"The USMNT will never become an elite national team as long as MLS continues spending millions on young foreign players instead of giving meaningful minutes to young Americans." That's Andrew Carleton — not some pundit, but someone who lived the exact failure he's describing.
With the US still processing their Round of 16 exit to Belgium at the World Cup, the usual debate has reignited: fix the youth system, kill pay-to-play, rebuild from the ground up. Carleton's argument, posted at length on X, is that this conversation is missing the actual problem. "Anyone telling you that either doesn't know what they're talking about or they're protecting MLS," he wrote.
A pipeline that goes nowhere
Carleton's credibility here isn't theoretical. After a standout run with the USMNT at the 2017 U-17 World Cup, he became Atlanta United's first-ever Homegrown signing — exactly the kind of local investment the system is supposed to celebrate. What followed was two starts across 11 appearances before the club released him in 2020.
The reason was sitting right there in the squad: Josef Martinez, Miguel Almiron, Tito Villalba, Ezequiel Barco. Expensive, foreign, ahead of the queue. A teenage American with potential wasn't getting minutes over attackers the club had paid millions to acquire. By 21 or 22, Carleton argues, that window to develop into a genuinely world-class player has already closed.
His read on where the pattern hits hardest is specific: "There's a reason the only young Americans who consistently break through in MLS are outside backs and, occasionally, center backs. Meanwhile, they invest millions in midfielders and forwards, making it nearly impossible for a 17-, 18-, or 19-year-old American to play over a 20-year-old South American the club paid a $10 million transfer fee and a multi-million-dollar salary to."
What this means beyond the debate
That positional breakdown matters. The US has long had a structural problem producing creative midfielders and clinical forwards at the international level — the exact positions Carleton says clubs are importing rather than developing. Redesigning academies doesn't solve it if the graduates still can't get on the pitch.
For anyone tracking USMNT futures or trying to project where the next generation of American players breaks through, this is the friction point. MLS clubs have financial incentives to protect expensive foreign acquisitions. Homegrown players are cheaper and carry more commercial risk if they don't pan out. The math doesn't favor the teenager.
Carleton isn't calling for the abolition of foreign investment — he's calling for honest accounting of what MLS clubs are actually prioritizing. US Soccer can overhaul the youth pipeline all it wants. If the graduates emerge at 18 and spend four years in MLS NEXT Pro because a $10 million import is blocking the path, the overhaul changes very little.
"Every MLS club has talented academy players who sign Homegrown deals. Fans get excited, then those players spend the next 3-4 years sitting on the bench." Carleton didn't just observe that cycle. He was it.
