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INTERNATIONAL

USA spending $100 million for Spanish talent

The United States is investing for its sporting future and a significant chunk of that is focused on signing up young Spaniards to improve their youth academies.

Update:
6 jugadores del USMNT no tuvieron minutos en Qatar 2022
RAUL ARBOLEDAAFP

Soccer in the United States continues to grow. Investments are ploughed in and with them, the level is pushed forwards. In this most recent World Cup in Qatar the men’s team left behind a decent account of themselves and the country is already preparing to host, together with Mexico and Canada, the next edition of the FIFA showpiece tournament. The excitement is enormous, and the expectations too.

The clubs have their eyes set on European talent and, especially, that in Spain. According to Jessid Agon, a scout of the company AWEX Education, the best American universities will invest “about 180 million euros” to recruit young Europeans and half of them will be for Spanish players. “Some 8,000 Spanish students between the ages of 13 and 18” will come to the United States to play soccer in a system that integrates sports with education, we learned.

Spain contributes many more players than Italy or France, for example. “For every Frenchman, you have ten better Spaniards who are also willing to travel to the United States,” Agon explained. Spanish players bring a style of play that is not already widely implemented in the country, teaching them to build plays from the back.

Spanish touch to USMNT future

A standard trend for many national teams is to nationalize players who were not born in the country but do not have a place in the team of their place of origi. The United States is not far from beginning to attract Spaniards into theirs, as stated by Agon. “We are on the brink of that happening,” he said.

When the Spanish player obtains an American passport, more doors open for him in football. And one of them, the sweetest, is the national team.