photo by ISIphotos.com
U.S. Under-17 national team midfielder Luis Gil has ended speculation over his future and has agreed to a deal with MLS.
After failing to agree to a deal with the league prior to the 2010 MLS Draft, Gil reached an agreement with MLS on Friday, snubbing interest from high-profile clubs such as Arsenal and Real Madrid. As we reported last month, Gil will be allocated via a weighted lottery, which will be held on Monday.
What do you think of this development? Share your thoughts below.
How does the lottery work?
yawn
To whom will the lottery be weighted?
Jose Angulo v2.0 ?
he was torn between MLS and going abroad. IMO it seemed he wasnt ready to leave his family friends and life behind and move half way around the world.
Per Adam: This is what i want to know. How does a weighted lottery work?? I suspected the first slot of the Allocation would have first cracks at him, but i guess not.
Looks like he’s hoping that 2 or 3 years down the road he can parlay this into a decent contract with a club who will get him on the field. Sounds smart to me. How much $$ will this guy command?
It’s so boring that you decided to take the time to respond. You’re so novel.
Maybe I’m naive, but why would he snub Arsenal or Real Madrid?
He should of waited. Perhaps under the new CBA he could have just signed a free agent contract.
Basically they put 16 pieces of paper that all say LA Galaxy into a fish bowl and then Don Garber draws.
Is the kid good enough to get some playing time? If not, how will he be able to develop with no reserve league? It would seem a European team’s development program would be much more helpful for a young player of real promise. Of course, the only strong example I can think of is John O’Brien. Kenny Cooper, while not bad, hasn’t done THAT well so far. Am I forgetting anyone? And then, of course, there is the anit-example of how things went for Donovan in Germany.
It’s tough to know what options he really had overseas. Rules are constantly getting harder in moving kids under 18 overseas without foreign passports.
As of this past winter, Gil only had an American passport but was in the process of getting a Mexican passport.
Without a EU passport, moving him overseas would have been extremely difficult. MLS just makes sense and it may have been his only real option at the end of the day.
Speaking of the CBA (off-thread, I know) has there been ANY progress. Isn’t today a deadline? Seems like there has been NO news on this front for some time.
Please God let Dominic Kinnear get ahold of this kid.
With the CBA unresolved and no reserve league I would really have loved to see him go abroad so he could continue to develop and get some games in. I’m not anti-MLS. It’s just those two issues really concern me with regard to a talented youngster like Luis.
I thought it was the 25th
Nice, a win for MLS. Definitely agree that he needs to end up in a good situation/good coaching. Maybe to a team that’s got time to let him develop like McKierney in Philly.
If he’s not ready to go Europe, and he really did have offers, it’s admirable that he stayed here. Too many times we’ve seen guys go before they were ready. Takes some maturity to makes that decision, and hopefully will be helpful in the long run.
Look to the NBA lottery system. The lowest rank team will have the highest percentage chance of landing the #1 pick. However, say the #7 team will have a 11% chance instead of the 53% like the worst team would.
Lottery system takes into account last years standings – gives NYRB the advantage – Philly the worst chance
Greatest reply ever.
Post of the week nomination
Gil trained last year at Arsenal Academy – but decided against going into Arsenal Youth System. MLS went after him and won….good for them —-and hopefully for Gil, and US Football
Some players shall be assigned to MLS teams via the weighted Lottery process. Any team assigned a player through the lottery in any particular season shall not be assigned another lottery player that season unless and until all teams have received a lottery player or have agreed to waive their option to participate in a Lottery. The players made available through lotteries include:
(i) Generation adidas players signed after the MLS SuperDraft;
(ii) Draft eligible players to whom an MLS contract was offered but who failed to sign with the League prior to the Draft.
The weighted lottery takes into consideration each team’s performance over its last 30 regular season games and the most recent postseason. The team with the worst record over its last 30 regular season games (dating back to previous season if necessary and taking playoff performance into account) will have the greatest probability of winning the lottery. Teams are not required to participate in a lottery. Players are assigned via the lottery system in order to prevent a player from potentially influencing his destination club with a strategic holdout
brilliant
I could be mistaken but i think this is a bad move. There’s no reserve league to help him develop and unless hes loaned to a USL team, he’ll probably be another promising talent that will waste away on an MLS bench and eventually disappear.
PLEEEEAAASSSEEE COME TO LA!!!
Bravo John. This reply should be bronzed.
Beautiful. Best post ever.
I don’t care where he ends up as long as his development continues. Basically, he shouldn’t end up with my San Jose Earthquakes.
He must not think highly of Arsenal’s and Madrid’s to snub them.
i second that.
I say Chivas USA, our style 1-2 touch, possesion style.
That said, he’ll go to the galaxy for sure.
Congrats.
I actually agree with the early post about him getting picked up by Houston. Dominic Kinnear has developed USMNT talent. Clark and Holden both improved greatly under Dominic Kinnear.
I do believe Bruce Arena has a good track record too. (Gil is from LA right?) I am a DC United fan and would love to get Gil, but I also want him to go to a club were he will grow.
Also, good for the MLS. Hopefully the league will cash in on Gil in the future like MLS did for Altidore.
Yawn. zzzzzzzz. I’m so bored had I had to respond to a response to a response.
That’s what I was thinking, though. If he goes to a European team, even a small one, to play on their youth side he will live soccer. Over here the amount of structured practice he gets will be much lower. We’ll see, I guess. I hope he matures into the player he looks like he can be– legit number 10.
Obviously the kid is young and may be a good move. For some American kids moving to Europe is not a good move for the sole reason that its a world away. In Europe its different for a German 17 year old to go to France because of the distance. Greatest example was Donovan. The personality of the kids needs to be taken into consideration. Charlie Davies absolutely has the personality to make it overseas.
Good luck!
Well done sir.
Exactly why I said it. For this kid’s development there’s not a better coach in the league than Kinnear…and he also could be the next USMNT coach. Not a bad guy to make a good impression on.
i read that it includes last season’s place as a big determinate plus playoff success and various other things
i suspect SJ will get first crack.
AND i think the weighted aspect will keep him in California, close to his family and friends as he’s only 16-17 yrs old.
dont consider me shocked if LA, CUSA or SJ get him
from what ive gathered, he doesnt seem ready to go half way around the world, away from his family, friends and his life. If this is in fact true, then he made the right decision. If he isnt ready mentally for the trip, he’d probably burn out much much quicker.
snubbed arsenal and real madrid. sounds like a good move.
The guy is 16 with no Nats first team experience.. unless he has a Euro passport he can’t do first team games til 18.. Am I wrong?
good move as long as it is no more than 2 years, so then maybe he can go abroad and actually develop in a true development enviroment
All my co-workers are staring at me because I just spit coffee all over my computer.
Can we confirm exactly how much of a “snub” he issued towards these clubs? I’d like to know the specifics, I’m tired of reading about how so-and-so trained with Arsenal and said they did well but turned down their youth program (Looking at you, Lee Nguyen). Any chance you can track this down, Ives?
Does that mean that he will have a choice of playing for our National Team or Mexico’s? Does a passport give you dual-citizenship?
Its not like he would have been playing at the Emirates any time soon, (if ever)…but I understand that Arsenal and Real were looking at possibly signing him to their youth systems, (not the first time, see Spector, Kenny Cooper, etc.).
I wish the kid well, hopefully he is not faced with “what-if” questions from soccer fans his whole career…
Agreed. Kinnear just has a way of instilling professionalism, maturity, and a national team mentality into his players. It’s not a shock that players like Brad Davis(penalty that won the Gold Cup), Stuart Holden(current star and Gold Cup standout)and Brian Ching(veteran) have done well under him and the national team. He is the next best American candidate in my honest opinion.
I know nothing about this, but I can say it probably wasn’t as simple Gil “snubbing” those teams, dude.
Oh, and Ricardo Clark.
I also agree regarding Kinnear. However, Pontius and Wallace developed quite nicely at DCU.
Not to mention Brian Ching, but i’m sure whether he’s been good for the national team or not is a point of conflict for most. I agree overall though.
That was great. XD
MLS did not win or lose. There was not a competition to be had. Gil cannot sign a contract with Arsenal because he doesn’t have an EU passport and it’s impossible he’d be granted a work permit in England. Cooper, Spector, and Grella have EU passports. Arsene Wenger made some great comments about this about one month ago. Wish I could easily find the link. Anyone have it?
Q: How do you know Nguyen trained with Arsenal?
A: Because he won’t stop talking about it.
Well, the 2011 draft class just got a whole lot weaker.
come to the dark side luis.. come play for the galaxy.. learn from cienfuegos and cobi jones..
hopefully my jedi mind tricks work.
Exactly, although CD went after some college time.
Donovan is just now fighting that stigma that’s been with him 7-8 years that he couldn’t hack it in Europe.
please cite said “promising talent” that has wasted away on an MLS bench and eventually disappeared…
they way you word it there are mulitple players that fit this mold, so fire away please.
Or Sigi
classic
I’m starting to like the Kinnear logic. As a USMNT fan, you’d have tolike the prospects.
As a Chivas USA fan, COME TO SO CAL!
Heard the red bulls might get a chance at him i like what i’m seeing so far in NYC it would be nice to bsee him there.
Very smart of him to sign with MLS. He can learn and grow and mature while getting a real opportunity to play. Then when developed, can head on over to Europe and probably make a mark. Well done. More of our youngsters should do the same, IMO.
Well welcome to the end of your career Luis. Unlike Davies you went for the money instead of the training. (Davies turned down more money from MLS to go to Sweden). Good luck actually developing. Please dont lecture me about Bradley, Dempsey, Bradley etc. They could all be a thousand times better if they were developed at a young age in foreign countries. Dempsey didn’t even become relevant until he had a couple years of EPL level training.
Way to take advantage of a perfect opportunity.
Yep, I’m sure riding the bench with a big European club would really help with his “training.” It sure has worked well with Eddie J, Adu, and others like Zizzo and Zimmerman.
I agree that the lack of a reserve league is worrisome for dev players, it’s also nice to see so much new talent coming into the league just as we lose some big players like cooper, holden, rolfe, clark… and others. Hopefully these rookies will get some first team action and keep the quality in the mls as good or better than it’s been in the past.
Anywhere he will play. Right now, Houston and DC look like there’s a spot for a creative midfielder. Though wouldn’t hurt to learn from someone like Ljundberg.
I wouldn’t mind this kid developing with Red Bull. We’ve had good players coming out of our youth system historically. But we really need to trade his rights to wherever he wants to go for some allocation money.
Oh yea, Garber, STOP LOW BALLING JUAN AGUEDELO AND LET US SIGN THE KID!
that is all…
Yeah Bradley, Altidore and Dempsey could have been stars like Jovan Kirovski, John Thorrington, Zac Whitbread, Kenny Cooper, Frank Simek and Johnathan Spector have all become.
I have mixed feelings on this.
On one hand, I’m glad that MLS was able to retain a young American prodigy like Gil, but I’m not sure how much he’ll develop here.
On the other hand, he would receive fantastic training & development by going to a monster club like Arsenal or Real Madrid, but you know the chances of him progressing through the academy, youth scheme and into the first team is small.
But being a MLS fan, I will (hopefully) get to see him play.
Thank you United for pointing out how short sighted Moose’s argument is. I love how he simply ignores the proven successes from MLS by saying they would be better- that is BS, there is no way knowing if they would be better or not. Dempsey was really immature at the beginning of his time with the Revs which might have ruined an earlier attempt at Europe considering he has said numerous times how hard it was to get a starting spot then lose it then get it. There have been numerous examples of americans starting in europe and abysmally failing- how about Bennardo- Europe really helped him- KC said no thanks and now he is trialing with Rochester. Good thing he got playing time in the 4th lowest Italian division, it really has catalyzed his progression.
I would absolutely love to see this kid up in Seattle. West Coast(close to home), the fans will love him, and he will get great coaching under Sigi. Either way, I hope he ends up on a team that suits him.
Doesn’t cover expansion teams….
…to live forever.
California life alone is just too hard to bear.
I live in a house that looks out over the ocean.
And there’s some stars that fell from the sky
livin’ up on the hill.
Please come to LA,
She just said no, boy, won’t you come home to me
Alas, if only that was a joke.
Is he still part of the U-17 team or has he moved on to U-20 only?
How do we know there is no reserve league for the next year? I think this is a great move especially if he can stay close to home finish school and train as a pro day in and day out. he is 16 he can sign a 4 yr deal and go to europe at 20 with 4 yrs professional experience that sounds like a good deal to me honestly how many of you where making 6 figures at 16??
This seems very calculated on his part, doesn’t want to risk being drafted by some team he doesn’t want to play for, so he tells the league he will hold off til after the draft to sign and then the magical weighted lottery happens, and he lands at either LA team or SJ. Shocker! I am betting Chivas USA lands the kid btw.
MLS may be getting too good but too underfunded to develop young players. Too many deserving 23 year olds in starting/sub roles, not enough money to run a reserve league.
Ummmm… There only 2 differences between going through the draft and this system. First is that Philly is at the bottom of the list, rather than the top. Second is that he’s not being measured against other players. Given that NY has the best chance of landing him, I’m not sure he’s succeeded in manipulating anything. He wants to be on the West Coast, but if NY gets the nod, they get him. In the draft, they might have passed him over for Tchani.
Curious to see what he is paid. I recall that Rogers was started at $50 k when he returned from Holland and was handled to the Crew via lottery.
You realize that Altidor actually started at MLS, right?
You missed my point he was saying how much better Alridore, Dempsey and Bradley would have been if they started in Europe. I used examples of American players who signed with major clubs in Europe at young ages who didn’t turn into great players.
Dont forget Geoff Cameron. 3rd round pick to MLS best 11.
I know him personally he told me that arsenal was low balling him with the money they had offered him the mls offer was better than theirs and he tpld me he told is agent that his choices were Seattle or rsl
Here’s what Wenger had to say about Gil’s situation in general:
link to watchsocceronline.blogspot.com
wishful thinking…
I bet John thinks hes so clever…
is he too old for the residency program in Florida? that has seemed to be the best place for developing prospects.
Could any team have used one of there draft choices to select his rights? Wouldn’t that be a steal for the last pick of the draft which probably would otherwise be spent on a player with no likelihood of making the team?
Another Adu? Sure hope not, this kid has some real talent.
I actually hope Gil goes to LAG. He will not be expected to play right away, and he will stay in his native state. Plus bruce arena is a good coach. And learning from the likes of class players like donovan and beckham will be good for the kid. Say what you want but it looks like the galaxy are the best fit.
P.S. Hopefully he is MANDON’s future replacement…..Hope Landon never leaves Goodinson.
Was not my intent to imply he would sign at all. In fact it seems that family and country are foremost in his mind – this may have led you to believe that I was saying he would not sign (and assume that meant you thought that I believed he could) – Arsene Wenger’s comments were very good, I agree.
If he stays in MLS he needs to be starting or at least getting 30+ minutes every MLS game, Kinnear doesn’t start young guys often, Danny Cruz is U-20 star and hardly plays him, maybe this year he will but Kinnear doesn’t play that type of posession 1-2 touch style.
I think NY, Seattle and even and LA team is his best scenario. Maybe KC? They need a playmaker and can use a cheap contract?
As an RSL fan, I would love to see him playing at Rio Tinto…I just can’t understand how the weighted lottery would send him to the defending champs.
Perfection. Bravo
Wow, I am stunned! Another Quakes fan, like me, with the same feeling!!!
Not to worry, Andrew – unless he’s close to 6’0″, 175 lbs and over 30, he is unlikely to come to the Earthquakes.
I am surprised that we still consider them a PROFESSIONAL soccer team – it’s an assembly of overage veterans year-in year-out now.
Does he have Mexican heritage? Wouldn’t it be better for him to develop in Mexico? Close to home – fewer issues with passport etc., and *very* technical soccer.
From what i’ve seen, Adu is more talented than this kid. I still hope he doesn’t have the misfortune of being hyped by the press. Skipping the draft probably helped.
What’s MLS standard a 4 year deal? Maybe it’s just perfect for him to move at 19/20.
I understand re the formative years but if the kid isn’t ready it’s a regressive slope.
At least we’ll get to track and watch him over here
Funny that we can list only 5 or 6 good players MLS “produced” and none of them are all that good. 14 years and 5 or 6 good ones I guess MLS is the way to go!!
Craig Capano at Chicago, Guillermo Gonzalez at LAG. That’s all I can really think of. But those two were highly regarded and Gonzalez was really good. Now he coaches youth soccer and a girl’s college team…he’s only 24. Don’t know about Capano.
i miss that 40 yr old Lima haha
there goes his career
thats funny Moose but can you even name 5 or 6 great american born players that Europe has produced for the USMNT? Cuz i can name quite a few that started in Europe and are now huge disappointments!
All of this is assuming there will even be an MLS season this year. Things are looking bleak, frankly. I’m impressed/confused about why any player would decide to sign with MLS in times like these. Not wishing MLS fails, but damn, it doesn’t look good for a 2010 season.
Bravo, Supsam
My information tells me that NYRB are No.1 in the MLS allocation order.
So….Ives….. this is on your doorstep. They cleaning a seat for him on the bench or are they negotiating a trade?
(SBI- A) Red Bulls traded the top spot to Philly. B) Gil’s not going via Allocation order. He’s going via weighted lottery. Red Bulls have the best odds of getting him, but that doesn’t mean he’s going there.)
And I can name hundreds that started in MLS that are disappointments, but I digress….
Landon Donovan…..You don’t actually believe BL had nothing to do with his development do you? Cobi Jones, Onyewu, MLS’s new goldenboy Casey, Davies, Keller, Friedel, ‘Dolo, Reyna, and Arguably Wynalda. Need I go on?
(Thx, SBI)
So weighted lottery means Garber/MLS discretion? + Gil preference?
Howard, Bradley, Guzan, Altidore, Dempsey, Bocanegra, Ching, Hejduk, Beasley all got there start in the MLS. Also most of the guys on your list played atleast 3 years of NCAA soccer the other American soccer institution that is killed on this site.
Hopefully this kid develops.
How many of these players would be as good as they are today if they would have stayed in MLS?
Just look at Ching for your answer.
Kansas City will received him and then make the necessary trade with a west coast team……weighted lottery = MLS preference/necessity.
I never said they should stay in the MLS forever if they are good enough to get consistent playing time abroad by all means they should go but, the MLS is not the bad starting point people make it out to be.