MLS NEXT
Pre-Professional (L1) · Boys
The top boys platform, MLS academies plus elite independent clubs.
Overview
Major League Soccer launched MLS NEXT in 2020, and it now runs two divisions. The Allstate Homegrown Division is the upper one: MLS NEXT puts it at 152 clubs, every MLS academy plus 123 independent Elite Academies, and more than 17,000 players at U13 through U19 on what it calls a 10-month pro-style season. The Academy Division opened underneath it in 2025-26, about 230 clubs and 25,000 players, run through five existing youth organisations under MLS NEXT standards. Across both, the league says it now has 318 clubs and over 53,000 players.
An MLS NEXT badge does not mean a pro-team academy. The platform holds MLS club academies, several of which state on their own fee pages that the place costs nothing, alongside independent clubs that charge ordinary club fees. MLS NEXT bills the club $60 per registered person and says travel, coaching, facilities and administration are the club's responsibility, so the price is set by the club in front of you rather than by the league.
The high school question depends on which division and which kind of roster spot is being offered, not on the badge. Ask that first. Then ask about minutes: a Homegrown Division roster may hold 28 players per age group and only 18 dress for a match.
- MLS academies play here, and this is the platform tied to the Homegrown Player contract route
- MLS says its 2025 NEXT Fest put 1,474 teams in front of over 500 professional, national team and college coaches
- The Academy Division permits high school soccer outright
- A Homegrown Division Primary Player gives up the school season unless the league grants a waiver
- Regional and national travel, including a twelve-day December event in Arizona
- A 28-player age-group roster with 18 dressed means ten players can sit out a weekend
Who plays here
291 clubs we catalogue play in MLS NEXT. Open one to see every league its teams actually enter, not just this one.
AB7 Future Soccer AcademyState & PremierStaten Island, NYAC RiverPre-ProfessionalSan Antonio, TXAchilles FCPre-ProfessionalMD
Achilles Football ClubState & PremierMD
AFC LightningPre-ProfessionalPeachtree City, GAAjax UnitedPre-ProfessionalModesto, CA
Albertson SUSAPre-ProfessionalCentral Islip, NY
ALBION SC AtlantaNational EliteAlpharetta, GA
ALBION SC Atlanta MetroNational EliteGA
ALBION SC Boulder CountyNational EliteCO
ALBION SC BrooklynNational EliteBrooklyn, NY
ALBION SC ColoradoPre-ProfessionalLongmont, COCollege commitments
2,074 college commitments from 118 New York and New Jersey member clubs, taken from public commitment lists. Those two states are the only ones these counts cover.
These counts cover this league’s New York and New Jersey member clubs only. “Unverified” means the school matched but the program level did not. No league publishes college placement by youth league, so read this as one slice of two states rather than a scoreboard. We never print a current youth player’s name.
Rules
What this league asks before your kid can register: the ages it runs, whether they can still play the high school season, and who sanctions it. The college-exposure and cost lines are our read of the league, not a figure the league publishes.
HS soccer policy
Players can also play high school soccer
Age groups
U13-U19
Geographic footprint
National
College exposure (our read)
Elite
Cost level (our read)
Premium
Governing body
Major League Soccer
Founded
2020
Pathway from here
Level 1 is the top of our ladder: MLS NEXT on the boys’ side, ECNL and the Girls Academy on the girls’ side. Clubs here run national schedules and the showcase events college coaches travel to. Each league counts its own college commitments and nobody audits those counts, so the answerable question is about the club rather than the badge: where did its last three graduating classes go, and at what division.
Every league at this level publishes college numbers about itself and none of them are audited, so they are worth reading as marketing. What you can check is the club: ask which coaches came to its showcases in the last two seasons, and where its last three graduating classes went and at what division. A club that can name programs has the data.
Which MLS NEXT clubs are inside your drive time?
Put in your ZIP and the finder shows the MLS NEXT clubs near you alongside everything else at that level. Or tell us about your kid and we’ll rank them with the reasoning spelled out.