Two years ago our son was offered a spot on an MLS NEXT team. We turned it down. People reacted as if we had thrown something precious away. This is why we said no and what has happened since. It is one family's decision, not advice, and the facts I lean on are linked where I use them.
The offer
He was thirteen. He had a strong tryout, and the call came: a roster spot at an MLS NEXT club. MLS NEXT is the boys' platform Major League Soccer runs, and for a soccer family that call is supposed to be the one you are waiting for.
We were proud. We were also, almost immediately, uneasy. So instead of celebrating and signing, we sat down and thought about it.
What we weighed
Four things kept coming up, and none of them pointed toward yes.
Playing time. Conversations with the club made clear he would be a depth player, fighting for minutes and starting a lot of games on the bench. He was used to being on the field.
Travel. The schedule meant long drives and overnight trips most weekends, for the whole family, for years. We have another child and two jobs.
High school soccer. At the time, the offer in front of us meant giving it up, and he talked constantly about wanting to play for his school with his friends. That mattered to him, specifically.
His trajectory as we read it. We love him and we are not blind. He is a good player and a committed one. We did not see a professional career. We saw a kid who loves soccer and might play in college.
The question stopped being "is MLS NEXT impressive?" and became "is MLS NEXT right for this boy, in this family, with these goals?" Asked that way, the answer was no.
one thing has changed since
The high school rule is not what it was when we were deciding. MLS NEXT now runs two divisions, and the Academy Division permits high school soccer while the Homegrown Division restricts it for one category of player, with a waiver route. If you are facing this call today, read high school soccer against club soccer first and ask the club which division and which roster spot it is offering. It is a different conversation than the one we had.
What we did instead
He joined a strong ECNL club closer to home. He plays a lot. He is a regular starter. He plays high school soccer in the fall, which ECNL's own competition rules leave alone, and watching him captain his school team has been one of the joys of our lives. The travel is manageable.
Two years on
He is fifteen now.
He is a better player than he was. I cannot prove why, and I am wary of families who claim they can. What I can say is that he plays meaningful minutes every week, he is asked to lead and to solve problems on the field, and he is still here.
College coaches have started to notice him through ECNL, with high school soccer still in his life. The path we worried we were closing is open.
And he still loves the game. That, more than anything, tells us we chose right.
What we would tell other parents in the same spot
The highest rung is not always the right rung for a particular kid. That is a judgment, and it is ours.
On development, I would be careful with anyone who promises you a mechanism. The American Academy of Pediatrics, reviewing the research, says flatly that "the exact amount of training needed to succeed has not been described," and that no study of sports-enhancement programs has shown a greater chance of success despite the extra time and money. If the science will not claim to know what produces a player, a club's marketing should not either.
What is measured is why kids stop. In a 2025 survey of 3,827 American children aged 10 to 17, the top reasons former players gave for quitting were feeling "not good enough" (29%) and bad coaching (21%). The top reasons current players give for playing are having fun (48%) and playing with friends (47%). Earning a college scholarship comes in at 12%. Those numbers moved us more than any ranking did, because the risk we could see in the offer was the risk of a thirteen-year-old spending two years feeling not good enough.
Listen to your child, specifically. If high school soccer matters to him, that is information about who he is.
Look squarely at the trajectory. Reaching professional soccer is rare enough that no governing body publishes a rate for it. The realistic odds of going pro sets out what can actually be counted. Planning for the likely future while leaving the door open is not pessimism.
The thing I would most want another parent to hear
We said no to MLS NEXT and two years later it is one of the better decisions we have made as a soccer family. The lesson is not "avoid the top." It is that we picked the rung where our child would actually play, and he kept loving the sport. The badge mattered less than we expected it to.
If you are trying to work out what the right level looks like for your kid right now, the Pathway Report shows the real clubs near you at each level, with the reasoning written out.
Where these numbers come from
- MLS NEXT Academy Division and the MLS NEXT Homegrown Division Rules and Regulations, 2025-26. The two divisions and their different high school rules.
- ECNL Competition Rules, 2025-26. That the rulebook contains no restriction on high school soccer.
- American Academy of Pediatrics, sports specialization and intensive training in young athletes. That the amount of training needed to succeed has not been described, and that sports-enhancement programs have not been shown to raise the chance of success.
- Aspen Institute Project Play, national survey of youth and sports (April 2026). Why children play and why former players quit, from 3,827 youth aged 10 to 17 surveyed across all 50 states.