Children wait to play football in the minor leagues of Newell's Old Boys, where Argentine football star Lionel Messi used to play in Rosario, Argentina, 2018.
Eitan Abramovich/AFP via Getty Images
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ROSARIO — Newell's Old Boys is one of the most popular soccer clubs in Rosario — Argentina's third-largest city. It also runs one of the country's most successful youth academies.
Every week, around 700 kids ages 4 to 12 train at its facilities in the center of the city, where black and red murals depict famous alumni such as Argentine soccer superstar Lionel Messi.
The most promising young players at Newell's "baby football" academy receive scholarships to train for free. The rest pay around $25 a month to train twice a week with coaches who are mostly former professionals. On weekends competitive matches are held against other squads from around the city.
"Here you get good coaching," says Carlos Gil a fencing contractor, who takes his eight year-old son to practice at Newell's every week.
"You have the chance that your child can develop his skills," Gil says. He shakes his head and chuckles after learning that in the United States, parents pay between $1,000 and $3,000 a year for the kind of instruction his son gets at Newell's.
"If you did that here, almost nobody could play," he said of the fees at U.S. youth soccer clubs. He also says that if Argentine clubs charged their young players thousands of dollars each year, the country's status as a global soccer powerhouse might be at risk.
"Our best players tend to come from low income backgrounds," Gil said. "Where would they train?"
With the World Cup still fresh in the minds of many Americans, a debate has resurfaced online and on television over how to make youth soccer more affordable in the United States and whether the pay-to-play model that prevails in U.S. soccer is preventing America from reaching its true potential — at least on the men's side.
Argentina is one country that has managed to keep youth soccer affordable while churning out a steady stream of world-class players. And some coaches say its soccer structure could be an example for the United States to follow.
Newell's — where Lionel Messi played from ages 6 to 13 — is one of dozens of clubs in Argentina that subsidize the training of their young players.
Its survival does not depend on tuition payments or donations from local companies.
The club's professional team competes in Argentina's top division and generates revenue from ticket sales and broadcasting rights.
A soccer field used by the Newell's Old Boys youth team, in Rosario, Argentina.
Natacha Pisarenko/AP
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It also makes significant sums of money when its best young players are transferred to other clubs in Argentina or abroad.
