USMNT, CanMNT: Legitimately world-leading talent
Four players across the USMNT and CanMNT have been nominated in the top 100 for the Golden Boy Award. North America is now producing legitimately world-leading talent.
Soccer is a very modern sport in North America. While it is increasingly popular, especially in the younger generations, in comparison to other countries around the world, especially in South America and Europe, it has not been prevalent in the sporting culture.
As a result, the quality of the players developed has rarely rivalled the best in the world. The best athletes in the country play basketball or football or other sports. Soccer tends to attract the kids that are keenly interested in playing. They pull talent from a small pool, and inevitably, that leads to lower quality high-end players.
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However, as the sport has grown over the past two decade, so has the talent level of the players, both in terms of the depth and breadth of players coming through and the elite-level players competing at the highest level of the professional game. And this week, we were handed another reminder of the progress of the sport in North America.
The annual Golden Boy Award nominations were released on Monday. The nominations list the top 100 players in world football aged under 21. Atop the proceedings are Borussia Dortmund pair, Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland, either of the pair the favourites to win the award.
However, from a North American perspective, there was also excellent news. Four players from North America were included in the nominations. These are Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies, who will be in the running for a very high place, potentially as high as the top five, Gent’s Jonathan David, Dortmund’s Gio Reyna, and Ajax’s Sergino Dest.
The last time the U.S. Men’s National Team had any representatives in the top 100 was in 2018 when Tim Weah and Christian Pulisic were both named. Davies was shortlisted for the award last year, meaning he reached the top 20, but having two players nominated is a massive step in the Canadian Men’s National Team soccer scene.
Of course, this means little for the USMNT and CanMNT, per se. Anyone who has watched any of their matches in recent years will be quite aware of just how talented these young players are, especially in comparison to those that have come before them for their countries. Davies, for instance, is almost guaranteed to be the greatest Canadian player of all time. Reyna and Dest, meanwhile, if not for Pulisic, would have a similar claim for the USMNT.
And this is to ignore many of the other excellent young players from North America around the world, especially USMNT prospects. Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie and Josh Sargent are all regularly playing in the Bundesliga, Paxton Pomykal and Brenden Aaronson are awaiting their chances to try their hand overseas after breaking into MLS teams, while Chris Richards is very highly regarded at Bayern Munich.
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For the first time in the sport’s history, the U.S. and Canada are producing truly elite-level players that compete with some of the very best in the world. The future of North American football, then, seems very bright indeed.