Why KC Current pushed for youth academy in Brazil & what it means for the club

The Kansas City Current announced the creation of Teal Rising Academy Brazil this week. The international academy will be located in Itu, a city roughly an hour and a half to the northwest of São Paulo.

The creation of this academy, according to the Current, is “a key part of the club’s broader multi-club model.”

“This academy is an important part of our multi-club vision and our belief that the future of women’s soccer is global,” said Current co-owner Chris Long. “Brazil has one of the richest soccer cultures in the world, and we are proud to invest in young players, provide opportunity and build meaningful pathways for the next generation.”

Itu, Brazil, is located between the two largest cities in São Paulo state: São Paulo and Campinas. There are six major soccer organizations in the two cities: São Paulo FC, Corinthians and Palmeiras hail from São Paulo, while Ponte Preta, Red Bull Bragantino and Guarani hail from Campinas.

In Itu itself, Ituano is the biggest team but does not have a women’s soccer team above the U20 level.

“This partnership reflects our shared commitment to youth development, education and the advancement of women’s soccer,” said Herculano Castilho Passos Junior, the mayor of Itu. “We believe this academy will create meaningful opportunities for young athletes in our community while strengthening Itu’s position as a center for football excellence in Brazil.”

Also of note: The Current have featured a few Brazilian stars in recent years. Debinha and Lorena both are under contract for the 2026 season, and Bia Zaneratto starred up top for the Current the past two seasons.

The Current has been building this way

Just last year, the Current purchased HB Køge in Denmark. Within the Kansas City metro, the youth-program footprint has begun to grow through the Teal Rising Alliance. The academy in Brazil is yet another step in that direction.

“This academy is about opportunity, access and long-term development,” said Current general manager Ryan Dell. “By focusing on U-15 and U-17 athletes, we are investing early in the pathway and creating a clear connection to the professional game.”

All of this is part of the Current’s larger plan, not only to create multi-club networks on the professional side but also within the youth soccer landscape. This isn’t a new or groundbreaking concept in soccer. But the Current would be the first NWSL club to create a fully-fledged youth pathway to first-team soccer.

In an interview this offseason with The Star, Dell discussed the undertaking of creating this pathway, complete with support from top to bottom in the organization.

“We’re doing so much more than really any club in the NWSL,” Dell said. “Whether that is the multi-club model, whether that is the youth-development pipeline that we’re creating here in Kansas City, whether that’s from an infrastructure perspective … there’s a lot of great things that are happening here that are completely different than when I had this role before.”

Dell is new to this position with the Current after KC’s front-office and coaching shakeup following the 2025 season. But he is not new to being a GM. He held that title in Louisville for two years before joining Kansas City as the team’s director of operations.

Why does a youth pipeline help?

In terms of salary cap management, it’s not much different, although Dell noted he was much closer to working at the height of the NWSL’s imposed salary cap with the Current than he was with Louisville. But part of that management means looking at where the club is going with its first-team roster, not just for 2026 but for the years beyond that.

That’s where knowing what’s coming in the pipeline is helpful. If the Current has players coming through the pipeline, it can identify them for the roster. Then, it’s easier to know what the club still needs from the outside, or even from the NWSL.

And while that will play a role in Dell’s salary cap management, he’s also tasked with a portion of what fell to him in the operations role: managing how the talent pipeline works.

While Dell was in charge of the team operations, he created the Teal Rising Cup, bringing two of Brazil and São Paulo’s biggest clubs — Corinthians and Palmeiras — to Kansas City.

He then helped build out KC Current II, one of the first in that category, helping bridge the path from college (and other youth soccer programs) to the pro side. Meila Brewer, who was signed by the KC Current this offseason, is a product of the KC Current II setup from when she was in high school.

What is the Teal Rising Alliance?

The announcement of the Teal Rising Alliance at the end of October marked another development in the pathway, further linking academies from around the region into a Talent ID pipeline for the Current, Current II and HB Køge.

Local academies in that alliance include Alliance FC, Kansas City Athletics, Kansas City Surf, Legends FC and United FC.

Players who come into the professional ecosystem through the alliance have a high likelihood of spending time with KC Current II. From there, if they have earned opportunities at higher levels, contracts with the Current’s first team and HB Køge are possible.

And in some cases, the highly talented prospects may bypass one or two of those levels, or at least travel quickly up the ladder.

A second division in the NWSL?

The NWSL has dragged its feet on creating any sort of second division league, even a “reserve league,” if you will. Racing Louisville has a secondary team, but it competes in the USL W League, which is pre-professional. KC Current II is intended to be a fully professional second team.

The USL Super League, launched in 2024, is listed as a first-division league, which wouldn’t fit a team intended as a “second team.” It also competes directly with the NWSL as a first-division league.

NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said last September that a proposed NWSL second division would not launch in 2026 and that the league’s launch focus is now 2027. That leaves a team like KC Current II a bit in the lurch.

Part of the challenge for Dell will be finding enough competitive matches for the second team.

“We need 30 games for the second team,” Dell said. “Whether that’s bringing teams here to Kansas City, traveling out to play games, we think we can create those 30 matchups.”

Those matchups range from college teams and boys teams to some USL teams and even youth international squads.

The big picture of women’s soccer

The nature of this project itself, being so in flux, means things will likely continue to develop and shift in the coming years. It took nearly 20 years for Major League Soccer to create its own fully fledged academy system that included every team in the league.

And while the NWSL — less than 15 years old — is beginning to build that pro development pathway, the Current is doing what it can to help advance it by leading the way.

Dell said the conversations about much of this stemmed from the phrase: “Let’s do something that’s never been done before.”

“I think that speaks to the ambition of this club, and I guess in some ways, selfishly, my own ambition,” Dell said, “to drive what we’re doing and really change this landscape of women’s soccer, not only in the United States of America but across the entire world.”

Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.

This story was originally published February 4, 2026 at 6:30 AM.