Soccer Culture
This is Steven Jovetic. He is a National Team player from Montenegro, part of the former 7 Baltic states that made Yugoslavia a nation. With roughly a population of 10 million people, the former Yugolslavia broke up into smaller countries. According to Bleacher Report as of 2013, per capita and with a population of around 600,000 people, the country of Montenegro produces the most professional soccer players of any country in the world. Coming in second is the Cape Verde Islands in Africa and third is Uruguay (Bleacher Report, Karl Matchett, 2013). This surprising list gives us the names of relatively small nations with far fewer resources than say Germany, England or Argentina. Is it fair to ask, do smaller countries with less resources have their soccer players engaged in more free-play, pick-up games and street soccer at the youngest ages? We know Uruguay is the country where Futsal was created.
Futsal is a 5 v 5 soccer game on a small-sided field or court where players learn to control the ball at their feet. It is a faster pace game with a slightly denser ball that forces ball handling and creativity on the ground – where most experts agree – children need to develop soccer skills at the younger ages. The invention of Futsal in Uruguay lends itself well to the their proud claim that Uruguay is the greatest soccer nation on earth. Uruguay is a tiny country of 3.5 million people and yet they have produced hundreds of the best professional soccer players in the world. Today’s modern game boasts the striker for FC Barcelona, Luis Suarez, Edinson Cavani of Paris St. Germain and Diego Forlan, after a long and successful career peaking at Atletico Madrid, is still living the dream at the age of 38 for Mumbai City FC.
Soccer in most of South America is played in the form of Futsal because courts are the spaces where the youngest players play. Fields are a premium, especially in Brazil. And contrary to what most of us believe, these players are left alone a lot. There is very little supervision; coaches may stop in once a week to see what they are working on. Much or most of their play is monitored and decided by the players themselves. While the coaches and scouts are always discerning talent and an extremely small number are placed into elite clubs such as Santos FC in Brazil, or Boca Juniors in Argentina, at the younger ages, the majority of players remain in their informal game environments longer. All the well-known players, Maradona, Pele, Messi, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo all attribute much of their brilliance to street soccer and Futsal. These youth Futsal and street soccer games are not for the meek. They are often rough and tumble. Just how I remember my childhood in Minnesota back in the 1970’s often coming home with cuts, bruises and scrapes, getting a band-aid and going back out for more, all so I could play baseball, hockey and occasionally a form of kickball inside the abandoned, overgrown grass filled hockey rinks in the summer.
In a country like Cape Verde Islands in Africa free-play is a prominent and economic necessity in their resource lacking nation. Until FIFA came in with an investment initiative, Cape Verde had no grass fields – now they have 25. You see a clear rise in this countries ability to produce world-class soccer players after this happened and players from Cape Verde now represent clubs like Lille in Ligue I, Buruque FC, and Djaniny, of Santos Laguna, Mexico amongst many others (CNN, Michelle Cohan, 2016), Despite not qualifying during the African World Cup matches and a loss to Senegal for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Cape Verde Islands is a bit of a darling or underdog for soccer fans. It is not much of a surprise that an island nation with a population of 500,000 people needed space to play. What is a bit more interesting is that the US has an enormous amount of resources, space, and fields. More children participate in the sport than any other country in the world. So why then do they does a nation like Cape Verde Islands surpass us in developing professional soccer players on a per capita basis? Is it the system? A lack thereof? Despite the system? Is it the culture?
These are far more open questions than may be easily answered. Do we need all the answers? Probably not. What we need and what we can do is continue to develop a unique soccer culture – just for us – in the United States of America. Soccer is a sport to love, to enjoy and be passionate about. It is fun, it is hard work and it is one that demands a great deal of skill and intelligence from its players. Let’s continue to add to our developing soccer culture by gathering in spaces with the youngest of our players, let them PLAY and allow them decide what to do with the ball. That is the one defining characteristic of all the great soccer nations that the US has yet to fully embrace. We must introduce our children and invite them to learn age-appropriate (not passing) skills and how to touch the ball when they are toddlers. Next we must give them more opportunities as they get older to make decisions without coaching, i.e., free-play, informal games like street soccer and futsal that can be played anywhere a ball will roll and children will gather.
Let’s revisit my childhood in Minnesota for a minute. When I was growing up back in the 1970’s, every kid (and I mean every kid sans a rare few), got ice skates at 2, 3, or 4 years old. So guess which state in the US produces the most professional hockey players in the US? Minnesota and it’s glorious hockey culture that still thrives right along side their youth hockey developmental system. A necessary and grateful symbiotic partnership. Every outdoor park in the Twin-Cities got a hose-down in the winter and a rink of ice was created for any skater to enjoy. Kids simply got introduced to the sport of hockey at the earlier ages and many went on to play hundreds of games of pick-up hockey. Even though my child did not put on a pair of hockey skates until she was 6, a moment that happened some time ago is now a joy to share…my daughter first got after a soccer ball at 19 months and called it a “ball-go”. Lucky for me, our next door neighbors had two wonderful daughters, ages four and six, who bought my daughter her first soccer ball – a pink size three with an elephant on it. Many days right after they got home from school and she was up from her nap, they played with her in our backyard and I was able to enjoy her kicking, dribbling and numerous smiles and giggles through the sliding glass door. It still strikes me – remembering those days – that she didn’t try to pick the soccer ball up with her hands. There is something to be said about genetics and also not thinking about your younger child’s potential college or professional soccer career. Together let us encourage and inspire our children to have fun with sports and soccer. Across the globe, we can all accept a universal truth. A child’s soccer journey and experience is by far more important than its destination.