Manchester United has staked their claim to future glory this weekend, signing highly touted soccer phenom Rhain Davis.
This news would likely bring about press in any event, since England is such a futbol-crazed nation and ManU is one of the premier squads in the country, but extra attention is being paid this time, because Rhain Davis is only nine years old.
This is a very interesting situation. The football club is playing it off, talking about how Rhain is now merely a student at their soccer academy, how they sign as many as 40 players Rhain's age every year and then decide on a year-to-year basis whether to bring them back. I have no reason to doubt their motive, it seems genuine enough. The true intrigue lies elsewhere.
The story becomes strange because the only reason the United futbol club was aware of Davis' abilities is that his grandfather had mailed them a DVD highlight reel of his play. Add to that the fact that the very same highlight reel video recently crossed over two million views in only two weeks since its posting on YouTube, and you have a brand new pop-culture star.
This story brings up any number of interesting topics. How young is too young to begin pushing our youth towards potential superstardom and all of the highs (and lows) that accompany it? Is it just a way for parents (and, apparently, grandparents) to assuage their own egos? In viewing the video, he obviously is a talented player, though it has not been explained why Davis has been left to run circles around other kids his age instead of being moved into a more competitive bracket.
Perhaps that's what this move to the academy will be, the leap forward that Rhain could not acquire living in Austrailia. In a few years we could be reading about the "next big thing" for ManU and/or the English national team.
Article comments
1 - travis
that was the stupidest article ever
2 - Christopher Rose
Yeah, it was kinda dumb. The only new angle here is that the video caught the media's attention. Football clubs have been training and educating kids for years now.
3 - nicolas
yes, how foolish of me to do a quick write up on a news article i ran across in an attempt to provide new content for a sports section that looked like it might be slowing to a crawl again. this was simply "here's a news story you might have missed, and here's what i think." this isn't meant to be some scathing expose of ManU (and it obviously isn't).
4 - Dr Dreadful
"How young is too young to begin pushing our youth towards potential superstardom and all of the highs (and lows) that accompany it?"
Manchester United don't care. The boy is their raw material and his talent is an investment.
Nine is positively elderly where these things are concerned. I have no doubt that Man U, and others, have been keeping an eye on Posh 'n' Becks's boys since birth... just in case they inherited their Dad's abilities - or their Mum's.
5 - alessandro
Doesn't he play in Ottawa?
Make it Rhain and make me cry. I had to stop half way into that link showing him in a game. Couldn't take that music. God, where does Man Utd. think they are going? Into Iraq?
Had to take a stab at CR.