Youth academy to be NYRB foundation says Soler

New York Red Bulls general manager Erik Soler is looking for the club’s youth academy/residency program to be the foundation for the future.

Despite attracting the likes of Thierry Henry and Rafael Marquez from Europe, Soler believes the best way for a MLS franchise to continue going forward is to have a successful youth setup so the players all the way down can learn the ways of the senior team.

“What we would like to do is to in the longer-term to have a residency academy, bring in some players from the local area and foreign players into that academy,’’ Soler told the NY Post.

“We would like to bring him and give him education, both school education and soccer education and build the project from there.

“The problem – and this is the fact – is when you get the (likes of) Corey Hertzog here at 20 or 21, we’d love to have had him when he was 16, so he would be educated the way you want. You have to wait two years to get to that level.

“So we have to work on that.”

 
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