Back in 2015, the Vancouver Whitecaps announced a developmental system in London and the new age of soccer in the city was born. A few years later in 2017, Toronto FC followed suit announcing the affiliation with FC London, creating the partnered club. The younger ranks were renamed London TFC, while the top teams retained the London FC name, just having their team colours changing to the Toronto FC red, white and black.
With the announcements of the MLS backed academies, comes increases in team costs and fees. Noah O’Brien is a former academy player who thinks that academy soccer is a bittersweet situation. “More people are definitely interested in it because there’s more advertisement, there’s more awareness of it, because the Canadian team is a better getting a better national team. Along with you have the MLS name backing it so Vancouver Whitecaps Academy, London TFC. With TFC, Toronto Football Club, if you have those backing, you can just instantly ask for more money just based off of those alone, right?” O’Brien believes that these days teams are motivated by the monetary aspect of players joining their club.
Having the MLS backing of these teams, the academies are looking for the next big player, having teams for all ages. “I think at younger ages, it’s more of a “let’s get people accustomed to the sport to see who really likes it.” I think maybe around 13, 14, that’s when they separate the people who like playing for fun and the people who want to like try to go somewhere with it, and in a more competitive aspect. So I definitely think what you get in the higher age groups 15, 16, 17, it’s 100% harder to make the team if you don’t have decent skill level in the game.” Having the younger kids not have the pressure on them gives them the ability to see if they like the sport along with building that competitive drive that people see in the 15 to 17 year old’s.
Before the arrival of these academies, teams used to look for players who were able to improve their squad, but Noah believes that’s not the case anymore. “So I think academies are just essentially looking for players who can afford to play at that level and then the skill aspect as well. But like, I think it the money part is first and nowadays and then the skill is second, whereas before it was skill came first. And then if you could pay, you could pay if not, they’d find a workaround as a team to help you get onto that team who didn’t have the funds for it.” Noah remembers a time when he would fundraise with his team in order to help pay for some players who couldn’t afford the cost of fees.
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