Even before David Beckham swapped Madrid for Los Angeles, MLS has harbored a reputation as a “retirement league.” The notion is well-worn in banter circles. It’s tired, and also at least a little bit true.
Robbie Keane. Kaká. David Villa. Andrea Pirlo. Didier Drogba. Wayne Rooney. Zlatan Ibrahimović. All of them – and many others – enjoyed late-career stops in the United States. Today, three of the 11 players named to Fifa’s Dream Team after the 2014 World Cup play in the league: Lionel Messi (Inter Miami), Thomas Müller (Vancouver Whitecaps) and James Rodríguez (Minnesota United). When Son Heung-min (33 years old) arrived in Los Angeles after his decade with Tottenham, he reunited with longtime Spurs teammate Hugo Lloris (39), and ensured derby days against the LA Galaxy’s Marco Reus (36).
Advertisement
Related: Next Generation 2025: 60 of the best young talents in world football
None of these players, though, are the bellwether. If that distinction belongs to anyone, it may just be 17-year-old Red Bull New York starlet Julian Hall; currently tied atop the MLS golden boot standings, and an invaluable part of one of the feelgood stories early in this season.
Hall has been electric in the first two weeks, which also happen to be the first two weeks of Michael Bradley’s top-flight managerial career. Hall’s breakthrough is made all the more impressive because it was far from a given that he would even start. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting set a new career high with 17 goals for the Red Bulls in 2025, the first time he’d scored more than 10 times in the league in a season. Now, just three weeks shy of his 37th birthday, he’s a valuable training foil and mentor for Hall and others on a team beset with teenage standouts – Hall’s goal against the New England Revolution this weekend was assisted by 16-year-old Adri Mehmeti, while 17-year-old Matthew Dos Santos started and provided the initial ball.
The Red Bulls were among MLS’s first teams to sustainably develop young talent via their academy. Tyler Adams remains the program’s star graduate, now a vital midfield anchor for Bournemouth. Since he was sold in 2018, New York have often seemingly been preoccupied with extending their record 15-year streak of postseason qualification, with fewer and fewer young talents breaking through.
Advertisement
Last year, that playoff streak was broken, and now the team have gone back to their roots. Bradley was elevated to head coach after half a season…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …