Quote:
Originally Posted by mac_82
Ashtone Morgan, Doneil Henry, and Matt Stinson all joined the TFC academy in 2008 (aged 16, 15 and 16) so they have been in the system for 5 years. Getting coached and developed by former TFC players (Dichio, Brennan) and guys brought in from Europe like Paul Mariner (Arsenal, Ipswich Town, England nation team) and Thomas Rongen (Ajax).
The Academy is only going to improve. They keep adding teams (U12, U13, U15, U17, U18) and they are in the process of building a new world class training facility based on the top clubs in Europe.
8 players have graduated from the TFC academy to play in MLS so far.
But since the Montreal/Vancouver/Edmonton programs haven't been around as long, they haven't had quite the same impact.
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Sweet, that's excellent and it's really good to see a professional club pulling its weight, but how much can they pull?
When Edmonton and Montreal's programmes are in full swing, we'll still only have four quality programmes in a country of over 32 million people. While it is great that these professional clubs will have a real physical impact, it's not this panacea to which I think a lot of people are pinning their hopes. Without casting aside these efforts and their benefits, however overstated they may be, we really need to start thinking about what else
needs to be done.