Four stars from America’s celebrated U-17 squad are getting their first taste of professional soccer.
They’re just like normal rookies, only far younger – starting their careers as early as 16 – and with far more experience.
Four players from the U.S. team that finished fourth at last year’s U-17 World Cup in New Zealand – DaMarcus Beasley, Kyle Beckerman, Bobby Convey and Seth Trembly – are competing this season in MLS. It’s their first taste of real professional soccer, but after spending most of 1999 in residency with U-17 coach John Ellinger in Bradenton, Fla., they’re finding the transition far simpler than it would otherwise be.
“It showed us,” says Beasley, “exactly how to be professionals.”
Here’s their stories:
DAMARCUS BEASLEY
Great expectations. DaMarcus Beasley is a veteran among MLS’s youngsters – he’s been in the league for 17 months – but only now are things starting to fall into place for him.
The most highly lauded of the U-17 players to sign Project-40 contracts, and the only one competing for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team, Beasley couldn’t commit fully to his career until this season was a couple months old.
He played sparingly for the Chicago Fire – which acquired him in a draft-day trade from Los Angeles – while commuting to Bradenton, where he completed high school in May. He’s been an attacking option off the bench since and has made 11 appearances – with four starts – through the first weekend in August.
“I’ve had an OK year – not a bad year, but OK,” he says. “I’m getting more confidence on the ball, getting a little more in sync with the team. … A lot more people on my team respect me as a player. There are no doubts about me getting the job done.”
Next year he wants to start but acknowledged it may be “a little too soon.” He’d be happy as the first player off the bench, “the extra attacker to try to get extra oomph, an extra goal.”
Beasley was the youngest MLS player (16 years, 10 months) when he signed in March 1999. With his focus primarily on U-17 World Cup preparations, he spent just two weeks last season with the Galaxy.
This summer has been a learning experience.
“I kind of knew what I was getting into,” Beasley says. “Maybe not the living part – being on your own, not having the things you would at home – but I’m getting used to it.”
He resides with rookie defender Carlos Bocanegra, enjoys the freedom of being on his own but misses little things, like “not having dinner cooked when you get home.”
Nutrition is Beasley’s parents’ greatest concern. “They always want to make sure I have enough to eat,” he says. “My mom always asks, ‘Have you eaten?’ And she’s always talking about [me] taking my vitamins. She keeps tabs on me.”
KYLE BECKERMAN
Brave new world. Kyle Beckerman has been on pros’ radar screens since he was 16 and scored winning goals in the U-17s’ victories over Boca Juniors and Argentina in Buenos Aires. Bayern Munich was among those interested.
He’s come to Miami after signing a Project-40 pact in late June, two months after a failed tryout with another German club, Hertha Berlin. It’s just the first stop for Beckerman, whose sights remain on Europe.
“I thought it was going to happen [with Hertha], but things didn’t quite work out, not for this year,” he says. “I figured it was better for me to start in MLS – I can establish myself here first.
“People are going over to Europe a lot – Stern John, Joe-Max Moore – so it’s common now, guys going over once they’ve established themselves here.”
The Fusion, trying to scramble back into playoff contention, has only so many minutes to spare, so Beckerman has seen limited action in his first month: 21 minutes in a loss to Dallas, a good stretch in a friendly with Nottingham Forest, enough time to pick up two yellow cards in a U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal victory. He was headed for his first Project-40 trip in early August.
“Definitely, next season I want to be [productive],” he says. “I want to try this year to get in there and play a little bit, but if it doesn’t happen, I’ve got to be patient. Hopefully, next year I’ll be fighting for a starting position.”
He’s still getting settled in South Florida, learning how to live as an adult in an adult world.
“There are so many things I didn’t know about,” he says. “My parents had to come help me out, help me get an account at the bank, get a car. … It was hard in the beginning. I don’t know how people get that done.”
Beckerman is rooming with rookie goalkeeper Nick Rimando and Guatemalan midfielder Martin Machon in Fort Lauderdale, an arrangement that helps socially and financially. He’s surviving on Project-40’s meager earnings.
“Money? Your first year, you don’t really save much,” he says. “I don’t really care about that, I just want to play soccer. If I score goals, the money will come.”
BOBBY CONVEY
The wunderkind. This wasn’t supposed to be part of the bargain, but life’s been a dream for Bobby Convey these past months.
MLS’s youngest player – a would-be high school junior when the season kicked off – figured to learn much during his first season with D.C. United. He never thought he’d apply his lessons so soon.
A spate of injuries and international assignments, plus D.C.’s awful form, provided Convey, now 17, unexpected opportunity to impress, and he’s done so.
He’s played in 17 of United’s first 26 games, starting 13 of them, and has grown greatly in confidence and presence from the experience.
The best thing, he says, is “being able to play with guys like Marco [Etcheverry] and Jaime [Moreno], knowing I have their respect.”
Etcheverry, Convey says, shares his wisdom with all the younger players. “He’s teaching me everything. He gives me the ball all the time now, tells me to do stuff he normally does.”
His transition off the field has been as easy. He’s living with D.C. president/general manager Kevin Payne’s family, and his folks – just up the I-95 in Philadelphia – visit frequently.
“This is exactly what I wanted, this family environment,” says Convey, “It’s kind of how the Arenas were with Ben Olsen – I’m like their son. …
“When I come back here, I’m just a kid in a family, I’m not the ‘youngest pro’ or anything like that. I’m treated as a normal person.”
Convey received a lot of attention after D.C. picked him up at the end of the first round in February’s MLS Draft. ESPN followed him around for a few days, the CBS Evening News and People magazine did stories.
“I didn’t think [entities] that big would want to have a story like me in there,” he says.
Things have come easy so far for Convey, who claims he feels no pressure to perform.
“I’m just calm on the field,” he says. “That’s how I am, how I always have been.”
SETH TREMBLY
Home, sweet home. After spending most of last year in Florida, Seth Trembly is enjoying his time at home. He may have turned pro before all but two of his U-17 teammates, but he’ll be one of the few residing under his parents’ roof this fall.
While most of his Bradenton buddies are playing for clubs miles from home or starting their first year away at college, Trembly is paying dues for his hometown Colorado Rapids, an association that allows him to call home home a while longer.
“My little brother just turned 5,” says Trembly, a defender who signed a Project-40 contract – and was assigned to the Rapids – in August 1999. “Getting to see him grow up is a big thing for me.”
So is the support of his parents and friends, a definite boost during what has been, so far, a difficult MLS infancy.
Trembly didn’t suit up for Colorado last season – the U-17s’ preparations for New Zealand took precedent – and has played just 13 minutes, spread across three games, for the Rapids in 2000.
He’s received more press for attending his high school prom in May – Coach Glenn Myernick gave him the night off – than for anything he’s done on the field.
“A lot of this year is getting to know the ropes, going through all the pro things, learning what it’s like to play soccer for a job instead of as a game,” says Trembly, who missed more than a month with a broken hand suffered in June. “Hopefully, next year I’ll get a lot more playing time, a chance to prove myself.”
He’s spent some time with the Project-40 team and hopes to secure an agreement to play abroad during the offseason – he needs playing time to build confidence.
“Right now, there’s so much pressure,” he says. “It’s hard to keep your confidence steady – it wears your nerves having to deal with it, always thinking, ‘Am I doing this right? Am I playing well?’ … Always looking over my shoulder to see if I’m doing something right rather than going out there to have fun.”
It’s all been an eye-opener.
“I kind of had an outsider’s perspective before,” Trembly says. “You think you know what it’s like, but it’s the pressure of winning games, getting points, the standings – it’s a lot more intense than you think.”
by Soccer America senior editor Scott French