Sacir Hot feels that the New York Red Bulls youth academy can be just as successful as the famed set up at Spanish giants Barcelona.
The 19-year old New Jersey native was recently signed to a senior Red Bulls deal, becoming the fourth player to join from the academy on a homegrown contract, and says that great things are happening in the lower ranks at the MLS club.
"When you look at Barcelona and you see all their academy players coming up on the rise, and I feel like Red Bull, they're going to be producing the same for MLS," Hot said.
"(Juan) Agudelo's coming up, Matt Kassel, I am; they have a bunch of great talent in the academy coming up. I like what Red Bull is doing now. Hans (Backe, coach) is giving a lot of chance to the youth, which is very, very good for the club."
Academy manager and U18 head coach Paul O'Donnell concurred with Hot's sentiments, saying that it was all positive things coming out of the youth system.
"We're very pleased with the progress that our players have made over the past several years. It's a testament to the quality of players that we have when you see that the vast majority of the team will play at top level Division I colleges," O'Donnell said.
"We have six players who'll play in the ACC, five in the Big East, two Ivy League and one who'll play for the defending national champion, Akron University. That truly speaks volumes for this graduating class and for the type of player the Red Bull Academy has been producing. The staff strongly believes that several of these players have the potential to perhaps represent the first team in the future."