Soccer: 6.5 million kids and growing

On a perfect fall day, Christian Felix trots across a trimmed green soccer field along Chicago's lakefront. He takes a pass, sees an opening and shoots a goal for his high school varsity team.

It's a familiar scene: The air is getting cooler, schools are back in session and soccer season is under way. Dozens of recreational, high school and grade school teams descend on fields in the city and suburbs for practices, scrimmages and games.

By all accounts, soccer is more popular than ever among U.S. children. In 2006, more than 6.5 million children between the ages of 6 and 17 played the sport regularly. And more than 87,000 kids play soccer in Illinois.

And the recent recruitment of professional superstars from other countries to U.S. professional teams could bring even more buzz to the sport.

Great Britain's David Beckham -- also famous for the film "Bend It Like Beckham" and his marriage to Victoria Beckham, aka "Posh Spice" -- took a $6.5 million contract this year to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy.

The Chicago Fire signed Mexican superstar Cuauhtémoc Blanco in July. And Juan Pablo Angel joined the New York Red Bulls from Colombia in April and is now one of Major League Soccer's top scorers.

"When you have players like David Beckham who are playing professionally in the U.S., it gives young players something to look up to, something to admire," said U.S. men's national soccer team spokesman Michael Kammarman.

Christian, 15, readily ticks off a list of his favorite professional soccer players.

"Cristiano Ronaldo, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Ronaldinho," said the sophomore at Noble Street College Prep in Chicago.

But whether such star power inspires more youth soccer players -- or simply boosts the profile of Major League Soccer -- is yet to be determined. Youth soccer has gained steadily in popularity despite soccer's lightweight status in the clubhouse of American sports.

Since the mid-1990s, the number of players in the Illinois Youth Soccer Association has soared from 17,000 to more than 87,000, said association Eecutive Drector Mary Jane Bender. About 80 percent of players are from Chicago and the suburbs.

Some of the increase is due to the influx of Latino youth, but it's mostly because the sport has made enormous strides in popularity within the general population, Bender said. Soccer's appeal is that anybody has the potential to shine, she said.

"In soccer you don't need to be of a certain physical size in order to play. There is a different position for everybody on the team," she said.

The soccer association is trying to introduce the sport to low-income children through its "Chicago Pride" initiative, which recruits players through local YMCAs and the Chicago Housing Authority, Bender said.

Soccer is also an increasingly popular sport among girls, said Greg LaCost, president of Mount Prospect's Green White Youth Soccer Club, which numbers about 700 female players.

Girls as old as seventh- and eighth-graders are picking up the sport for the first time because they see their peers having so much fun, he said.

"That just makes my heart flutter," he said.

LaCost became a coach eight years ago when his oldest daughter was in kindergarten. Now his four children, ages 14 to 6, all play soccer.

"My wife and I wanted to figure out what sport would be good for them, and soccer is a good team sport that they could pick up relatively easily," he said. "It teaches self-esteem and confidence and builds physical endurance. There is no sport with more running than soccer."

The link between professional and youth soccer in the U.S. began almost 40 years ago, said Jack Huckel, director of museum and archives at the Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, N.Y.

The North American Soccer League, the first U.S. pro soccer association, was begun in 1968 and ran youth clinics wherever it had teams, Huckel said.

The NASL shuttered in 1984 after financial problems and lack of interest. But Huckel credits it -- and its early soccer stars like Pelé -- for sparking interest in soccer in major American cities.

The 1990s were the golden age of youth soccer, as pro players again began making headlines.

In 1990, the U.S. men's national team qualified for the World Cup for the first time in more than 40 years. The next year the U.S. women's team won the World Cup -- a feat it equaled in 1999. And in 1994, the U.S. hosted the men's World Cup.

Meanwhile, players whose interest in soccer was sparked in the 1960s and '70s grew up and started coaching kids, passing on their interest.

"I know when I started playing -- we're going back 40 years -- my friends looked at me like I was a freak. 'Why would you want to play that game? No one knows anything about it, nobody plays it,' " said Rick Davis, executive director of the L.A.-based American Youth Soccer Organization and a former professional player for the now-defunct New York Cosmos. "Now it's (one of) the largest youth team-participation sports in America."

AYSO membership has grown as much as 5 percent a year, to 620,000 players across the country in the past 15 years, Davis said. Another major youth soccer group, the United States Youth Soccer Association, has grown from 1.6 million members in 1990 to more than 3 million today, spokesman Todd Roby said.

The proliferation of rigorous youth clubs and travel leagues also has made soccer a more serious sport among kids than ever.

Christian is about as serious of a soccer player as one can get at age 15. He started playing with friends when he was 4, then joined local recreational leagues. When he was 10, his coach signed him up for a travel team.

In high school, he joined the varsity soccer team. Now when he is not playing for school, he is on the road with his travel team. Soccer has taken him to Atlanta, Ga., Nashville, Tenn. -- even to Mexico to play in tournaments.

He studies professional players and their techniques on TV.

"I don't just watch soccer for fun. I play, I see how they rotate," Christian said.

He says he's setting his sights on professional soccer: "After college, then I'll see if I can try out for a professional team."

Reflejos Staff Writer Elena Ferrarin contributed to this report