Why the USA? (US Soccer Scholarships)

Carrie Dunn weighs the attractions of a United States college scholarship against staying in the UK to study and play. She traces the tradition from Kelly Smith and Rachel Brown around the turn of the millennium through Demi Stokes, who took a four-year scholarship at the University of South Florida in 2011, to Lucy Bronze, who spent a year in North Carolina before returning to Leeds Metropolitan to balance her degree with England Under-19 camps. Jon Maloney of Sports Recruiting USA, who runs trial events every four to six weeks, argues the American college game is like being professional while leaving players with a degree to fall back on, and cites Leah Galton, now an ambassador, as an example who overcame early homesickness. The piece also covers The FA’s eight new High Performance Football Centres and Derby’s scholarship route.