By Jason Davis – WASHINGTON DC (Jan 26, 2018) US Soccer Players - Ballou Jean-Yves Tabla is 18 years old. In 2017, he played 21 times for the Montreal Impact and scored twice. Tabla is a native of Cote d’Ivoire but moved to Quebec as a child and played in the Montreal Impact academy system. Montreal signed him as an MLS homegrown player in 2016.

On Thursday, MLS sold Tabla to FC Barcelona for an undisclosed fee. Tabla will join Barcelona B in Spain’s Segunda Division on a three-year contract. Reports out of Spain say that the club has placed significant buyout fees on Tabla. Likely a matter of course, those clauses at least indicate the Spanish giant sees potential in Tabla.

Without getting too far ahead of ourselves, Tabla’s sale to Barcelona is significant. The MLS academy initiative is into its second decade. While a handful of players have arrived at the senior level and made a mark, it is still in the early days of producing players who merit attention from big clubs abroad. Weston McKennie has broken through at Schalke after coming out of the FC Dallas program, but it’s important to note that FC Dallas did not benefit from McKennie’s success.

Crucially, Schalke paid nothing for McKennie. Barcelona is paying for Tabla. We don't know, but it’s reasonable to imagine the transfer fee hit seven figures. That represents a step along the path to maturation for MLS academies, MLS as a development league. There’s a chance that Tabla is just the front end of a wave that will create a new market for MLS academy-bred talent. It only makes sense that as academies grow and refine their approach, it will draw the interest of the world's major clubs. We all know that means Europe.

The economics of modern soccer push the best and brightest to Europe, no matter where the players originate. Clubs like Barcelona have far-reaching scouting networks they can leverage with immense resources. Exploiting overlooked or under-developed regions is a smart way to acquire talent to later flip in the transfer market. Barcelona no doubt hopes that Tabla turns into a top class player that will one day suit up in a Clasico at the Camp Nou, but they’re not exactly counting on it. The outlay to sign him is small enough, and the number of players they are developing in their system at any given time is high enough, that their risk is limited.

We’ve established that Tabla’s signing is a bigger deal for MLS than it is for Barcelona. In part, that’s because of the potential for a market to develop for MLS academy products. MLS teams have a higher incentive to sell homegrown players under current rules, and the value of players coming out of MLS is still low. Barcelona gets a deal on Tabla because Tabla’s only record comes from playing in MLS, a league held in only moderate esteem by the rest of the soccer world.

Tabla’s sale probably doesn’t happen without the perception of MLS improving in recent years. That helps lift the price the Impact required to let him go. What’s worth pondering is how an improving MLS changes those prices. There’s not enough to go on at the moment, but any developing market for MLS is dependent on the value clubs get out of the players they buy. If Tabla goes on to climb the ranks at Barcelona and somehow make his way into one of the most celebrated sides in the world, he’ll drag up prices on MLS-developed players.

If Tabla can’t crack the first team in Catalonia, he could still give Barcelona a return on their investment and increase demand for MLS academy players. As demand rises, so will prices. MLS will benefit, though it will have to dramatically improve quality relative to the top tier competitions in Europe to keep up demand for young players. The more expensive MLS players become, the fewer clubs can engage in the market.

All of this is simple economics, but it’s simple economics affecting MLS in serious ways for the first time. Selling players with proven senior level track records is not yet a common occurrence for MLS, but the winds are blowing in that direction. When clubs like Atlanta are investing $15 million on a single Argentine teenager, it indicates MLS is rapidly moving toward engaging fully with the buy/sell dynamic most of the soccer world is already engaged in. Navigating the transfer market can be tricky. However, if MLS wants to shake its status as a strange outlier among the world’s soccer leagues, it must figure out how to use it to drive more revenue into the league.

Because MLS chooses not to follow FIFA guidelines on solidarity payments and training compensation, clubs have few protections against its academy players leaving for free when they reach 18. McKennie is an example of a player coming through an MLS system only to leave for a more prestigious club in Europe rather than sign for the team that helped develop him. Until that situation changes either by choice or because of legal action, the league’s best option is to sign young players to homegrown contracts, give them playing time, and drive up interest.

Anything else is self-sabotage. Ballou Tabla’s destination matters less than the impact he can have on the market for young MLS players. He's now the example for MLS teams to maximize their academy investments.

Jason Davis is the founder of MatchFitUSA.com and the host of The United States of Soccer on SiriusXM. Contact him: matchfitusa@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter:http://twitter.com/davisjsn.

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