Major League Soccer is giving back to youth soccer clubs around the U.S.
The MLS NEXT Development Grant program, announced by the league Tuesday, is aimed at paying its MLS NEXT Elite academies for developing players who go on to sign MLS Homegrown contracts.
Real Colorado, a local youth soccer academy, is one of the first to benefit from the program after former Real goalkeeper Adam Beaudry recently signed a first team contract with the Colorado Rapids.
So far, a total over $100,000 has been allocated to eight academies throughout the U.S. for producing 10 Homegrown talents. According to MLS NEXT general manager Justin Bokmeyer, the grant is rewarding academies for producing those players dating back to MLS NEXT’s establishment in 2020.
“This continues to cement MLS NEXT’s place as the highest level of soccer in the U.S. and Canada,” Bokmeyer told The Denver Post. “So we want to ensure that we have the best young players in our ecosystem and that they have opportunities to compete and to play at the highest level, and we think MLS academies are able to do that. When you foster these working relationships between elite academies and local clubs, that helps drive those players to MLS NEXT and then to MLS academies.”
In order to qualify for a grant, a player must have gone through an MLS NEXT Elite academy (non-MLS academies), then an MLS academy, then eventually sign a first-team contract with their home club.
Beaudry played for Real Colorado from age 9 to 16, then transitioned to the Rapids academy. After that, he played for Rapids 2, where he kept three clean sheets in his first season on the way to being named a finalist for MLS NEXT Pro goalkeeper of the year. On Jan. 10, the Rapids signed Beaudry to a four-year Homegrown contract with an option for two additional years.
Additionally, academies will be issued compensation when a player appears in a certain number of MLS matches or produces an international transfer fee.
“Real Colorado is excited to embrace the introduction of the MLS Next Development grant initiative,” Real Colorado CEO Jared Spires said in a statement. “As a nationally renowned Elite Academy, our collaboration with the Colorado Rapids Academy staff recently culminated in an outstanding achievement: the transition of Adam Beaudry from our Academy to theirs, culminating in a joint celebration of his professional signing with the Colorado Rapids first team. This achievement inspires us to replicate such success, and with the added support from this new grant initiative, we are more equipped and motivated to do so again and again.”
The money received from the initiative will help Real Colorado with a range of things, including travel and scholarships for teams and players throughout the club.
According to Clint Baumstark, Boys Academy Director for Real, most of the funds will go towards the club’s scholarship fund, which fully funded six players for its U-19 team that played in the MLS NEXT U-17 national championship game last year.
“That’s why it becomes so huge, right? Because we’re a nonprofit organization,” Baumstark told The Post. “It’s not going into anybody’s pockets, it’s literally going right back into the soccer community, so that’s what makes it unbelievably huge. It gives us that almost level footing, you know, where if we can produce those players, then we can receive the compensation to continue that momentum.”
As MLS continues its rise in popularity, Baumstark said the program’s effect on the landscape of American soccer could be “massive.”
Training compensation programs like this have been standard for FIFA’s member leagues like the Premier League and LaLiga for decades. According to Baumstark, there has been difficulty in the past in trying to replicate it in the States.
In Real Colorado’s case, the academy would have benefited from developing players like Tajon Buchanan, who recently was transferred from Club Brugge in Belgium to Italian Serie A side Inter Milan for a reported fee of more than $7 million. Or Ethan Horvath, a Highlands Ranch native who was just transferred from Premier League side Nottingham Forest to Championship club Cardiff City on Feb. 1.
“(The grant program) is monumental, it really is,” Baumstark said. “And it’s also tough at the same time because this has been happening everywhere else in the world for so long, right? So I think the fact we’re taking steps shows where we’re going as a soccer country. … It really is groundbreaking, you know, and it continues to move (American soccer) forward. There’s the celebration of Adam and the celebration of Ethan and then also the opportunity to push for the next kid, whoever that next name is.”
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