very long time. You can almost instantly see which players are going to excel and which are going to be pretty good. The kids that love competition, are aggressive and can be coached will rise to the top. My current team is pretty solid, but a couple years ago lost 3 players to premier teams. One was the youngest and smallest kid, but he always works hard. I saw him a year later... doing a bicycle kick in a game (at age 11).

The other kid was just big and athletic for his age. His dad was a tool, but played D1 football. His mom is about 6' tall (and very nice). From season one (9 years old) clubs were contacting him to switch to their club. He wasn't the most talented player, but was fast, aggressive and always near the ball. He was very coachable. He's great now, but when he figures out the skills (football or soccer), he will be next level.

Another good player left our team when his mom moved him to Ecuador to be near his father. We keep in touch. She mentioned that he still loves soccer and plays as much as possible. Because of the affordablity, she hired a private trainer for him as well. The last communication is that he has been invited to play with the Ecuador national youth team (he's 13). He's not big, but his love of soccer helped.

I'm from a family of 5 boys. I was the oldest and pretty good at soccer. I had 3 very intense, aggressive brothers that were able to go further than I did.