The scene on Monday morning at a Tijuana sports complex resembled a Mexican cage match ... except with kids playing soccer.
Hundreds of boys ages 10 to 14 sprinting across a turf field surrounded by chain-linked fences.
Spectators pressing their faces against the fence and watching as ranchero music blasts in the background and street vendors sell burritos and bags of chips drenched in hot sauce.
At stake? A chance to be part of San Diego’s new Major League Soccer team – San Diego FC.
The team will start playing at Snapdragon Stadium early next year. And it is currently scouting thousands of players in San Diego and Tijuana for its youth academy – which is essentially the soccer version of a farm system to develop future professional players.
It was an historic day – not just because it was a high-stakes tryout, but because of where it happened.
“We’re super excited, this is the first time that any MLS team comes to scout in Mexico,” said Joaquin Escoto, Executive Vice President of San Diego FC and its Right to Dream Academy. “For us, it’s a lot of responsibility but we want to give opportunities to any kid in Tijuana to come play for San Diego FC.”
Major League Soccer limits each team in the league to what it calls, “homegrown territories,” which are the specific geographic areas from which they can develop youth players.
For example, Los Angeles FC is restricted to a 75-mile radius of the club’s home stadium, excluding San Diego County.
San Diego FC is the only team in the league with an assigned region that includes Mexico – specifically, an area within 62 miles in driving distance from the club’s training facility in El Cajon.
“I think it’s definitely a competitive advantage,” Escoto said. “It’s also unique and a huge opportunity for us and for anybody in Mexico.”
About 1,000 boys registered for Tijuana’s open tryouts. For each of them, it was a unique opportunity to follow their dreams. Another set of tryouts was held last week in San Diego.
“This is really cool actually,” said Davin Parella, a central defender who lives in Tijuana and goes to school in San Diego. “I love this, I hope I can make it. I’m going to give it my all and try.”
“This is my dream,” David Renteria, a goalie from Ensenada said in Spanish. “It would be marvelous to make it happen.”
The odds are stacked against them.
San Diego FC scouts will evaluate a pool of 20,000 players to fill just 30 spots in the youth academy.
“We’re looking for the top players,” said Rafael Calderon, the academy’s assistant director and a former scout for the Mexican Soccer Federation.
San Diego FC is partly owned by the Right to Dream Academy, which runs an international network of schools and soccer development programs in Africa and Europe. Right to Dream selects the best youth players from the region and offers them a free education and professional soccer development.
“You’re going to get a world class education for free,” Escoto said. “Once you come into our academy, you’re either going to be a professional soccer player, or you’re going to go to a top school in the NCAA.”
That is also a dream come true for parents, especially those who pay thousands of dollars each year for their kids to play on elite club soccer teams.
“We hear that they’re providing schooling and everything so that’s a plus for us,” said Arturo Jimenez, one of the parents on the other side of the chain linked fence.
Jimenez drove all the way from Los Angeles so that his son, Armando could try out. He even brought the grandparents along.
“I think they’re doing a great thing,” Jimenez said. “Everybody deserves a chance.”
After each scrimmage, scouts selected one or two players to move on to the next round. The lucky few received bright red wristbands with the words VIP printed on them.
Lucas Martinez, a 14-year-old forward, earned a wristband after scoring one goal and helping set up a second during the scrimmage.
For him, this is actually a second chance at professional soccer. He spent three years in the Tijuana Xolos youth system.
“They let me go,” he said in Spanish. “I’m very excited because I know that they didn’t appreciate me over there. Now I have a chance to show my talent.”
