Landon Donovan explains where the USA is letting kids down and is failing in soccer

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The United States may dominate when it comes to the NBA, NFL and other sports, but they are nowhere near the best at soccer.

This was very apparent during the 2026 World Cup when they were beaten 4-1 by a Belgian team that has declined in quality over the last several years.

Now, former USMNT star Landon Donovan has suggested that the problem stems from soccer in the US not being affordable to children who come from lower-income households.

Some American kids are being priced out of playing soccer

In an interview with The Late Run, the former Everton player highlighted the cost of playing club soccer as a kid, mentioning that just 2% of those taking part were from households earning less than $50,000-a-year.

This system, he believes, means the USA are missing out on a lot of potential players.

Donovan explained: “Only 2% of kids who were playing organised soccer in America came from households that made less than $50,000, meaning if you don’t make $50,000, your kid cannot play organised soccer and think about how many kids you’re missing out on, in this country because they can’t afford to play the game.

“Now, this is the other thing. Somebody has to pay for it. Someone has to pay for the coaches. I get it. But what’s happening now is clubs are just grinding every penny out of every, and there, growing up, there is zero chance I could have played club soccer. My mom made $34,000 a year, single mom raising three kids.

She couldn’t pay $4,000 for me to play club soccer. Are you kidding? She couldn’t pay $400. So, I would have had zero chance, but somebody let me on the team and paid for me. Otherwise, I couldn’t have. That’s not a good system to create good players. How do you create good players by doing that? You can’t.”

A separate report previously mentioned how ‘elite club fees now reaching $10,000-$20,000 annually’ in America, which further highlights the former player’s point about the sport being expensive in the USA.

That is not typically something kids around Europe and South America have to contend with, which may explain why nations from those continents generally perform better than the USMNT.

It may also have something to do with soccer not being the number one sport in America. But development starts at youth level, and if many families are being priced out of competing, there will be a smaller talent pool to pick from when it comes to creating the next generation of stars.