SuperDraft proposal

With the annual release of the initial list of MLS Combine invitees behind us, it’s time again to talk about the coming MLS SuperDraft and the unnecessary limitations associated with it that reduce opportunity for teams and players alike.

Let’s start with the one thing all 53 players on the Combine list have in common: their exhausted college eligibility.

While it’s commendable that the more than four dozens players listed are within grasp of finishing their college degrees, the fact that they are all seniors in the 21-23 age range is problem number one for a league that has fallen short in providing opportunities for young players (I counted 54 players under age 22 on the MLS player database at MLSoccer.com).

Sure, the Generation adidas contracts will ensure that there are a half dozen or so underclassmen in the mix – the Union did well to pick underclassmen Josh Yaro and Fabian Herbers in the most recent draft – but this is a drop in the bucket when considering how many players are left on the sidelines waiting for the chance to prove themselves when their best years might already be behind them.

One and done is a term usually reserved for the NBA and their rule forcing teenage prospects to spend a year at college before becoming draft eligible but there’s no reason why promising freshman (or sophomores or juniors) with interest from pro teams shouldn’t be doing the same in college soccer.

Take a player like Wake Forest freshman Ema Twumasi for example. He had a solid first year at Wake, finishing third on the team in goals with six and adding four assists on a team that was a made penalty kick away from being crowned the best team in college soccer on Sunday. Unless he is offered a Generation adidas contract, the Ghana native who is not eligible to sign as a homegrown player will have to wait at least until he is almost 21 before getting another shot at the pros in the U.S. By contrast, he could go just about anywhere in the world tomorrow if a contract offer came his way.

I don’t know Ema so I don’t pretend to know his academic or professional goals, but it’s a problem that his options to pursue a professional career in the U.S. (while perhaps also even meeting his academic goals through online education) are so limited.

Examples abound of other players who would be better served by moving onto the professional level sooner than later and of players like former UC Santa Barbara star Geoffrey Acheampong who left for Europe after a brief foray in college soccer (he signed with French Ligue 1 side SC Bastia after a year at Santa Barbara).

Looking back even earlier to players who haven’t made it to college yet you’ll find a number of promising pro prospects whose only option on their 18th birthday is to go abroad or if they haven’t turned 19 yet spend a gap year in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy.

Two Players Development Academy players come to mind, a former Union U16 player named Isaiah Young, who bailed on his commitment to Wake Forest to return to PDA, and James Murphy, who went to Sheffield Wednesday after finishing high school.

While both players had ties to the Philadelphia Union (Murphy was part of the Union’s “club and country” setup in his younger years), neither was homegrown eligible and therefore didn’t have a realistic path to professional soccer in the U.S. beyond college and the GA sweepstakes. Whether they wanted that opportunity or not, it doesn’t exist.

Theoretically youth players could become eligible for the draft if signed to a Generation adidas deal – you’ll recall Jack McInerney doing so as a 17-year-old in 2010 – but this hasn’t happened since Kekutah Manneh signed as an 18-year-old and was drafted by Vancouver Whitecaps in 2013.

If you have only so many GA contracts to offer – only 19 total over the last three years – it makes sense that the league would go after more proven talent at the college level. But what if players could be eligible regardless of age or college eligibility remaining?

That’s my modest proposal.

Open the draft up and expand opportunities for U.S.-based players in high school or college to start their professional journeys at a younger age.

It sounds simple – something Major League Soccer has never been particularly good at – but it would go a long way in making the SuperDraft, particularly for a club like the Philadelphia Union that has to wait for 32 picks, a lot more worthwhile and interesting.