Can Klinsmann make a grass-roots impact?

Friday, Aug. 12, 2011

By Mike Woitalla

Before Jurgen Klinsmann's debut as U.S. coach against Mexico, ESPN’s Julie Foudy asked him, "How would you define success over the next three years?"

It’s noteworthy that Klinsmann steered his response to youth soccer:

“I define success in individual development of players. Soccer traditionally is a lower-class sport. We need to find ways to give those lower-class kids the opportunity to play in the club environments where there’s a lot of money involved. We need to find ways to get the kids who are in a club environment to also play and kick the ball around in unorganized ways.”

When Klinsmann moved to the USA 13 years ago, shortly after retiring from a superstar playing career, he explained his short-term plans: Taking classes at a technology college to learn how the Internet “will change our society.” Taking Spanish classes. And exploring youth soccer development.

Klinsmann got involved in the adidas ESP Camp, a player development showcase for America's top teens. Along with former Germany teammates, he founded FD21 (“Fussball in Deutschland in the 21st Century”), an initiative aimed at getting children to play more soccer. ("If we can get kids interested again in just going out for an informal game of soccer now and then, we will be headed for a better future for the sport.")

The 1990 World Cup winner has often commented on the importance of free play. In 2003 at an NSCAA Convention, Klinsmann told Marc Connolly of ESPNSoccerNet:

"Soccer, in my opinion, is self-teaching. The more you play, the better you get. You don't see kids play in the park these days. It's only in an organized environment. We are starting to have that similar problem in Europe, as well. Certain things are not teachable.”

A year ago, Klinsmann told SI.com’s Grant Wahl, “You have the fact that [in the USA] it's mostly organized soccer, when we know that the best players in the world come out of unorganized events.”

The topic came up again in Klinsmann’s first press conference as U.S. national team coach.

“What is really missing compared to the leading soccer nations around the world, the top 10-12 nations around the world, is the amount of time kids play the game,” he said. “If you have a kid who plays in Mexico 20 hours a week, and maybe four hours of organized soccer but 16 hours of unorganized soccer just banging the ball around in the neighborhood, but if he gets up to 20 hours it doesn’t matter how he plays it, with his dad or with his buddies in the street.

“This will show later on with his technical abilities, with his passing, with his instinct on the field and all those things, and I think that’s certainly an area where a lot of work is ahead of us.”

The American youth game problems that Klinsmann cites may not be revelations and he won’t get a magic wand to make them go away. He can’t be expected to single-handedly encourage American children to play pickup soccer.

But his statements might very well have an influence on the coaches and parents at the grass-roots who are ultimately responsible for creating the soccer environment for America's children.

(Mike Woitalla, the executive editor of Soccer America, coaches youth soccer for East Bay United in Oakland, Calif. His youth soccer articles are archived at YouthSoccerFun.com.)