The people who say Messi isn't a great athlete are just as ridiculous as the people who say we need better athletes to play soccer in the US.

Dude ran as fast while he dribbled as All Pro RB and college 10.2 100m dash runner Jamaa Charles ran

That said the people who say America needs more good athletes playing soccer in the US just don't have a clue how athletic our current soccer players are https://twitter.com/THEChrisKessell/status/1082285049469382659?s=19

I said this about how athletic the youth soccer players were at a giant mega tournament I went to a few years ago...

https://prorelforusa.blogspot.com/2017/10/my-first-mega-tournament-experience.html?m=1

The problem isn't that we need more great athletes playing... we need more great players.

We need to start asking some DIFFERENT questions about "great athletes" and soccer in the US.

1. Why are our currently playing great athletes not becoming great players?

2. Are we missing great players in our system?

3. How do we cast a wider net to catch more good/great players?

4. How do we change the incentives of clubs toward player development?

5. How do we change the structural and engrained cultural issues that are locking out large segments of our nation from participation in the game as it is ran now?

Now for some tougher questions...

6. Are current stakeholders willing to actively court new participant communities and risk their currently dominant position in the structure?

7. Are current stakeholders willing to change structural issues that we KNOW decrease competition at the risk of their businesses?

8. How many people in leadership are happy to shoehorn some participants in to the current system for their own benefit but not willing to include entire Black and Latin communities as equals in a reformed system?

9. How much of this "best athlete" talk is just code for "how can we get more Black and Latin kids to play in a system that benefits us"?

I'm sure y'all are smart and can come up with other questions around this phrase if we think deeper than "we need more fast kids"