Nate Spencer

@worldsoccertalk Well, he’ll make sure they ruined that for everyone else behind him ha ha ha

“More than playing in the US, possibly that was also a family decision. To step back a little from what Barcelona was, because it makes sense that he can’t go out that much… In France he didn’t have a great time, but in the United States I see him walking around the supermarket. You can see he moves more freely, they don’t mob him. I think that’s possibly what he’s looking for.” Oscar Ruggeri, a World Cup winner with Argentina in 1986, spoke about Lionel Messi’s decision to step away from European soccer and move to MLS 🇺🇸 VIA @bolavipus

@israel_ajoje What resources are available to these players? Where do they go for help?

Most footballers retire with nothing that continues to generate income once the football stops. Not nothing in the bank necessarily, but nothing working for them after their last contract expires. An estimated 40 percent of professional footballers go bankrupt within five years of retirement, according to Xpro, the organisation that helps players adapt to life after their playing career. That statistic should disturb every player reading this. It means four out of ten players who earned professional wages end up broke within half a decade of their last match. The career was the ceiling. That is the problem personal branding solves, when it is done correctly. This is not really a “How to Build a Brand’ thread. It’s simply a “something to consider” thread. Before a player can build a brand, they need to at least own one and properly manage it. One of the ways to do that is via Image rights. Image rights are the legal right to commercialise your own name, likeness, and identity separately from your playing contract. Most small players sign them away without thinking about it. Under the standard Premier League employment contract, the club's use of a player's image is limited to no greater usage than the average for all first team players. What this means in practice is that unless a player has negotiated a separate image rights agreement, the club cannot commercially exploit the player’s specific identity beyond what they do for every other player in the squad. For a player with a commercially viable brand, this is money left on the table every single season. The players who understand this set up an Image Rights Company early in their career. That company holds their commercial identity, licenses it to the club and to sponsors separately, and crucially attracts a more favourable tax rate than salary income. It is not a trick reserved for elite players. Any professional footballer with a profile worth commercialising should have this structure in place. Take it from me. I in fact wrote this for African players. This next part is for them. The average Premier League annual salary across all 511 players in the division is approximately £3.5 million. That sounds like generational wealth cos it definitely is. But a career lasting ten years at that average, after tax at 45 percent on earnings above £150,000, after agent fees, after the lifestyle that professional football demands, produces far less than most players assume when they sign their first contract. A player from Nigeria, Ghana, or Senegal who’s out loooking for commercial sponsorships enters this system with one additional disadvantage. Sponsors evaluate audience size, audience purchasing power and market penetration when selecting ambassadors. A player from Nigeria, Ghana, or Senegal does not automatically have access to the commercial infrastructure that a European player inherits simply by playing in a visible league. The brand has to be built deliberately, with a clear identity that exists independently of the club, independently of the league, and independently of performance on any given Saturday. Sadio Mané earns approximately $4 million annually from endorsements, with sponsors specifically citing his community investment and charitable work in Senegal as key factors in their partnerships with him. He built a brand around authenticity in a market where no European footballer had ever made themselves genuinely legible to African audiences and Western Union built an entire international campaign around real money transfer transactions between him and his uncle back home. That campaign was not built on goals. It was built on identity. And that identity travels with him regardless of which club employs him. That last sentence is the point. The endorsement deals that follow a player from club to club are always more valuable than deals tied to the badge on the shirt. If your commercial identity only exists because of where you play, you have not built a brand. You have borrowed one. Which brings us to what happens after the playing days end. Because this is where the planning either pays off or it does not. David Beckham paid $25 million for his Inter Miami stake in 2014, exercising an option negotiated into his 2007 LA Galaxy contract. By 2025 that stake was valued at approximately $1.1 billion, a 4,400 percent return in just over a decade. He now earns an estimated $30 to $50 million annually from sponsorships, licensing, and club revenue, more than a decade after his last professional match. Beckham is not an average case. He’s an outlier. But the principle behind his story is available to every player. A clause negotiated at the right moment. A brand identity built independently of any one club. A deliberate decision, made while still playing, to treat the football career as the platform and not the destination. The players who are comfortable at 50 are not always the ones who earned the most at 28. They are the ones who understood that the earning window is short, the spending pressure is enormous, and the only way to outlast both is to build something that generates income after the final whistle. Forty percent go bankrupt within five years. You do not have to be one of them. Please, be wise. My name is Ajoje. I am a FIFA Licensed Agent and International Sports Lawyer. I write on the Law and Business of Football, a lot. Repost and Follow if you want to read more posts like this.

@jp2putts @hbrooks_coach It enough games for sure

@hbrooks_coach Is it possible that the college/university system just doesn't work for football, like it does for most other US sports?

The more and more I look into the football player development system in the USA , the more baffled I am. It is as nonsense as it gets. In every single aspect. The USA has some of the most talented young players u16 and under in the world. There is pretty much nothing done to make the most of that. And some things are such such simple fixes. Wild.

@coryjoejoe @hbrooks_coach Are there stats to back this up? I don’t disagree, but it would be good to see the stats side by side. I’m sure it’s part of the reason. Could it also be that each MLS team has a homegrown territory and with that solidarity payments no one is willing to make on younger players?

@hbrooks_coach MLS puts restrictions on pay and often have contracts longer term than Europe. If those contracts are shortened the squads become more flexible. But the reason it's setup this way is so the owners make money not develop new talent

@aimsdrew9 @hbrooks_coach That’s changing right now. I’m watching it. At least in the PNW.

@hbrooks_coach It’s a money making scheme. Player development is secondary to profit generation. American players are hamstrung by cynical leadership

@SullysFooty @hbrooks_coach There is this thing called ODP. It’s a low cost pyramid that helps with this. Washington State and the Sounders seem to use it predominantly, and it seems to be working. Maybe no one understands it’s right there in front of them? 🤷🏼‍♂️

@hbrooks_coach The problem is that it’s such a large country with so many players that talent identification and the ability to siphon them all to the same place becomes a logistical challenge.

@JacksonOnRadio No sure anyone watched, behind yet another paywall. Great game though, more like real soccer vs the watered down MLS version we usually get. Wednesday should be fun and so will the playoffs!

Paul Kingston? Oh no, FS2 broadcaster.

@JoserNunez91 The reality is if business like Covanta don’t exist your monthly garbage bill will skyrocket as there will be no alternatives. Support Covanta and support lowering your bills. Let’s start here as a path forward. Emissions is much more expensive, complicated, and political(permits

Sources at the Philadelphia Union, including players, coaches, and staff, have raised concerns to me over the years about this incinerator and the potential impact the facility may have on their long-term health. It will be interesting to see what the solution is and how it impacts everyone involved. This is not a wild opinion - I know I would not want to breathe this in on a daily basis, and no one should. cc: @CouncilmemberJG #doop #MLS 📹: 6ABC

@benno_nagel @JoserNunez91 The issue of trying to reuse trash for energy vs dumping a landfill? You should read and reread what was stated. And probably educate yourself a lot more on societies options before sounding off like an air horn

@JoserNunez91 Definitely an issue

@georgiefairplay @JoserNunez91 Being burned means not in a landfill. It’s better. Period. That’s the point.

@JoserNunez91 Yup totally understand, the article you shared is the one that I read previously which isn't 100% clear. But it always rang hollow to me the "zero landfill" branding around the park when they're sending at least some of it right next door to be burned.

@JoserNunez91 So what don’t burn the trash for energy just keep piling it up in landfills. You people are crazy. These exhaust systems are monitored and scrubbed for pollutants regularly. They aren’t perfect but society(all of us) only has a few ways to manage waste. Get a clue people

@TheS_Resource This is so good. Really changes how you look at culture and how it applies to the best athletes in the world at the best sports. Thankfully for America, the beautiful game, and the kids/parents there is a balance now that’s changing the culture for some, in soccer in America. 🇺🇸

Nobody prepares you for the moment a parent says the quiet part out loud. Ten years ago, whilst coaching a U10 football team in America, I'd taken over a team from another coach.I knew what I was walking into, the culture was winning at all costs with the playing style being very direct, i.e. long balls, nothing else. Parents coached from the sidelines like they had the whistle. Results weren't just important, they were everything the only thing). Before the season, I handed every parent a questionnaire in an attempt to generate their thoughts on player development, expectations and what they wanted from the experience. In hindsight, I tried to change things too quickly, but I tried for equal playing time, or as close to it as I could manage. A different style of play and a different way of thinking about what development actually meant at ten years old. Initially, the results went against us, especially in the eyes of the parents, which resulted in the mood shifting, and I could feel it. After one particular game, walking back to the car park, casually and with no drama, one of the parents walked next to me: Parent: "Can I ask you something? The equal playing time thing, what's the thinking behind it?" Coach: "Every player in that squad deserves to develop. That's what I'm here for, to support all of them, not just the ones who might help us win on game day." (A pause, he nods slowly.) Parent: "I hear you, but honestly? I'd rather you didn't play my son as much. If it means we win." (The coach stops walking.) Coach: "You'd rather your son plays less." Parent: "If it means we win, yeah. When we win, the mood's different, the parents are happier. It's just better for everyone." Coach: "You're paying thousands of dollars for your child not to play?" Parent: (calmly) "If it means we win. Yeah." (A beat.) Coach: "I'm a coach, my role is to develop every player in that squad. Not to manage how happy the parents feel from one weekend to the next." (The parent smiles. Starts walking again.) Parent: "Think about it." (He walks away, casually, like he'd suggested nothing unusual at all.) I stood there for a moment, he wasn't angry, aggressive, but meant every word of it. That was the moment I understood, it wasn't about the boys. It had never really been about the boys. The results meant something to the parents that had nothing to do with football, which was a sense of belonging. Something to carry into the week and to talk about when they met. They were playing through their children, and no questionnaire, conversation, or equal playing time policy was going to change that. Some cultures are bigger than one coach with a different idea. I learned that walking back to a car park in America, ten years ago, and I've never forgotten it.

@TheChampions SOUNDERS👌

The quarterfinal matchups are set! 🏆

@herculezg Should have Obed on Yamal

The entire sequence from Lamin Yamal is stupid. How he controls the ball. How he megs the opponent. How he even sees Fermin Lopez’s run and threads a 40yard ball with the outside of his foot. Just stupid.

@ProspectsUsmnt Everyone needs a role player LOL

Here we go again. Player given every opportunity and showcase in the world and his interest is Championship. Meanwhile, we got players in top four leagues who can’t even get into the USMNT roster over him. Seems like a bad bet. The market doesn’t rate him as Pochettino does.

@Dhaneye He doesn’t even pass the eyeball test game after game after game, so that tells me everything I need to know about @FotMob. Thanks for the heads up

According to FotMob ratings , Sebastian Berhalter is the best American player in MLS so far this season and he looked completely average or less than average against Belgium and Portugal . #USMNT

@soccer_usa_ @Jadentheman1 He’s so bad it’s not even funny.

Sebastian Berhalter isn’t good enough to be playing in this team Wasting valuable pre World Cup minutes on him. Makes zero sense.

@TheBolivianYank Hahaha

This is WHY I hate Roldán. WTF are you doing??? Why?? What in your mind made you think this was a good idea? You could see your CF wasn’t making a run…yet….

@xeneize__17 For U16, got it. Vamos Sounders!!!

Así esta el cuadro de la GA Cup 2026 -Boca se encuentra en la llave de Campeones (los que salieron punteros de sus grupos) -Se enfrenta hoy contra los Seattle Sounders -20:00HS de Argentina,19HS Miami Por adonde se transmite?? -MLS Youtube

@PGH_USMNT Yep, and bad for recruiting West Coast players as well due to expense of getting them there

Bad news for West Coast #USMNT fans. With the new Blank Training Center serving as the permanent training home for all home camps, that likely means USSF will want to save on travel expenses and play most matches in the eastern half of the country.