144 SuperDraft
-- 139
College
-- 3 U.S. U-17 national team
-- 1 NASL
-- 1 League1 Ontario
Less than a quarter of the players selected in the last three SuperDrafts are still in MLS, and that
includes five players who began their careers in the USL.
Almost all the best collegians who have come out of the SuperDraft in recent years weren't Americans: Canadian Cyle Larin
in 2015, Englishman Jack Harrison in 2016 and German Julian Gressel in 2017.
That trend should continue as most of the underclassmen expected to be given Generation adidas
contracts are foreigners.
85 Homegrown
-- 43 Academies
-- 32 College
-- 10 USL second teams
MLS's Homegrown program is less than a
decade old but already it accounts for almost 30 percent of the active players acquired from North American sources (colleges, academies and increasingly USL second teams).
Of the eight
players who played in the USA's 1-1 tie with Portugal in November, the first of the rebuilding era following its elimination from the 2018 World Cup, and began their careers in MLS, six were Homegrown
signings, including young stars Kellyn Acosta and Tyler Adams.
The newest trend is for MLS teams to park academy players on their USL teams and then sign them to first-team
contracts. Adams, for one, started out with Red Bulls II at the age of 16 in 2015.
44 USL
The biggest change in recent years is the number of players whom MLS teams have signed
from the USL, many again from their second teams.
The USL products range from Colorado Rapids keeper Tim Howard first entered MLS with the MetroStars in 1998 from the USISL D-3 Pro
League's North Jersey Imperials to first-year MLS players Luis Felipe and Chris Wehan the San Jose Earthquakes signed from Reno 1868 and Stefano Bonomo and Florian Valot
whom the Red Bulls promoted from their second team.
Many of the players are young foreigners like Nouhou Tolo (Cameroon) and Jordy Delem (Martinique), whom the
Seattle Sounders promoted from S2 and got important contributions from en route to the Western Conference title.
9 NASL
Five of the nine NASL products who migrated to MLS came when Minnesota United and Montreal moved to the league as expansion
franchises. The most recent NASL player who moved to MLS is two-time MVP Stefano Pinho, who signed with Orlando City for the 2018 season.
7 Miscellaneous
-- 3 Undrafted
-- 2 PDL
-- 1 CSL
-- 1 High school
Occasionally, players -- usually goalkeepers -- will go undrafted but
latch on to MLS teams. That's the case with two of the New England keepers, Brad Knighton and Matt Turner.
Foreign
pipeline. Not included here are Americans who began their careers abroad but have returned to MLS. They include the likes of young stars Paul Arriola (D.C. United) and Zack
Steffen (Columbus) and veterans like Lee Nguyen (New England).
Nothing mentioned makes the draft "unimportant". Soccer has more options than other US sports.
College, Academies, Imigrants, Lower divisions..... Actually, under the circumstances/options available. 50% of MLS being drafted is a good number.