The Evolution of US Soccer; how player race and background has changed over the years

Although the United States had qualified for the 1990 in Italy the beginning of the Modern Era in US soccer began on June 18, 1994. When Alexi Lalas and his ginger beard led the denim clad Americans out on the field for a 1-1 draw, a revolution began. The 1990 team featured players still in college and many playing for semi-pro teams. In 1994, over half the team had been playing together for the US Soccer Federation leading up to the cup and zero college kids. That is not the dynamic shift that needs to be talked about. That team that found a way to qualify for the round of 16 featured 7 foreign born players, was 90% white, and whose hometowns had an average median income of $74,737. Jurgen Klinsman’s use of players whose fathers were in the military and had children with Europeans isn’t exactly new to American soccer; 2 players on that 1994 team were born that exact way.

Since that 1994 World Cup the United States Soccer Team has seen a drastic change in who makes up the team. Not only has the team become much more diverse in terms of ethnicities of the players but it also brings in players from parts of the countries that were completely ignored in 1990. As you will see, not only has the level of American soccer improved, but so has their utilization of American citizens. Those latter probably has a lot to do with the first.

Where The Players are From

The usage of foreign players by the United States is an interesting story, in 1994 and 1998, managed by Yugoslavian Bora Milutinovic and American Steve Sampson respectively, the US brought 7 players born outside of the United States. This can be chalked up to the fact that American soccer was very weak at the time and to fill out the roster they needed to find anyone they could to play for the stars and stripes. Bruce Arena managed the United States for the 2002 and 2006 World Cups. When the US made an incredible run to the quarterfinals in 2002 they brought 5 foreign players, 3 of whom had been to the 1998 World Cup. After 2002 however there seemed to be a revolt against foreign players as Bruce Arena announced that Pablo Mastroeni would be the only foreign born player in the 2006 squad. The 2010 team managed by Bob Bradley again only included foreign player, Benny Feilhaber, who was born in Brazil but who grew up in Scarsdale, New York (median income of over $200,000), was not exactly your typical immigrant.

When Jurgen Klinsmann took over the team in 2011 following the US’s embarrassing loss to Mexico in the ’11 Gold Cup Final, he made it a point to find as many players as possible who held US Citizenship. When the US took off for Brazil over a quarter of the team (6 players) was born somewhere other than the United States and many more had parents who were immigrants. This was the highest percentage since the 1998 World Cup.

The book Soccernomics explored how England rejected middle and upper class players from their squads. Only 5 of 34 players that the authors were able to establish an occupation for their fathers from the 1998, 2002, and 2006 World Cups came from middle or upper-middle class families. Soccer in the United States actually tells the complete opposite story as only 1 player on the 1994 roster came from a hometown that had a median income below the national average. That one player was Mike Sorber from St. Louis, Missouri, who went to a catholic high school and then went to private St. Louis University when soccer scholarships were not abundant, so he probably was not very lower class.

As the years went on more and more middle class players were included on the national team but it was not until 2006 that there were players who came from “poor” cities on the team. Both Eddie Johnson and Clint Dempsey come from towns with a median income below $28,000. The inclusion of poorer players caused the average median income for the players to drop below $65,000 for the 2006 and 2014 World Cups. The 2010 team had an average median income of $72,000 but if you would exclude Feilhaber, who as mentioned earlier came from a very ritzy neighborhood, the average also drops below $65,000. This is a stark contrast to the second and third world cup teams of the 90s, who averaged $75,737 in 1994 and $77,561 in 1998.

Who the Players Are

72.4% White

16.4% Hispanic

8.7% White Hispanic

12.2% non-Hispanic Black

Those are the demographics of the United States. The closest the US national team has ever come to representing the actual number of whites in this country was 2006 when 66.6% of the team was white. The 2010 team was exactly half white and both the 2014 World Cup squad and the squads for the first three post world cup have had more minorities than whites.

When the US took the field for the 1994 World Cup Cobi Jones was the only black member of the team. The other nonwhite member of the team was Earnie Stewart, who had one black parent and one white parent. Everyone else on the team was white. 5 members of the team were white Hispanics but the first appearance of someone with indigenous blood did not occur until 2002 when Pablo Mastroeni appeared on the World Cup roster. All indigenous players for the US had come from a Latin American Country until 2014, when Deandre Yedlin (who is a mix of Latvian, Black, and Native American) impressed the world with his performance in Brazil which led to a contract with Tottenham.