Want to win a World Cup, America? Start doing better by the kids. And their parents, too.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The completion of the FIFA World Cup on Sunday wrapped up truly one of the most captivating sports experiences North America has seen in quite some time.

As we speak, the last of FIFA’s traveling caravan has packed up, ready to move onto its next stop, while leaving American fans looking at the soccer landscape in this country, wondering why, with the wealth of raw athleticism we have here, couldn’t one of those two teams in Sunday’s final have been us?

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Good news. Historically speaking, every World Cup spawns change. Bad news? When it comes to soccer, the United States has been historically bad at making the changes needed to make a stir. In 2026, emerging from the group stage shouldn’t be a hope — it should be the norm.

The change needed to push American soccer forward is not an easy fix. OK, well, it is, but it requires a dedicated strategy and a collective belief that development, not greed, needs to be at the forefront.

That investment begins at the grassroots level and comes in two main tiers: Investing heavily in identification and developing raw, untapped talent.

The other? Educating parents that there’s more to the game than striving to make the top club team in your area.

You could add a third — offering greater exposure to the game — but that topic sits on its own almost entirely when you consider the level of gatekeeping that exists, from broadcasting contracts going to cable and streaming services to the outrageous price points of tickets.

It already is in some states, like here, in what the Union is doing with youth development that spawns real American hopefuls (see: Cavan Sullivan). Undoubtedly, that last sentence ruffled a few feathers among the club soccer community.

If that’s the case from where you’re standing, well, therein lies the problem.

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Recent history has shown that’s not always going to arrive via a traditional club model where parents are overspending, because at the starting-out level, they honestly don’t know any better. It’s not saying the model is all that ails when it comes to development, just that it can no longer be widely considered as a preeminent pathway for children as young as 5.

U.S. Soccer recognizes this. Just last week, it noted that in the aftermath of the national team’s round of 16 exit, it’s “trying to create a new system that then we’d make highly affordable. It’s a bold strategy that comes with a ton of roadblocks. The current model is not just fully ingrained into how we develop talent, but it makes a lot of people really rich off kids with a dream and parents with deep pockets.

But what would an argument be without a solution? Here are two.

First, foster excitement by putting the game everywhere. Start with a focus on inner cities and rural communities. Loosen the restrictions on accessibility, price, and most importantly, the gates of locked-up ballfields that kids could be playing on.

Second? Put some skin in the game.

Imagine pouring financial resources into underserved neighborhoods. You’ve built the fields, now get kids playing on them. How about a series of cash prize tournaments at multiple age ranges and skill abilities?

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Organizers receive winnings under the demand that a substantial amount of the proceeds is used to create more opportunities to foster interest. In turn, U.S. Soccer and the academies of Major League Soccer teams plant scouts at these events to find the raw talent and develop them.

Some of that is already happening. In 2018, the Union created the SWAG program, going into schools, finding kids, developing them from the age of five, and grooming them to be on a professional pathway. It’s the kind of pipeline that city-based organizations like Kensington Soccer Club and Capitolo Soccer AC Fairhill, Street Soccer USA and many more are at the ready to be, and are already finding diamonds in the rough all along the way.

The problem is, as it stands, not enough people in power when it comes to the game care to look.

Listen, at the end of the day, you don’t know what you don’t know.

According to figures from Project Play, a study created by the Aspen Institute, youth sports is a $40 billion a year business, with youth soccer a sizable chunk of that equation.

The reason why there’s so much money to be made? Here’s a big one: uninformed parents.

At a certain level, there is this real fear of missing out from parents when it comes to their kids’ trajectory. The FOMO isn’t in every case, but here’s how it typically works when it comes to soccer in America. It starts innocently, a parent signing a child up for in-house soccer, where you discover, and it’s affirmed by a coach and others, that your kid has real talent.

But instead of offering programs to develop that talent and get that child acclimated to the sport at a young age through actual development at a continued low cost, parents are coerced into believing that their child would fit seamlessly on a travel club team. One that competes year-round, practices 2-3 times a week, and plays games and tournaments on the weekend.

According to Project Play, about one-third of families report taking on significant debt so their kids can participate in sports. The average family spends $1,000 on registration fees, equipment, and travel.

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And then there’s the time cost. Traveling back and forth between states, sometimes to play the same team from the next town over from your club in a tournament.

If you’re a soccer parent, undoubtedly, you’re nodding your head as it probably sounds like your trajectory in youth soccer to date.

Suppose the solace comes in that you’re not alone?

And then there are the buzzwords. “Select.” “Premier.” “A-Squad.” All of these focus not on developing kids into the talent needed to put the U.S. in the best position to win a World Cup, but instead compile the best kids to help that club win across multiple age groups. They’re also words that make parents salivate, spending money they believe will deliver their child to greatness.

Or at least, that team that everyone is talking about.

At the end of the day, parents want to provide what they believe is the best opportunity for their child. Some don’t know what that looks like in soccer.

Can’t fault that. The real fault is in the subsequent exploitation of this ideology by organizations charging thousands for a child to have said opportunity.

Parents in these same circles have revealed that for kids as young as nine and 10 years old, their club won’t even look at kids who don’t already come in with a certain level of skill. Ask yourself: If the mindset has to be about development, how is that mentality not a perceived problem?

So, of course, that begs the question: “Who pays, then?” Well, there are plenty of youth systems around the world with strategies that give youth soccer in America a fantastic roadmap. Anyone tuning in to Sunday’s final was treated to a great page to start reading if you look at what Spain has been able to do on almost every level over the last 10 years, right up through yesterday.

Two World Cup titles in less than 20 years. A European title. The only nation where both the men’s and women’s teams are defending world champions. If the goal is to crack the code on how to produce players who can go far in a quest to chase a World Cup trophy, maybe start there.

As it stands today, club soccer in America serves a purpose. It’s a great conduit for exposure. It offers youth players a firsthand look at the rigors of competition at a very young age. It teaches teamwork and being dedicated to a collective mission.

But it’s not about development. If it were, parents wouldn’t need to consider paying even more for privatized training or skill development camps and clinics. And now, the notion is growing that private equity sees ways in which it can get involved in the gambit. If there isn’t more of a fight to make sure that the status quo doesn’t become the legacy of this World Cup, history looks pretty bound to repeat itself in four years.

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