MLS Teams Playing Under 21's

Here's a table that shows % of minutes played and the count of players under 21 years of age. I've also added each team's Points Per Game.

Mins	Team	# < 21	PPG
23%	FC Dallas	6	1.09
19%	NY Red Bulls	5	1.10
16%	LA Galaxy	4	1.64
16%	Atlanta Utd	6	1.23
13%	Philadelphia	6	1.39
11%	Colorado Rapids	5	1.95
10%	Sporting KC	4	1.74
10%	Los Angeles FC	4	1.23
9%	D.C. United	3	1.36
8%	Seattle	6	1.91
7%	Orlando City	2	1.73
6%	NYCFC	4	1.62
6%	San Jose	1	1.18
5%	Real Salt Lake	1	1.36
4%	Chicago Fire	2	1.05
3%	Toronto FC	1	0.68
2%	CF Montréal	1	1.41
2%	Austin FC	1	0.86
1%	Inter Miami	1	1.24
0%	New England	1	2.17
0%	Minnesota Utd	1	1.48
0%	Nashville	0	1.73
0%	Portland Timbers	0	1.36
0%	Vancouver	0	1.32
0%	Columbus Crew	0	1.17
0%	Houston Dynamo	0	0.83
0%	FC Cincinnati	0	0.81

Source: Football Reference and me.

MLS Top 10, 21 and Under (2018)

Major League Soccer has a stranglehold on professional soccer in the United States. With Don Garber stating recently that he thinks MLS should be a selling league all the sudden, here's a quick look at MLS players 21 years old and younger that made an impact in the league in 2018.

				Rating
Age	Player Name	Team	Country	Helltown	WhoScored	EA FIFA	Median	MLS Wage	Transfermarkt Value (in millions)
18	Alphonso Davies	Vancouver	Ghana	6.30	7.54	7.90	7.54	$72,500	€10.00
20	Diego Rossi	Los Angeles FC	Uruguay	7.85	7.17	7.20	7.20	$1,052,000	€4.50
19	Tyler Adams	New York	United States	7.00	7.01	7.20	7.01	$146,042	€4.50
20	Reggie Cannon	FC Dallas	United States	7.30	6.98	6.40	6.98	$67,500	€0.80
20	Auston Trusty	Philadelphia	United States	6.90	6.81	6.60	6.81	$109,100	€0.80
21	Justen Glad	Real Salt Lake	United States	6.42	6.81	6.90	6.81	$291,700	€0.80
20	Milton Valenzuela	Columbus	Argentina	6.21	6.78	7.10	6.78	$313,300	€1.00
19	Ezequiel Barco	Atlanta	Argentina	5.63	6.76	7.40	6.76	$1,425,000	€8.00
21	Jesús Medina	New York City FC	Paraguay	5.97	6.74	6.90	6.74	$770,833	€0.85
21	Brooks Lennon	Real Salt Lake	United States	6.61	6.80	6.70	6.70	$237,583	€0.70

What I did is take my ratings from the last regular season and match them up with WhoScored and Electronic Art's FIFA series to create a list of the best.

At the top is Davies, who has already set a record in regards to transfer amount out of the league to North America market hungry Bundesliga (Bayern Munich, $16.5 million).

The rest are still in MLS. Many are speed merchants with a little bit of talent. I'm pegging Diego Rossi, who played with Bob Bradley's LAFC, as the next one who might have some value overseas. Outside of that, it's slim pickings.

I do like Milton Valenzuela of the Columbus Crew. A lot depends on how the team looks this upcoming season.

Another one to keep an eye on is Ezequiel Barco, an Argentinian player for Atlanta United.

MR Post: Top MLS Players 21 and Under

Put together a post for Massive Report on my top 21 MLS players 21 years of age and under. HERE

What makes it a little different than my earlier post on the topic is that I used WhoScored.com and Castrol Index player ratings along with mine as a guide to find the best young players in the league.

I think it worked out well. Of the around 90 players in MLS 21 and under I see about 30 that play regularly and another 15 or so that bounce between ‘reserves’ and gameday 18s.

I’ll keep an eye on these players over the course of the next 12-18 months (2-3 international transfer windows) and see how many move on to better leagues. I’m guessing guys like Rosell, Fagundez, Jean-Baptiste, Torres and maybe Gil and the like will be moving on in that time.

One guy I really like at the moment is Soony Saad. Not just because he is a decent player but he’s also got a good body type. One of the more noticeable differences I see between foreign leagues and MLS is player body types. It’s extremely noticeable in person.

A couple years ago I saw Stoke take on the Crew and was shocked at the size difference. Not just height but thickness. Same thing when Wigan came to town this year. It’s like there is another 2” layer of thickness all around on players in Europe (that's Eddie Gaven on the ground in my illustration).

Anyhow, other guys like Yedlin, Rowe, McInerney, Farrell, Villarreal and Kitchen might become MLS stalwarts in years to come.