Best Young Players in BC / Canada

[LFC]

Who are the best young players in BC ? How do these youngsters compare to the foreign players from Europe ,South America , Caribbean & USA that Whitecaps sign . Whitecaps don,t seem to have any local BC players in the 1st team -why ?

Here,s some links for talented Canadian players :
Canadian Prospects: Five Players that Canada ought to cap on September 9 - Inside Soccer Magazine

Young soccer star committed to Canada - Sportsnet.ca

 

[Admin]

The only name out of BC that comes to mind for me is Dario Zanatta but he left the Caps and seems to be doing quite well for himself in the SPL

I hear good things about Ben McKendry.

 

[rich]

Carl Robinson seems really high on McKendry. He looked good with Whitecaps 2 until his injury.
I think there are younger kids coming through the Caps academy / residency system that we may see crap VWFC2 or the big team in the next 2-3 years. The whole system is still fairly new.

 

[TKBC]

Hanson Boakai is our top prospect, by all accounts. Jordan Hamilton not far behind. Richie Laryea was recently drafted highly in the MLS so he is assumed to be a high rated prospect.

Whitecaps also have Adekugbe, Bustos, and Froese on top of McKendry. Surely those 3 are ahead of McKendry?

Funny enough (not really) none of those guys are from BC.

Why don't the Whitecaps have any BC players in the 1st team? Caleb Clarke was the big hope, and that flopped for a variety of reasons (injury, loan).

I don't buy the whole "it's a new program". That's nonsense. Whitecaps have had a residency program for many years now. They've been competing against the other top North American academies all those years. They have no excuse not to have 1st-team ready players. For me, if Froese and Adekugbe aren't playing 20+ games next year the club has failed. Bustos should be blooded into even more games than he got last year.

 

[Admin]

Funny enough (not really) none of those guys are from BC.

Which is why they are not in the discussion.

Regarding the Whitecaps, well, proof is in the pudding really but don't ask anyone to evaluate anyone in charge.

 

[TKBC]

Which is why they are not in the discussion.

Regarding the Whitecaps, well, proof is in the pudding really but don't ask anyone to evaluate anyone in charge.

Our PTP program needs a complete overhaul. IMO the PTP coaches should be moved to a regional model. Have 8-10 PTP's. Basically the BCSPL clubs plus a couple of the regions that aren't represented in that league. The PTP coaches are distributed to those regions where they would live. They would run regular training (x1/week?), regular coach education (x2/month), and over-see games to provide feedback to both players and coaches after the fact. some half-time chatter sure, but review sessions with fact-based feedback.

This model would be difficult to implement in the northern (ie, above Prince George) and furthest eastern regions (ie, Trail). So for example the TD assigned to the Okanagan would have to be running sessions in all of the major communities there.

Would these eliminate BCSPL? Not at all. It would enhance. Coaches, TD's would become far more accountable. Our PTP guys can then actually say "I developed so and so." "I discovered so and so and they went on to become...." - as it stands our PTP guys do a good job with the players they have while they have them but long-term impact? That's very questionable.

My point is, if this was our set-up these PTP guys would discover players not involved in BCSPL that surely are good enough not only for PTP but for Whitecaps. But in the current model there players not in BCSPL that get ignored. My guess is they will get some real feedback as to why these talented players choose not to play BCSPL and in turn maybe BCSPL can be adapted to become more inclusive thus better for everyone.

I like the idea and theory of BCSPL very much, it just needs ... adaptation from it's current format/price point.

Now what I just outlined only really deals with kids age 12+. That's "too late" for development. There's the odd exception, of course, but fixing our issues age 4-11 is the biggest issue. I say we need to fix age 4-8. I've coached 9-11 year olds - they were already well behind technically. It was almost too late already.

 

[WTF]

I watched some Kwantlen College home games last over the last couple of years and there were some decent players amongst the various teams but i guess these players are prob lower level than UBC etc. Not sure where or which team he was playing for but a player called Milad looked pretty talented.

 

[Metro Dad]

Andrew Peat, BCSPL U15 is a very, very good player with a real passion for the game.

 

[TKBC]

Andrew Peat, BCSPL U15 is a very, very good player with a real passion for the game.

I have no doubt he is skilled. Never seen him play. Never heard of him. BUT, Whitecaps are recruiting kids younger than him now. They also do sign kids his age. The true measure of his ability will be if the Whitecaps pick him up in the next 1-2 years.

And this isn't a remark re: Andrew - because I can't possibly make a remark on a player I don't know or haven't seen. But, this province and country needs a real education on what a "very very" good player is. Typically, we are woefully off the mark and in truth our "very very" good players in fact have massive gaps in their game, and even if they manage to round out their game, they fizzle out anyway when they turn 16-17-18 because they have no where to go play to take the next step (but that's a different discussion!).

I have coached 10 years (Gold, SYL, MSL - coached 1 BCSPL game to help out a coach that was away last minute lol), and like most coaches played my entire youth. I can tell you I came across 5 players, possibly 6, that showed true honest to goodness potential for professional level ability. The top example I am thinking of is Jason Koumas when I was on trial at 17 with Tranmere - google him. The rest are Canadian kids I knew when they were playing youth - they all had chances at pro careers and didn't work out (in 2 cases they are still young and haven't exhausted their opportunities yet). By Canadian standards we have many very good players, absolutely. Players that would easily get themselves into a Canadian Semi-Pro or Pro league. But that's a low standard when you look at the world standard. Then again, look at guys like Christian Dean who the Whitecaps draft. You can't tell me we don't have more technical players than him in this country!

 

[Metro Dad]

I have no doubt he is skilled. Never seen him play. Never heard of him. BUT, Whitecaps are recruiting kids younger than him now. They also do sign kids his age. The true measure of his ability will be if the Whitecaps pick him up in the next 1-2 years.

And this isn't a remark re: Andrew - because I can't possibly make a remark on a player I don't know or haven't seen. But, this province and country needs a real education on what a "very very" good player is. Typically, we are woefully off the mark and in truth our "very very" good players in fact have massive gaps in their game, and even if they manage to round out their game, they fizzle out anyway when they turn 16-17-18 because they have no where to go play to take the next step (but that's a different discussion!).

I have coached 10 years (Gold, SYL, MSL - coached 1 BCSPL game to help out a coach that was away last minute lol), and like most coaches played my entire youth. I can tell you I came across 5 players, possibly 6, that showed true honest to goodness potential for professional level ability. The top example I am thinking of is Jason Koumas when I was on trial at 17 with Tranmere - google him. The rest are Canadian kids I knew when they were playing youth - they all had chances at pro careers and didn't work out (in 2 cases they are still young and haven't exhausted their opportunities yet). By Canadian standards we have many very good players, absolutely. Players that would easily get themselves into a Canadian Semi-Pro or Pro league. But that's a low standard when you look at the world standard. Then again, look at guys like Christian Dean who the Whitecaps draft. You can't tell me we don't have more technical players than him in this country!

Agree with you that 17 and 18 year olds don't have many options for playing in this country. And the White Caps "route" is a waste of time since the chance of landing a spot are next to nil and will put you in the poor house along the way.
Unfortunately, at this point in time a player with heaps of talent and wanting to play pro pretty much has to head to Europe or some other far off land.

 

[TKBC]

Agree because even if a kid is good enough for the Whitecaps the Caps themselves only have so many spots available. They are just 1 club after all. And that's OK. Until we have a Canadian league and can add 1-2 more pro or semi-pro teams in Canada that also run youth academies the reality is that kids have to be guided to Europe or South America to give their pro dreams a shot, and this is only because of the reality of numbers. 1 team in BC. Thousands of teams in Europe.

 

[LFC]

Hanson Boakai is our top prospect, by all accounts. Jordan Hamilton not far behind. Richie Laryea was recently drafted highly in the MLS so he is assumed to be a high rated prospect.
Whitecaps also have Adekugbe, Bustos, and Froese on top of McKendry. Surely those 3 are ahead of McKendry?

Funny enough (not really) none of those guys are from BC.

Doesn,t really inspire young players in BC hoping to play for Whitecaps

 

[TKBC]

Nope. Callum Irving, is looking at other routes. Ben McKendry apparently is a big prospect for the Whitecaps, but this year will be the proof in the pudding that he has a real chance at first team. Considering they already have Bustos, Froese, Teibert, and re-signed Flores plus now Bolanos and the new fella from Japan it doesn't look too good for McKendy unless they offload 2 of those or 1-2 of those guys become wingers. Even then.....

 

[CanadianSpur]

One thing that has always bothered me is the size of the Whitecaps academy/residency. It isn't big enough. Most successful pro-club academies in Europe have twice the number of players and 3 to 5 times the number of staff. If developing home grown players is a priority, the 'Caps need to invest significantly more in the academy.

 

[juninho]

The one issue I see with the Whitecaps Academy is that they pick kids out at 13 years old and expect them to train for at least two years before they get to play competitive games again... these are kids, they want to play. What league does the "pre-residency" team play in? Sure they can play the U16's and amongst themselves but it's not really the same.

I know of more than a few that have left their programming due to that.

 

[Admin]

I thought the academy stuff was supplemental to their current club/teams' games?

 

[juninho]

It may be now, but it definitely wasn't when it first started.

 

[TKBC]

The one issue I see with the Whitecaps Academy is that they pick kids out at 13 years old and expect them to train for at least two years before they get to play competitive games again... these are kids, they want to play. What league does the "pre-residency" team play in? Sure they can play the U16's and amongst themselves but it's not really the same.

I know of more than a few that have left their programming due to that.

This isn't verified but I heard the programs costs $1m/year. That isn't significant enough?

Man United has 1 team for u21, 1 team for u18, 1 team for u16 .... I don't know how many they have for u12-15, but I assume 1/age. Man United develops almost double the amount of EPL-level players than does any other EPL club. Do you think they need more than 1 team at each age group?

I don't know who the pre-residency plays.

 

[TKBC]

I thought the academy stuff was supplemental to their current club/teams' games?

pre-residency players are full-time Vancouver Whitecaps academy players.

 

[Admin]

I believe academy and pre-rez are 2 different animals.