The Immortal "Best Athletes" Myth

Unfortunately, I think it’s our inferiority complex that leads us to these “best athletes” arguments. We won’t be the best at soccer until we value it in society the way other countries do. And that’s probably how it should be. Until little kids growing up playing from the time they can walk and keep playing, it won’t matter how good our athletes are. The U.S. will be a soccer super power when the pool of available players is as big for us as it is for everyone else and not just kids who can afford to play club soccer get the chance to be good.

I have a slightly different take on this.

What I’ve wondered is how much skill in a sport is hard work, and how much is “God given”. We see videos of 5 year olds pulling moves that pros are doing in the big leagues. Even if that kid picked up a soccer ball at age 2 when they are beginning to be able to really consciously decide how and where to move, 3 years of dicking around with a ball doesn’t give you those types of skills. Various worldwide names come to mind. Lionel Messi was recognized early on, and Barcelona took in him at age 13. Now at 22, he is probably among the top 3 active players in the world.

In contrast to that, Tiger Woods was forced to play golf and keep a strict practice regimine since age 2. Lots and lots of hard work and now he is the best golfer in the world, and on his way to being the best golfer in history. (maybe he’s already there, I dunno)

That said, I’m not sure if I completely follow your argument. If Michael Jordan or Tom Brady or Barry Bonds took up soccer instead of their respective sports, could they have gotten to the same level they are now? Maybe they their skills were God given. Maybe they were hard work. I’ve read a couple theories regarding elite skill holders that in addition to the possibility of it being God given, that people that reach elite levels have a gene that causes them to drive to greatness harder than others. Outside of sports, these types of people are executives of companies, master musicians, etc. It’s funny to think about MJ being a star Football player and Tom Brady destroying everybody in the Premier League.

I forgot how I was going to wrap this up, but trust me I had a totally awesome closer. I got too much in the zone and forgot though :\

First of all, to suggest that because Michael Jordan was crummy at baseball proves that athletes from other sports wouldn’t be good at soccer is silly.

Success in sports depends not just on physical ability, but also upon skills and thousands of hours of practice (which is something you say in your second point). It’s impossible to declare that Jordan, for example, wouldn’t have been an awesome baseball player.

For all we know, had Jordan decided at the age of 14 that baseball was what he was going to go all-out to do, he would have been terrific; by the time he was 31 (when he went to play baseball) if he’d had tens of thousands of hours practicing and playing baseball- throwing, fielding, hitting, baserunning- he might have been an All-Star.

It’s somewhat unlikely due to his size- tall baseball players are at a disadvantage due to their bigger strike zone- but you never know, and you just can’t point to that and say “see, superb athletic ability doesn’t translate to another sport”.

Likewise, had he chosen soccer, with his speed and height and incredible drive to be the absolute best, maybe he would have eclipsed the all-time greats in that sport. We just don’t know.

The second point also has a huge flaw. Yes, we might match up physically with the rest of the world’s teams, and merely suffer in comparison due to lack of sheer soccer skills- but it’s fair to suggest that if, say, twice as many superbly built guys played soccer, then we’d have a pool twice as large to choose from in terms of skilled players.

For example, is there a fall off of quality from the #1 player on the USMNT squad to the #23 guy? Of course there is- but if there were twice as many people playing soccer in the US, all with similar physical attributes, then isn’t it fair to assume that instead of our team being comprised of the quality between #1 and #23, it would be more like the fall off in quality between #1 and #12 or so?

Which team would have more skill- 23 guys who’re all at least as good as our starting 11, with some better, or the 23 guys we have now?

The notion that certain “body types” make a difference is silly, too. From the time that a guy is in junior high school until playing professionally, here in the USA, they are encouraged to BUILD their body into the type that fits the particular sports they are playing.

Yeah, the 6’5" 300 pound linemen probably aren’t going to be great soccer players- but what if, instead of being encouraged to eat and get huge and strong so they could play football, they were encouraged to play soccer?

Say you’ve got a guy with that kind of size and those incredible quick reactions and that incredibly quick first step. When he’s in 9th and 10th grades, instead of getting him to pack on the pounds to be a lineman, you train him to become a soccer goalkeeper. Instead of winding up 6’5" and 300, he winds up 6’5" and 210, with that cat-like quickness and that sheer size saving innumerable goals?

There are tons of guys in professional sports who have the “right size” frame to have become superb soccer players. It’s just that the body shape and development that they need for their sport- baseball, football, even the smaller basketball players- is different than it would be for soccer.

But if soccer were bigger here, if guys could get huge multi-million dollar contracts and 50,000 people packed into 20 stadiums around the nation every weekend and it had huge TV revenues, you can damn well bet that instead of going into baseball or football or hoops, more of those guys would have gone into soccer at a young age- and instead of building themselves into an Arod or a LaDainian Tomlinson or a Dwayne Wade, they would have built more endurance and ability to run for the full 90.

The reality is that there ARE tons of great athletes that never gave soccer a first thought, let alone a second. If those guys had practiced all that time at soccer skills, we’d be choosing from a much bigger roster, and we’d be better.

The “if only these great athletes played soccer” argument is perfectly valid.

Great article and I agree with you on many counts.

I’ve always thought that the US lags behind these other nations because of their dominant soccer culture. Children who are good soccer players are identified at a younger age and dedicate their lives to soccer. That is starting to happen somewhat in the US, but probably still to a lessre degree.

I do think its silly for anyone to say that Kobe Bryant would have been a great soccer player just because of his athleticism. But I do see the other side in another way. There are surely thousands of great athletes across the country who play multiple sports in high school. But they ultimately need to decide their best/favorite sport at some point. Probably before college. I feel like an extremely gifted athlete at that point in his life is more likely to choose basketball or baseball than soccer, because its more lucrative, and also because its what Americans value more as a society.

Is that:

 “If soccer in the U.S. was as important, popular and the fundamental structure of playing soccer was available to everyone (from an extremely early age) just as it is with American Football, Basketball, or Baseball, would the U.S. produce more very talented soccer players?”

In the answer to that question, I think the answer is an absolute yes. If all those factors were equal to that of the other three big sports in this country, or equal to that of a country such as say Brazil or any major soccer loving country, I think one would see a lot more talented U.S. soccer athletes. You may see a few less throughout the other sports as there would have to be a balance. But I think in the end, we have a very large population in our country that in reality, should be able to support talented athleticism in soccer.

I am not saying switch Kobe Bryant to a soccer player and you got the U.S. version of Cristano Ronaldo, but if the talent of Kobe in a player instead played soccer from the time of being born (theoretically speaking) then yes, I think we could have more very talented U.S. soccer athletes.

The problem/issue isn’t with switching current top athletes to play soccer, its with the beginning development and image of soccer to those young kids. If the dream of “going pro” in soccer in the U.S. meant the same thing as “going pro” in football, basketball or baseball (which I would argue has to do with amazing talent, fame, image, inspiring, to aspire too and always at least partly money) to the kids of this country, I think we would see a much different reality of U.S. soccer. It all starts from the beginning.

I disagree with the premise of the linked article in that I don’t agree THE reason we don’t win world cups is we aren’t as athletic. That said, the other aspects of our greatest American sports stars could certainly translate into soccer skills. Take any QB or PG with that “court / field awareness” and make them into a midfield player – a calming influence on the ball, sixth sense where people are and where they’re heading, and knowing just how much touch to put on a pass – and they’d do great. Or in hockey, the forwards have to have a sense of how to break down a packed defense, the geometry of movement and spacing, not to mention timing for “offsides.” Other people have already mentioned the will to succeed no matter what, the killer instinct, which is something a few players on the USMNT could use. If you look beyond the obvious physical specs the possibilities are much more intriguing.

I agree with a couple people above that using Jordan as an example is fine, but to make the whole case is a little silly. Look how many multiple-sport students we have in high schools. They specialize in one sport because that’s how they get a scholarship or go to the pro’s, and what if that sport was soccer? Allen Iverson was touted by many as Virginia’s best college football prospect his Senior year, and Joe Mauer was USA Today’s high school player of the year in football before he was in baseball. Also many college athletes play a couple sports (e.g. John Elway, Jeff Samardzija), and even occasional pro’s double-dipped successfully (e.g. Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders, Danny Ainge).

One interesting way to look at this is to flip the script. As far as I can find on the current USMNT, only Jay DeMerit and Tim Howard significantly participated (HS varsity) in other sports besides soccer. Most of the rest of our team seems to have been playing soccer constantly from a very young age. What if our entire team played football until high school, when they decided to pursue soccer? How bad would we be?