October 29: Nevada Pierre’s career has taken a turn for the better. A week after being pulled from a youth league in Florida, the three-year-old has been offered a place in the academy of former US Men’s National Team striker Eddie Johnson.
Johnson, who played in Major League Soccer and the English Premier League and now runs the EJE7 Soccer Academy in Orlando, announced the offer on Instagram, saying the incident reflected deeper problems in American youth soccer.
“His plight has shed light on many of the things that still exist in youth football in this country,” Johnson wrote. “Entitlement, jealousy, envy, nepotism, surveillance and profiling especially against people of color.”
Last weekend, an organizer at i9 Sports in Winter Park called the police to remove the family from Nevada, alleging the boy had been pushing other children. His parents, Martasia Griffin and Don Pierre, told officers the real problem was that he was too good. His video shows Nevada dribbling past opponents and scoring repeatedly, with no visible contact.
i9 Sports has already reported. “This call was unrelated to the child,” the company told ESPN. “A league official called police to report a disturbance between adults during the game and to help de-escalate it. The official described the parents as disruptive. We do not have video of the altercation itself.”
He added that the family received a refund and that “the league asked the adults involved not to continue as participants in the program.” Police said no one was arrested or forced to leave.
The twist is that the Nevada family had already approached Johnson’s academy a year ago. Johnson said he told them the boy, then two years old, was too young and should first gain experience in the local leagues.
The local league experience has not gone entirely to plan. Johnson, who scored 12 goals for the USMNT, now seems poised to make an exception.
At this rate, Nevada may need an agent before it needs a booster seat.
Contact the writer of this story, Nick Webster. At (email protected)
