Much has been said over the last two days about what U.S. soccer needs.
Above all else, it needs a superstar. A true, global, 15-to-20-year talent who is a goal-scoring machine.
Ronaldo. Messi. Mbappé. Haaland.
It’s far easier said than done. But we’ve produced superstars in the other sports. Why not soccer?
It all goes back to getting the best athletes to choose soccer at a young age. Better competition will accelerate the development of the players with the ability to eventually become great. (And, yes, that will threaten other sports by shrinking to some degree the supply of the best athletes.)
Regardless, it all comes down to numbers. More soccer players will result in more good soccer players which will result in more potentially great soccer players having more opportunities to push their skills to the absolute limit, unlocking a higher level of play on a more consistent basis and nudging the player’s ceiling closer and closer to the limit, wherever it may be.
It’s fundamentally a cultural thing. Which sports do kids naturally play? Growing up in the ‘70s, it was the big three — football, baseball, basketball. No one in the neighborhood showed up with a soccer ball to kick around.
Nowadays, to the extent kids in a given neighborhood actually leave the house without two-parent supervision, the 2026 World Cup could get more of them to start at the most basic level. Playing with their friends, and figuring out whether they’re any good. If they realize that they are, they’ll become interested in playing organized soccer.
And it goes from there.
There’s only a finite supply of kids. And their time and attention is a zero-sum proposition. Playing more soccer means playing less football, baseball, or basketball.
It’s fundamentally cultural. If/when soccer becomes part of what American kids spend their time doing after school or on the weekends or in the summers, enough of them will become good enough to test the potentially great ones in their midst.
Over time, that will indeed impact the flow of great players who had the overall ability to thrive in a different sport. For decades, it’s been a three-way tug-of-war. Once soccer becomes equal to the other big sports as a thing kids do whenever they can, many will become good. They’ll help the few who can be great to blossom.
In time, the U.S. will have a true superstar who doesn’t just compete on the world stage, but who dominates it.
Unfortunately, I won’t live long enough to see it happen. Especially if I don’t keep away from yellow jacket nests.
