BALTIMORE – The LA Galaxy pride themselves on having one of the best youth academies in the country, and that is precisely why they opted to deal their No. 12 overall selection in Thursday’s MLS SuperDraft.
Hours before the 2016 MLS SuperDraft, the Galaxy dealt their only first round pick to the Colorado Rapids in exchange for Targeted Allocation Money (TAM). The Rapids ultimately traded the pick themselves to the Chicago Fire, who selected defender Jack Campbell from the University of North Carolina.
The decision to trade out of the draft was made after an exhausting analysis of the current draft class, which club Vice President Peter Vagenas believes was simply not to the level of the products coming out of the team’s academy.
“There were some interesting players, but at the end of the day, it comes down to the strength of our development system and the quality of players that we have coming through,” Vagenas told LAGalaxy.com. “We feel that those players will continue to develop in our program and eventually make it onto our first team.
“We’re always looking to strengthen your team, and if you can do that via the draft or another mechanism, then you’ll do that. It’s a real compare and contrast,” said Vagenas. "College kids are in direct competition to players that are coming out our development system. At the end of the day, we believe that not only are the players that we have in our Academy better, but their ceiling is higher.”
The shift from an emphasis on the draft to the academy is nothing new for the Galaxy or MLS, as teams across the league seek to strengthen their youth systems. Although the draft remains a valuable tool for MLS clubs to acquire talent, Vagenas believes that the academy system is the way forward.
“College soccer is still part of the fabric of soccer in this country,” Vagenas said. “But you’ve seen it across the board that MLS teams are investing heavily in their development systems. We are proudly behind ours which will increasingly pay dividends for us.”
As talented as the players in the Galaxy’s academy setup are, Vagenas admits that it will be difficult for any of the talent currently in the academy to contribute to the first team in a meaningful way in 2016. That fact does not faze Vagenas, who is committed to the Galaxy’s vision of long-term development in Southern California.
“It’s a step by step process. Arguably, we have the strongest roster in the league, and it’s difficult for any young player, no matter who he is, to just step in right away,” Vagenas said. “That’s not to say that we don’t create challenging environments for players to get to the first team. That’s our vision as a club and what we’re committed to. We want our kids to mature in the right phases of their development, and we’re fortunate to have that at our club.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog atwww.LAGalaxy.com/Insiderand contact him atLAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com
