The fanfare surrounding Jordan Morris’s decision to sign with the Sounders was visible from space (probably).

Think what you will of how it was handled, but the Morris deal kicked the Homegrown initiative into a new stratosphere. Oh, young players will still sign (at times) anonymously, and the flame-out rate will still hover somewhere between 60-70 percent, but Morris gave it more cachet than it’s ever had. If you don’t think young players find value in the spectacle, visit a couple high school gyms on college football signing day and see what happens.

Today, we split our focus to the past, present and future. We’ll look at the top five Homegrown prospects, and our caveat is they can’t have yet played for the first team. And then we’ll move to the top five of all time, a list on which I have omitted Morris for the sake of our sanity.

Here we go.

Top Five Prospects

5. Christian Lucatero, Houston Dynamo

Comparatively speaking, Lucatero’s signing was perhaps a bit more quiet on the HG spectrum. Houston does not have a particularly strong track record signing or developing HGs, and Lucatero has been criminally underrated by the wider zeitgeist. The fact that he sloughed off a college scholly to Oregon State maybe didn’t help the optics. But he’s the real deal, and Houston is getting one of the most exciting attacking players to ever come through the Development Academy.

Houston’s foundation of a USL side should help Lucatero ease into MLS, which is critical considering he likely projects as either a second forward or a central attacking midfielder – two positions that beg for cultivation. But make no mistake, this is the most talented HG in Houston history, and he could soon challenge FCD’s best for the best HG in Texas history.

4. Tyler Adams, New York Red Bulls

As the youngest player on either of these lists, Adams still has some growing to do. And it isn’t entirely certain where he’ll fit professionally: he came up as a center back, but he’s played fullback on the U.S. YNT level and has mostly played in the defensive midfield for Red Bulls II. That said, he’s excelled at every position.

Adams probably projects as the latter professionally. He’s ascended the ladder at the position since last year and quickly developed his passing ability in the midfield, which was the final chunk of the puzzle. Since his younger years he’s had stopping power, and transitioning that to the midfield, coupled with his ability to dissect a game, makes him one of the most coveted prospects in the pipeline.

3. Derrick Etienne, New York Red Bulls

Players like Etienne come along in America so rarely. The Haitian-American is a virtually balletic on ball, which was why his decision to funnel his college career through Virginia was so interesting. The Cavs play a more crunching, direct style, and Etienne needs a more open system to let his ability breathe. He only scored two goals last season as a freshman, but holy sassy molasses is this something.

And that isn’t the end of it. This! This! Trumpets!

Etienne has silly promise. Don’t squander it, Red Bulls.

2. Marco Bustos, Vancouver Whitecaps

I’m breaking my own rule. This is Marco Bustos we’re talking about and sometimes the stake you plant in the ground should not be moved by your own pedantry. Bustos has only played in one regular season MLS match at the tail end of the 2015 season, so I have no qualms including him in this list. He’s good enough to defy convention.

I’m not 100% certain how Carl Robinson sees Bustos fitting into the side, but his skill set will either lead him to the central attacking midfield or to a wide position. I do not back down from saying he’s in the Mauro Diaz mold, and his vision and skill on ball are both preternatural. If you haven’t watched Bustos play yet, he’s one of those talents who seems to suck the entire focus of the match onto his feet while he’s on possession. The even better news: he’s in Vancouver’s youth-focused system.

1. Jordan Morris, Seattle Sounders

Feel however you want about the way Morris was introduced (OK, the Messi thing might’ve been a bit gratuitous), but he’s the first and only Homegrown in MLS history to have won full national team caps before he was signed. He’s also scored. Against Mexico, dontchaknow. Morris is a bit older than anyone else on this list, so it’s not a huge surprise he lands atop the list, but this one should more or less go without saying.

Top 5 All Time

5. Kellyn Acosta, FC Dallas

The fight for No. 5 was fierce. Acosta essentially held off – with one hand! – Matt Miazga, Juan Agudelo and Gyasi Zardes, all three of whom had legitimate shouts to land on this list. But Acosta’s been on the scene longer than Miazga, and his versatility helps nudge him to No. 5 above the other two, and deservedly so. If Agudelo and Zardes have not hit their ceiling, they are close. Acosta is arguably farther from his.

Acosta came up as a right back, but there’s little question that over the last two years he’s almost certainly developed into a better defensive midfielder, which is a testament to his work ethic. He captained the U20s to one of their best runs in World Cup history (I know he was sent off against Colombia, but we can overlook that today thanks to Zack Steffen), and he’s in a system in Dallas that allows him to grow as a vertical midfielder. All good things.

4. Wil Trapp, Columbus Crew

I’ll fight push-back on this pick, because I genuinely think Trapp is the best defensive midfielder the Homegrown initiative has ever produced. Trapp is not the Makelele Role midfielder who sits and destroys, which I think is primarily why he’s such an interesting case. In the U.S., we’re plenty used to that figure, but we’ve done a more incomplete job of pushing along Pirlo types who prefer to sit deeper and spread the ball.

That’s where Michael Bradley used to be king, before Vanney and Klinsmann had him running all over creation. Thankfully, Gregg Berhalter has allowed Trapp – when he’s healthy – to sit deep and build. Thanks to Opta, we know definitively that Trapp is among the most efficient midfielders in the league. Thanks to our eyeballs, we know he’s one of the best, too.

3. DeAndre Yedlin, Seattle Sounders

Yedlin’s struggles to find consistent playing time in England and his continual deployment as a right midfielder in Jurgen Klinsmann’s system has perhaps guided us to forget how good Yedlin can be when, 1.) he’s in a holistic system that’s engineered at least in part around his overlapping, 2.) he’s actually played at right back. The first is important because teams need to plan around Yedlin’s blinking defensive form. The second is important because he is, in fact, a right back.

This is what Yedlin’s capable of when he’s hit his stride. That is Eden Hazard.

Yedlin might already be robbed of his true fullbacking potential, because he can’t seem to find consistent minutes there since leaving Seattle after the 2014 season. But don’t let that cloud how good Yedlin’s been – and how good he could still be.

2. Bill Hamid, D.C. United

If it seems bizarre D.C. United holds each of the top two spots in this list considering they remain the only MLS club to charge a full price rate for its academy ($2,500 for U14, $1,500 for U16/U18), then yes, in that sense it is a little bizarre. But don’t discount the work the club’s done in finding, developing and pushing along Bill Hamid as probably the best American keeper under the age of 30.

Go watch some of Hamid’s early game tape, and watch him over the last two seasons. He’s a completely different keeper. He’s always had unnatural reflexes, and his goalmouth coverage has always been absurd. But he’s now judging aerial balls well. He’s better weighting when to emerge from his six and when to stay home. He’s organizing his defense more adroitly. All of these things have combined to make Hamid a trendy pick to push the Guzan/Howard diarchy for the starting spot in 2018. Too bad about that injury.

1. Andy Najar, D.C. United

Najar is the first (and only) player in Homegrown initiative history to move onto a Champions League club and then play in the Champions League and then score in the Champions League. Against Arsenal. Who then were rumored to be interested in his services. Heady days in Najarville.

D.C. knew it had something in Najar, who spent two years with the academy after moving to the area at the age of 13. To watch him play, you knew he had Europe in him, so it was a poorly kept secret that the Honduran was moving in that direction already. In essence, Najar is the posterboy for what the DA ultimately hopes is its role in the development space: it took a good player, made him more, paved his way to a Champions League club and put him on the doorstep of the world’s best. The more this happens, the closer the league gets to meeting its ultimate objectives.