New documentary series offers glimpse inside Sporting Kansas City’s soccer academy
Staring down the black lens of a large camera, Gage Akalu answered questions about his childhood.
About growing up in Ethiopia and creating soccer balls out of everyday items such as leaf-filled socks or rubber bands. About moving to the United States as an 8-year-old and a world of opportunity opening up before him.
But that part of life is behind him.
Now, the 15-year-old is one of Sporting Kansas City’s hottest academy products and as such is growing accustomed to media following his every move on the soccer field or delving into his past.
“It’s a very new thing for me,” Akalu told The Star this week, “because I’ve never had it happen to me.”
Akalu isn’t the only youth prospect in the Sporting KC academy system who is garnering attention, but he’s the focus of the first episode of an upcoming documentary series entitled, “The Academy.”
Debuting on Bleacher Report Wednesday at 10 a.m. Central Time, The Academy is a five-episode look at Sporting KC’s developmental academy, which was honored as the MLS Academy of the Year in 2018.
“It’s all on our academy, so they’ll do features on a couple of different players,” Sporting KC academy director Jon Parry said said of the series. “They’ll come in and watch our training now that we’re up and running. Obviously it’s been postponed a little bit because of (COVID-19).”
“So like on the first episode, I saw the first one and bits and pieces of it, and it’s just how we’re working with the kids through the pandemic and all that,” Parry explained. “Just kind of an in-depth look at it.”
About the academy
It should come as no surprise that Audi is making production of The Academy possible.
The German automobile manufacturer has spurred development of MLS’s academies in recent years, primarily through its Audi Goals Drive Progress initiative. Audi donates $500 to MLS academies for every goal scored during the regular season. That figure is $2,000 per goal in the playoffs, and $10,000 for every goal scored during the MLS Cup.
As of April 2020, Audi has committed more than $1 million toward MLS academies across North America.
“I think that (Audi) should also take a lot of credit in the fact that they’re not just sponsoring our league with just money,” Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes told The Star. “They’re actually dedicating their financial resources to an area that they think is very important, which is the pro player pathway.”
“Whether that’s coaches, or fields, or classrooms, drivers to help the kids get to and from school or tutor, there are just so many different levels that you could take it as.”
The five-part series offers a look at Sporting KC’s tactical meetings, closed training sessions and COVID-19 measures around the academy.
“This is the first look that any fans will have at one of the most respected soccer academies in the U.S. and a chance to catch a glimpse of who could be tomorrow’s greatest stars,” said Raphael Poplock, senior vice president of new business development at Bleacher Report.
The series will feature the familiar faces of Vermes and homegrown player Gianluca Busio, who joined the Sporting KC academy in 2016. But there will also be appearances from the next generation of Kansas City stars, including Akalu, Nati Clarke, Osvaldo Cisneros and Jake Davis.
Akalu’s story is especially compelling. The young winger moved to the U.S. from Ethiopia at age 8 and immediately began playing competitive youth soccer.
“We talked about how I started playing soccer and how it changed my life,” he said. “I used to live in Ethiopia and we didn’t really play soccer that much. There’s soccer, but we didn’t have a soccer ball or anything, so we had to make our own soccer ball. When I came here, it was like a whole different world.”
Akalu was scouted by the Sporting academy while he was playing for Soccer Nation, a Kansas City-based youth club. He now plays up for the under-17 team and has featured for the U.S. Boys’ U-15 National Team.
“We have a lot of high hopes for Gage, but he’s a great kid, always smiling,” Parry said. “The biggest thing for me with Gage on the field is his consistency. He’s got the ability to take games over, and we’d like to see him do more of that and really just dominate. He’s a good kid too, great kid.”
Pro player pathway
Akalu’s introduction and rise through the Sporting KC academy highlights another facet of the system that The Academy will highlight: the pro player pathway that Vermes spoke of earlier.
The pro player pathway is Sporting KC’s system to start preparing players as young as 12 to play “the Sporting Kansas City way.”
From Sporting KC senior team and Sporting Kansas City II all the way down to the under-12s, every team in the organization plays the exact same style of soccer — the well-known 4-3-3.
Teaching players how to play the Sporting Kansas City way at such a young age prepares them to eventually compete at the highest youth levels, and potentially one day make the jump to SKC II and perhaps MLS.
“I really feel like the pathway is very clear,” Parry said, “and we want to just keep getting more kids into the B-team and then hopefully matriculating into the first team.”
One player who has experienced the pro player pathway fully is U-15 player Ryan Reid. A Kansas City native, he joined the Sporting KC academy at age 12 and has advanced upward through its ranks ever since.
“I definitely feel like I have a better understanding of it because I’ve played here since U-12,” Reid said. “Because they’re always bringing in players, I know what they’re looking for, so I just see that as another advantage that I have ... I know what they want and how we want to play.”
Sporting KC’s younger players aren’t locked into a single position. For instance, Akalu can play left wing, right wing and attacking midfielder. Competitors who can handle different positions generally share some common traits and training techniques. A center-back, for instance, may utilize the same training methods as a defensive midfielder.
Parry picked up this philosophy during a 22-month coaching course through MLS and the French Football Federation.
“You’re not just looking for a good player, you’re looking for a player that can find success in the way that we want to play and how they would play in our system,” Vermes said. “I think that’s probably more of a reason why, from a recruiting point of view, that we have success.”
The age of COVID
This year, Parry went five months without seeing any of his academy kids in person.
“The one thing we’ve noticed, which is pretty funny, is all of the kids have grown a ton,” he said with a laugh. “You’re looking at kids, and I’m like, ‘Who is that kid?’ I barely even recognize some of them because they’ve changed so much.”
Like Vermes at the MLS level, Parry and his staff have done a lot of coaching from behind a computer screen. The Academy examines how Sporting’s developmental has continued to lead young players during a pandemic.
“It was really difficult in regards to trying to connect with them, and I think our staff was pretty creative,” Parry said. “We’re fortunate to have a head coach for each of our teams. We also have fitness coaches for the academy.”
Like the Sporting KC senior team, Parry and his staff conducted online practice sessions via Zoom. They also sent fitness programs to their players with expectations the players would complete them independently.
If they didn’t, the staff would know when play resumed.
“I liked it because it was saying that Sporting cared about us and they wanted to keep up with us,” Reid said.
Reid said he spent about 20-30 hours a week in training, either on his own or via Zoom.
The fitness programs ranged from 200-yard sprints to 40-minute jogs to imitate game fitness. The Zoom sessions, led by academy technical coach Michel Ribeiro, who’s helped develop Belgian stars Kevin De Bruyne, Thibault Courtois and Yannick Carrasco, focused on technical ability with the ball.
Now, after a five-month layoff, the academy teams have finally returned to in-person practices. Sessions look similar to those held before the pandemic, but players must distance on the sidelines and stay out of the locker rooms.
The academy’s coaches try to adhere to rules set by schools around Kansas City. Players who leave the metro are typically being required by their schools to quarantine for 14 days.
“What we’ve done is all of our kids that are coming back in out of the market, they’ve had to quarantine for two days and have two negative COVID tests,” Parry said. “We’ve gone through all of those protocols, which is difficult.”
Parry is hopeful his team can begin playing other MLS academy teams soon, but those games will be day-trips rather than hotel stays around the country. Games against Colorado teams will be played at Fort Hayes State University, and matches against Texas teams will take place in Tulsa.
Despite all of the difficulties, obstacles and challenges the academy has faced and will continue to navigate, its young players are excited at the thought of getting back on the field and playing again.
“I just think it’s another setback in people’s careers,” Reid said. “Everybody has a setback in their career, so this would be a setback right now.”
This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "New documentary series offers glimpse inside Sporting Kansas City’s soccer academy."