With a landmass similar to the state of Florida, ’small country' Uruguay (pop. 3.5 mil) has won 15 Copa America's (more than any other country), 2 Olympics and 2 FIFA World Cups. Uruguay is coached by Argentinian Leeds United manager 'reject' Marcelo Bielsa, who shouldn’t take it too personal that the English 2nd tier club fired him, because since 2000 Leeds United have had 29 managers and 5 managers in the 5 years since he was fired by the San Francisco 49ers American football team owners.
The USA have more registered players than the entire population of Uruguay. Uruguay has brought us Cavani, Recoba, Suarez, Forlan, Shiaffino, Godin, Poyet, Sosa, Paz and Zidanes favorite player Francescoli, who he named his son after. It’s current players star at PSG, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United and Liverpool (Nunez).
So, what exactly does being a ‘big country’ mean? Small countries (i.e small landmass) who high perform on the global stage often have a one or a few large cities which account for a significant amount of the countries population. A high population density lends to more competition, rather than size of the landmass.
Of the 16 clubs in the Uruguayan 1st Division, 13 of them are from its capital city, Montevideo. Uruguayan youth players play within a short drive, bus ride or walk from the training and match fields in Montevideo so there is little travel and little expense made by parents for their child’s participation in football. There are no 'stay to play' youth showcase tournaments, no exclusive paid youth leagues. Typically top Uruguayan youth players remain in Uruguay and play a few years there before being sold to to a Spanish, Brazilian or Portuguese club and possibly then sold onto a larger Champions League-type club.
With arguably more success than Holland and England why isn't there a Uruguayan ‘way’ our ‘methodology’ especially given we’ve been inundated by numerous other money making methodologies. One must ask why the Croatian, Uruguayan, Egyptian, North Korean, Ghanaian, Japanese, Algerian methodologies haven’t been embraced ;)
In Uruguay there aren't a plethora of consumer products or services designed to get parents to spend significant sums on things that young players dont essentially need to become a top player. You wont find GPS tracking devices, wearables, or coaches discussing systems of play or find top class academy facilities or brand new stadiums. The kids don't have phones or compare and contrast their performance bumpy fields, you wont find them on places being to expensive and unnecessary showcase tournament events where 60% of a parents annual spend in their child’s soccer participation goes towards travel related expenses (flights, hotels, meals, car rentals) or film/camera towers at 10 year old games. You do see a culture of more local training and games, less tactical structure proving that passion and identity develops players, not gimmicks or copying often misguided trending playing style and team based strategies versus individual.
more registered coaches more facilities, more travel to play wont develop a unique playing style. Could the argument be presented that these players be even better if they had access to resources at younger ages as our US players do?
Lets not confuse for a moment that these luxuries and modern accessories aren't available at a Uruguayan pro club because as with all pro clubs they very much are. You just don't see it in youth soccer.
Some US youth clubs have bigger budgets than the entire Uruguay Football Federation. The objective is for players to get seen or recognized by their local pro club. Should leagues and clubs and colleges who recruit throughout the country not be doing more to help reduce costs and should parents be trying to find more local solutions to playing and training?
“The fields are so bad, but we don’t care. All the time you have people all over you. Always aggressive. Sometimes it’s not fun to watch-it’s like war. If you can play in Uruguay, you can play anywhere"
Gary Ireland. July 2024
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Article on Uruguayan Soccer:
The rise and fall of football culture and national identity in Uruguay- Giulianotti
The structure of competitive soccer in Uruguay-from grass roots to the World Cup https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Richard_Giulianotti/publication/233301503_Built_by_the_two_Varelas_The_rise_and_fall_of_football_culture_and_national_identity_in_Uruguay/links/53f8a6020cf24ddba7db4711/Built-by-the-two-Varelas-The-rise-and-fall-of-football-culture-and-national-identity-in-Uruguay.pdf
The Next Luis Suárez. ‘Baby Futbol' in Uruguay
https://www.goal-click.com/2016/01/17/uruguay/
Wall Street Journal: 'Uruguay: Soccer’s Dead Poets Society'
https://www.wsj.com/articles/uruguay-soccers-dead-poets-society-1530264601
https://sports.yahoo.com/bielsa-berates-current-state-modern-131900804.html?fr=yhssrp_catchall