While Pep Guardiola has been one of Europe’s biggest spenders, Barcelona’s youth system is hailed as the best in the world, churning out stars like Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta, Carles Puyol and Xavi. And while the Red Bulls’ are MLS’ biggest spenders with an eight-figure payroll, they’re hoping their academy can be a stateside version of Barca.
They’ve signed four academy products under MLS’ Home Grown Player Rule: Juan Agudelo, Giorgi Chirgadze, Matt Kassel and most recently Sacir Hot. And it was the Fair Lawn (NJ) native Hot, a former MetroStar ballboy who entered the academy on the same day as Chirgadze six years ago, that likened it to Barcelona.
“When you look at Barcelona and you see all their academy players coming up on the rise, and I feel like Red Bull, they’re going to be producing the same for MLS,’’ Hot said last week, after joining the club he essentially grew up with.
“Agudelo’s coming up, Matt Kassel, I am; they have a bunch of great talent in the academy coming up. I like what Red Bull is doing now. Hans (Backe, coach) is giving a lot of chance to the youth, which is very, very good for the club.’’
On a number of levels. Agudelo is just 18-years-old, but became the first academy product to get called up to the U.S. National Team when he made his highly-anticipated debut in South Africa. The fact that he scored the winner in his first cap and set up the equalizer in his other put the spotlight on the Red Bull academy _ a program GM Erik Soler calls vital to their long-term success.
“It’s maybe the single most important factor for this club, for the owners, to produce young players from all the clubs he has,’’ said Soler, who has hired former IK Start manager Jan Halvor Halvorsen as an assistant last month, and brought ex-defender Mike Petke back as Individual Developmental Coach.
“We think for players like Matt, Giorgio, Juan and Sacir, this is a great environment to develop, especially with what we’ve done now. We’ve brought on board Jan, and we also brought Mike Petke to work with the young kids. That’s going to be a great opportunity for them to develop.
“It’s very, very important for us that they develop and some end up in the first team, because that’s the whole idea behind an academy. Agudelo has gone well so far, and we think the others have a good chance to follow.’’
Back from an injury that cost him his first real season with the club, Chirgadze has drawn praise from Backe for his technical ability, while Hot and Kassel signed just in time for the opening stages of this training camp. But they are just the tip of an iceberg of talent that the Red Bull academy has amassed.
They’ve proven they have quantity as well as high-end quality. While 15 players from the Red Bulls’ current U-16 and U-18 teams committed to high Division I schools this fall, Top Drawer soccer’s 2011 Boys National Top 100 has three Red Bull academy products ranked in its top 14.
It should be noted that while Agudelo is signed to a Generation adidas deal, since Kassel is not, the club does not have to wait for the former to graduate the program before signing a second Home Grown player to a Generation adidas deal. With the blue chip talent in the pipeline, that’s a relevant point.
“We’re very pleased with the progress that our players have made over the past several years. It’s a testament to the quality of players that we have when you see that the vast majority of the team will play at top level Division I colleges,” Paul O’Donnell, Manager of Red Bull Academy Teams and U18 head coach.
“We have six players who’ll play in the ACC, five in the Big East, two Ivy League and one who’ll play for the defending national champion, Akron University. That truly speaks volumes for this graduating class and for the type of player the Red Bull Academy has been producing. The staff strongly believes that several of these players have the potential to perhaps represent the first team in the future.”
Midfielder Sean Davis from Holmdel (NJ) is ranked third in Top Drawer’s Top 100, and committed to Duke. Bryan Gallego _ a 17-year-old defender who vaulted from 32nd to 10th in the rankings _ committed to defending NCAA champ Akron, which had five of the top eight picks in last month’s MLS SuperDraft. And three Red Bull academy players are headed to Maryland, where Kassel just starred.
Midfielder Dan Metzger is a 17-year-old from Holmdel (NJ) ranked 14th in Top Drawer’s Top 100. Keith Cardona is an 18-year-old keeper from Glen Rock who was at the U.S. U-17 residency program in Bradenton and will look to replace Zac MacMath, the fifth overall pick in the draft. And 17-year-old defender Kyle Roach of Plainsboro (NJ) will help fill the void left by Red Bull draftee Billy Cortes.
