Latinos offer three unique ingredients: 1. Latino kids have superior ball skills and are more comfortable in tight spaces. That seems to be taken as gospel now by the soccer cognoscenti. 2. Latino kids “need” the game to bring them opportunity. 3. Those same kids often play — are even given no option but to play — “unstructured” soccer where they develop a confidence and style that elevates their game — much like African-American kids playing on inner-city blacktops changed basketball and the NBA.
The Latino skill and hunger combined with the athleticism and power of the traditional Anglo affiliated and college player blended by a special national team coach is the recipe we should be after.
– Brad Rothenberg on the value of Latino talent in the U.S. (via Soccer America)
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If we assume that Rothenberg’s characterization of Latino players is correct, why are Latino kids blessed with superior ball skills and more comfortable in tight spaces? The broad diversity of hues and hairs within the Latino community suggests that it has nothing to do with DNA. So if nothing intrinsically makes a player great from birth, what is it about our method of development in the United States that supposedly creates definable skill sets compartmentalized by ethnicity or race?
Perhaps it has more to do with our regimented way of thinking than it has to do with ethnicity or race. (more…)
