Johnny Exantus Expects to be Signed

Red Bull Youth Update

Johnny Exantus, or Johnny X as he is referred to by his peers and those scouring various soccer message boards, has quite the bio for a 17 year old soccer player.

Exantus scored a brace in the Fifa U-17 World Championships against Jamaica at the tender age of fourteen. The legend only grew from there.

His profile only grew in the 2006 Metrostars preseason when Johnny, a member of the Metro's youth academy under Gio Saverse, was invited to train with the first team. Johnny quickly turned the heads of the coaches and players. The word was out that New York had a one of a kind prospect in their camp, but league rules kept NY from signing him. If Johnny signed with MLS he would have been subject to the SuperDraft, putting him up for grabs in a pool of MLS talent sharks.

Everyone questioned why New York could not sign the young phenom, but the rules prohibited it. Don Garber realized this, and invented a rule for cases like Exantus, to be signed straight from the academy to the first team. Problem is the rule would not be in effect for New York until after the 2007 season, about two years since Johnny X first burst onto the MLS radar.

Since then, the team name changed, but Exantus stayed in the youth academy, continuing to impress, even with his now famous profile. In fact, many other players from the youth team have grown up with Exantus, who are now impressing in their own right. Walter Hines and Matt Kassel are others on Red Bull's radar.

The Exantus name jumps off the page the most though, due in part to that now famous preseason where he changed MLS for the better.

When this offseason comes, Red Bull will have their first opportunity to sign players from their top-notch youth system.

From a source close to the player, it has been learned that Johnny "expects to be signed by Red Bull, in November". Now that could just mean that the kid is confident, or that there are some signs. This could be the first of many signings that Red Bull makes from their youth system in the future. The youth academy is the most successful part of the club, and the ability to sign these young, talented, local players who are winning all of these youth tournaments will give Red Bull the advantage it truly deserves from their years of hard work. MLS is growing up.

Red Bull U-16 Team Reps Brand in Spain

Over the past couple weeks, the Red Bull U-16 Youth Academy team was in Spain to compete in the U-17 Quixote tournament, with the likes of Juventus, Sevilla, PSV Eidenhoven, and Barcelona.

The Red Bull team failed to advance out of their group, but earned draws with Partizan Belgrade and Juventus, before bowing out to Sevilla.

Being the elite club academy in America, this was a great way to represent MLS, American soccer, and Red Bull New York in an important international tournament.

Not only does this signify the strength of the academy (even on a international level), but it promotes Red Bull New York well by showing the quality of soccer that is associated with the name, at least at the youth level for now.

Holding their own and being mentioned alongside these famous European clubs proves that Red Bull New York is continuing to grow on a grand stage.

Although we have to focus on the local side of things in the metro area, it is never too early to start the globalization of the club representing one of the most famous cities in the world, while proving the tremendous skill that is being produced at Red Bull New York.

The senior club needs to follow suit though, and my feeling is that sooner, rather than later, that Red Bull will take the safety off and prove (if there was any doubt) that they can run a first class professional soccer club.

RBNY Training Facility in Hannover

RBNY announced this past week that their permanent training facility was too be built in Hanover New Jersey, 17 miles from the construction site of Red Bull Park.

The renderings of the facility reveal a tremendous state of the art soccer facility that will finally give the nomadic club a home.

Read about and take the video tour of the Red Bull's new home here.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to have the club have a permanent training facility, as well as a general home for all operations.

A few interesting quotes and elements from the official site...

"We looked at facilities throughout Europe to get the best model possible, including the one at Austria," de Grandpre said, referring to the Red Bulls' sister club in Salzburg. "In terms of MLS, we think this will be a unique training facility and the best in North America."

And de Grandpre said the New Jersey training facility will be even better than the one in Salzburg because it will be home to all of the New York Red Bulls operations.

"It's much bigger, but all the inside amenities will be similar," he said. "In Salzburg, we don't have the front office, first team and the academy under one roof. Hopefully it gives the academy players an incentive to make a right [into the first team locker room] instead of a left [into the academy teams locker rooms]."

Hearing that this site is going to be better than that of our sister Champions League squad is tremendous. I also agree with the proximity point that de Grandpre makes about the youth academy and the first team. Great stuff.

The location is also what makes this facility perfect for Red Bull New York.

MLS Youth Academy regulations state that an academy's players must be from RBNY's "Home Territory" which would be within 75 miles of the teams training facility.

This from de Grandpre:

"At the end of the day we felt Hanover was the right place to be," he said. "It's easily accessible to highways, there's 74 soccer clubs in Morris County and Harrison is just a 20-minute drive away."

That puts RBNY right in the hotbed of metro area soccer with an abundance of talented youth players to choose from to continue the progress of what is already the best youth academy in MLS.

Check back later for an update on whats going on with Red Bull Park.

Bob Montgomery to be Appointed as Youth Director

Bob Montgomery is going to be named as Red Bull New York's youth director in the coming days.

Montgomery resigned as longtime coach of Adelphi University's soccer team earlier today.

This looks to be the end of a long mess created by the Red Bulls front office at the youth director position.

First came the very controversial firing of former MetroStars legend Giovanni Saverse from the position in March. The removing of Gio from the director position outraged many of the fans who have been with the club from the beginning because the only apparent reason he was fired was because he was not Red Bull blood. He was seemingly a "left-over" from the MetroStars era in the mind of the brass.

Now we don't know if that is the only reason for his firing, but that is what it appeared to the hardcore supporters and did well to taint the front office in their eyes.

The stain on the FO's shirt only grew bigger when they appointed Armen Simoniants to the youth director position, only to learn less than three weeks later that he had lied on his resume. Simoniants was fired on May 22.

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With all of the issues the brass has seemed to have with the youth director position, it seems they have finally got it right. Montgomery knows the area and has been head coach at Adelphi for almost thirty years. Saying this guy knows his youth soccer would be an understatement.

Montgomery will take over the best youth academy in the MLS and will have one of the richest talent pools in the country to choose from.

The fact that starting next year the Red Bulls can bring up players (2) from their youth academy makes this signing even more important towards the future. This has a direct effect on the future of the club. To put it bluntly; that is pretty cool and shows that RBNY and the league as a whole are becoming more sophisticated.