The Business of Youth Soccer

Last November, Mike Carlson, President of IFX soccer (the company that organized my year abroad) shot some video of Carpi FC training sessions to promote their new Italy Youth Academy Program. Since I am the first player they placed in Italy, they featured me in the video:

In my time playing soccer in Italy, I have also come to realize how different the youth soccer systems are between here and the US. Overall, the system in the US is more fragmented with multiple leagues and governing bodies overseeing youth soccer.   There are generally three categories of organized youth soccer teams in the US: teams that represent one’s town  (school teams as well as town leagues/recreational soccer), club teams (regional teams such as my Lightning club), and the new U.S. Developmental Academy (New York Red Bulls) which was recently formed to better develop male players to compete at the national and international level (not sure what the equivalent is on the girl's side). Unlike the system in Italy, these leagues are generally static and unconnected - you play a season with one team, try to improve, win for bragging rights, and maybe try to get recruited to play in college or for some, the MLS or US national team.  But in Italy, soccer is big business from the adults all the way down to the youngest players. There are no school or college affiliated sports in Italy.  All official and organized soccer is part of one grand scheme and falls under one governing body where there is much at stake.

Carpi FC U19's who beat neighboring Modena 1-0 over the weekend

To understand youth soccer in Italy, it’s helpful to understand the professional soccer structure first.  There are actually close to 600 divisions of “professional” men’s teams that can be generally divided into 8 ability levels.  While there are women’s professional teams with a similar structure as the men’s side, women’s soccer is much less of a consideration with the Italian people, and probably less developed than it is in the US (when my family and classmates heard that my sister and my female friends played soccer, they were really quite surprised). At the top levels of Italian soccer, there are very few divisions, but as you move down the chain, there are numerous parallel divisions based on geography. For instance, Serie A and B (the highest two levels) have only one division each, but Serie C has 2 divisions, Serie D has 9 divisions, etc. This trend continues all the way to the lowest ability level, which has over 200 parallel divisions! These divisions within each ability level are based on geography; the best teams (Serie A and B) have to travel nationally, the middle level teams travel regionally, and the lowest level teams only travel throughout their province. All of these ability levels are connected through a series of relegation and promotion, which I briefly explained before. In short, the best teams of each division move up at the end of the season, whereas the worst teams move down. What makes this one giant connected system cool is that theoretically any local team could eventually work its way up, win the Serie A, and be the best team in all of Italy! The system works for the “first” team or adult team of every club, as well as all of the subsequent youth teams. So for example, if your club’s first team is in the fifth division, your youth teams will also be in the equivalent of the fifth division. Carpi FC is a Serie B team, so the Carpi youth team that I am training with competes in the top youth league, or the “Nazionali” league, against youth teams of other Serie A and Serie B teams.  

Carpi FC youth team

Beyond the actual system of Italian youth soccer, the culture is also very different. Though the lower levels are very similar to soccer in the US where it is played for fun and to improve, once you start to arrive at the higher levels of Italian soccer, there is very little sense of playing for fun. The players of youth teams are treated as and are expected to act as professionals.  It’s business. Starting at a young age, players sign contracts with professional club teams. With the rights to these young players, clubs can now sell them, loan them, or develop them within their own squad. This results in players being sent all over Italy starting at a young age. For example, on my team, there are very few players from Carpi itself. There are players from Turin, Milan, Rome, Reggio Calabria, Bari, and even one who is originally from Bosnia. These players are living with host families in Carpi, and who knows where they will end up next year. While they go to school, many do not attend “Liceo” or higher-level academic schools such as the one I attend, and instead attend more vocational-type schools. And as with the adult teams, these players are constantly being traded or loaned, and therefore move around. There is also a steady stream of new players “trialing” for roster spots throughout the year. Just this past week at practice, there were two new players, one from Bologna and one from southern Italy, who were trying to earn a spot on the Carpi U17 team for the rest of the season. And to date, there have been upwards of 15 players who have had trials with my team.

At the end of the day, soccer in Italy, even at the youth levels, is much more serious. This system obviously has major drawbacks and consequences, but is a huge part of why men’s soccer in Italy has been so successful.