NEW YORK (April 18, 2019) – Major League Soccer club academies were launched in 2007 with the primary objective of producing top homegrown talent to contribute meaningfully to MLS first teams.
During the past decade, MLS clubs have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the identification and development of homegrown talent and signed top academy players to MLS first team contracts. As MLS clubs deepen their commitment to player development through significant investments in fully-funded academies, these clubs – consistent with the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players – will now assert Training Compensation claims for any MLS academy product that signs his first professional contract with a non-MLS club outside of the U.