If you figure it out , let me know . Today would have been four years <| sep |> Clubs in Europe can only sign players and offer them a professional contract when they turn 16 . Players who belong from other nationalities it ' s 18 . Player in the U 16 levels and below , in the Youth Academy levels don ' t have contracts . They only receive a small training allowance . These players can switch clubs anytime without penalty before they turn professional . Poaching talents is actually a problem among youth clubs academies . Again , system is not perfect and yes , the NCAA is dodgy , but ask people involved in the system if they ' d favor a switch to the European system and I ' d wager most would say ' hell no '. I beg to disagree . The only one opposed to this European style system in the USA are the clubs . Since they ' ll have to offer 18 yr old players in their Reserve BTeam a professional contract and wages . MLS clubs is virtually saving tons of money in wage bills for delegating player development to the NCAA as their farm team . It is exactly for this reason why MLS league levels falls way par below in comparison to European and South American leagues . It ' s actually a running joke today that the MLS is a retirement league for graying European star footballers who are now way past their prime .