College soccer to pro soccer?

takeitallin
Sun, 26 Jul 2015 02:07:47 +0000

While of course nothing is set in stone, it is definitely very late in the game. Unfortunately the fact that he has not played club soccer is going to make it very difficult to move on past high school in soccer. If he has been limited to high school and rec soccer (AYSO or the equivalent) so far, I think he will find the level of competition if he were to switch to a club to be a drastic jump in talent. Club teams are “rated” at different levels depending on their successes. If they win their season then they move up to the next level for their next season. The normal progression for most players is to start on a low level club team and move up as they become more accomplished. Colleges and semi-pro/pro teams only recruit from the highest levels normally. The level of play in the top tier teams vs. a low level club team is a huge difference. Since your son is getting into this so late he would most likely have a difficult time finding a top level team willing to look at him. While low level club teams are a dime a dozen, high level teams are few and far between and incredibly competitive. Our son’s last team pulled in kids from a 70 mile radius, practiced 3-4 days a week and traveled cross country for tournaments. They were very successful and players were willing to travel a long way for the chance to play with them. Most college programs recruit from these teams. They do not recruit from rec or high school teams.

Pro teams do not recruit only from colleges. They have no problem picking up players straight out of high school if they are talented enough and also recruit internationally. I just saw some stats that estimated that of male, high school aged soccer players in the U.S., only .04% will go on to play pro. Only 1% of college players will go pro.

For the best chances, your son does need to play with a club, the higher level the better. Even so you can see that chances to go pro are extremely low.