US football scholarships. Anyone with experience?

[beasmithwentworth]

I posted this on chat but then realised that this topic might be better to post on. I don’t know.

My friend isn’t on MN but she’s a good / old friend and I’d like to help her out.I have no knowledge of this topic!
My friend’s son is 17. He’s always been very good at and passionate about football. Plays to a high standard but has not been scouted. He is/ his parents are / in touch with a company that arranges / facilitates football / soccer scholarships at US universities. They are selling him all of the benefits and aiming to get both parents on board too . My friend’s husband seems to be happy to let him to follow his dream. My friend less so for a number of reasons. Ie will it amount to anything? They don’t have loads of money so this would be a huge and potentially risky investment for them.
Will it put him in a better position football wise?
What kind of costs are associated with it?
Also the recruitment company (I work in recruitment myself so I knew they have their own interests) say that he can definitely get a job as long as it’s on campus but surely everyone is after those jobs?
Are these recruitment companies trustworthy about any of this plus is there anything else to consider?
My friend feels as if everyone in her family and wider family are all on board and she is trying to be the voice of reason / be cautious.
Any advice grateful received.

I know two people who’ve got involved with these recruitment companies.

One paid out a load of money (her dm said it was several thousand pounds) her son had some slick photos and promo videos done, but didn’t end up going to the USA (not sure what went wrong, she was posting it all over social media but it just went quiet).

Another also went through one of these companies and her DS is over in the states at a college playing football. He’s over two years in and seems to be enjoying himself but he’s still playing college soccer (are they meant to get scouted for league teams over there or is it the expectation that they’ll come back to the UK and play professionally?)

My info isn’t very insightful I’m afraid.

My DN is in the US in his 4th year playing College Soccer. He’s switched unis a lot to get the best deal/team and has only done his junior and senior year at the same College. I think he did initially go via a scout but then has moved through connections he made.

Obviously I wasn’t intimately involved in the selection process but I know the College teams were actively recruiting kids that had been through the Academy system but then hadn’t got a first team place or found a club. They also needed to have decent GCSEs.

I think my DB would say - be careful. Look hard at the package and ensure it’s a ‘full ride’ ie tuition, accommodation and food, health insurance and possibly even some spending money. DN gets a flight home a year as well.

A friend of mine has a son in the USA. He was a good academy player (not massively big academies, more local ones). He got a fully paid scholarship over in the USA and played football for the college all the way through. He did his masters there, met a girl and now has a job there as the workplace have sponsored his visa. He’s really happy there. My friend is glad he’s so happy but I don’t think she expected him to want to live in the USA for ever which he seems likely to do!