The perfect footballer is not a body type, but a set of skills. He may rely on strength, but it's not crucial to his success. He may be fast, but that's not what makes him great. He doesn't have to be particularly tall, though height too could be an asset.
Simply put, the athletic ability it takes to be a world-class soccer player is not dependent on size or measurable attributes that most would call extraordinary; some of the greatest players the world has ever seen could be fairly termed "tiny", "small", or "compact", and did not possess any talents traditionally accepted as characteristics of great athletes, at least as they are viewed in the culture of sports-obsessed America.
American athletes have evolved into pure specimens of physical prowess thanks in part to the games we play. Basketball rewards height and jumping ability, while American football at its highest levels values size to a exclusionary degree. Baseball was the lone holdout for decades, giving smaller men the chance to reach the pinnacle of the game in large numbers; but this too has changed, and the advent of workout regimens, supplements (both legal and illegal) and increased valuation of the homerun has given us a game full of supermen, even at positions traditionally reserved for a slighter stock of player.
What this means for soccer in this country is difficult to pin down, though there has certainly been a greater emphasis placed on strength, something often commiserate with size, than in other parts of the world. Lionel Messi emerged from Argentina and landed in Barcelona's academy despite a condition which would have kept him well below average height without medical treatment; to the benefit of the football world, the Spanish giants saw raw talent in the young player and paid for that treatment. With the reliance on size and strength in this country, it's unlikely an American player in Messi's situation would have been given the same chance. Even now, Messi is still slight by American standards, and though his overwhelming talent probably would have gotten him noticed, he might have found it harder to grow up in a system that fails to reward the talents he possesses because of an over-reliance on our traditional athletic ideals.
And that is to say nothing of the potential slowing of his development if a lack of size prevented American coaches from giving him an opportunity; there may not be a Messi in the American youth soccer system, but there could be very good young players being passed over because they fail the dreaded "eyeball test."
Our cultural mentality, perhaps subconsciously and despite our knowing better, often affects our perceptions of who is, and is not, a good American player. Oguchi Onyewu is talented, and might have become so even had he not grown into a large, physically imposing defender. But his size and strength certainly helped, and likely played a role in his being noticed by American coaches. If Onyewu had the same abilities, but was five inches shorter and twenty pounds lighter, would he have been given the chance to shine at Clemson where he proved himself enough to land a job in Europe?
Impossible to know, impossible to say, and perhaps an unfair question in the evolving world of American soccer. Deep seated attitudes take time to change, however, and while there are many examples of small American players "making it", we have to wonder how many talented kids are being passed over and left behind because they aren't big enough, strong enough, or fail to fit into the classic American definition of an athlete.
Part of the beauty of soccer lies in its egalitarian nature; yes, there are leagues where size and strength are assets, and the lack of one or the other can prevent a player from reaching his full potential. But the most skillful, technically gifted, and uniquely cerebral players will always be rewarded by a game that is as much about exploiting the ever-shifting space on the field as it is about muscling aside, out-jumping, or out-sprinting an opponent. Physical prowess will only get you so far in this game.
Between a stronger connection to the outside world, more integration of the American soccer culture in its varied flavors, and the focus of Claudio Reyna on teaching coaches at the youngest levels to rely on skill and technique rather than pure physical ability, maybe the tide is turning.
Only time will tell. Americans love their athletes big, strong, fast, and dominant. Can soccer break away from a mindset that might be holding it back?
