Is signing a 7 year old ridiculous? IMO, yes.
http://blogs.courier-journal.com/er...real-madrid-signs-7-year-old-to-pro-contract/
Real Madrid signs 7-year-old to pro contract
Posted on August 8, 2011 by Eric Crawford
Real Madrid has signed a 7-year-old Argentinian boy (Facebook photo left) to a pro soccer contract.
Read The Washington Post story here. And from the Guelph Mercury. Leonel Angel Coira goes simply by the name Leo — and his idol is Lionel Messi of rival Barcelona.
It is a fair question — what would people say if an American team targeted a 7-year-old? Except that in the U.S., the wouldn’t be getting money that young. He’d be coddled through the school system for a few more years, then a shoe company would identify him, and fund his AAU team, and the coach of that team would get a big cut, and maybe his parents, if not above-board, would start to profit, and if not, the shoe company would continue to see him as their "investment."
All the while the kid might or might not be getting the best educational oversight. And if he’s good enough, he makes his money in the end. And if he’s not? Well, there are a lot of those walking around.
So when you get down to it, if a kid is good enough at a young age and can develop through a club’s system while using the money he makes to pay for his own schooling, I don’t see where the system is much more inequitable than our own.
One big difference — if coaches in the U.S. started to pay this kind of attention to a 7-year-old, we’d all howl.
Another big difference — this 7-year-old is getting paid. When Billy Gillispie offers an eighth grader a scholarship and then he doesn’t pan out to be good enough, the kid has gotten nothing.
In this case, Real Madrid had to put up the money. If the kid isn’t good enough, it still has to pay him for a time.
Regardless, it’s an interesting discussion
http://blogs.courier-journal.com/er...real-madrid-signs-7-year-old-to-pro-contract/
Real Madrid signs 7-year-old to pro contract
Posted on August 8, 2011 by Eric Crawford
Real Madrid has signed a 7-year-old Argentinian boy (Facebook photo left) to a pro soccer contract.
Read The Washington Post story here. And from the Guelph Mercury. Leonel Angel Coira goes simply by the name Leo — and his idol is Lionel Messi of rival Barcelona.
It is a fair question — what would people say if an American team targeted a 7-year-old? Except that in the U.S., the wouldn’t be getting money that young. He’d be coddled through the school system for a few more years, then a shoe company would identify him, and fund his AAU team, and the coach of that team would get a big cut, and maybe his parents, if not above-board, would start to profit, and if not, the shoe company would continue to see him as their "investment."
All the while the kid might or might not be getting the best educational oversight. And if he’s good enough, he makes his money in the end. And if he’s not? Well, there are a lot of those walking around.
So when you get down to it, if a kid is good enough at a young age and can develop through a club’s system while using the money he makes to pay for his own schooling, I don’t see where the system is much more inequitable than our own.
One big difference — if coaches in the U.S. started to pay this kind of attention to a 7-year-old, we’d all howl.
Another big difference — this 7-year-old is getting paid. When Billy Gillispie offers an eighth grader a scholarship and then he doesn’t pan out to be good enough, the kid has gotten nothing.
In this case, Real Madrid had to put up the money. If the kid isn’t good enough, it still has to pay him for a time.
Regardless, it’s an interesting discussion
