Christian Pulisic. Keaton Parks. Nick Taitague. Weston McKennie. Chris Richards. Josh Sargent. Taylor Booth. Chris Gloster. Zyen Jones. Sebastian Soto.



What began as a slow drip now feels like a steady stream of young Americans being snatched up by European teams out of the backyard of Major League Soccer. That many of these players—McKennie, Gloster, Jones, and Soto, to name a few—are leaving for free from MLS academies is a worrisome trend for MLS.



As owners spend millions on academies, and as those expenditures yield too few results, it is becoming more and more urgent for the league to ensure it is monetizing youth development and making it easier for teams to invest in young players.



The sale of a player like Alphonso Davies for a league-record $13 million is proof the academy model can work in MLS. But losing too many products of that investment to Europe, for free, is not sustainable.



“There has got to be a way to justify the...