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From controversial red cards and sweltering heat to dramatic penalty-kick shoot-outs and stunning upsets, the FIFA World Cup 2026 produced plenty to talk about — including the fact that the five-and-a-half-week tournament has given youth soccer a swift kick in at least one of its three co-host nations.
“Youth soccer programs across the U.S. are reporting a clear bump in interest, registrations and visibility,” the popular website US Soccer Parent declared during the tournament. “Kids are not just watching the tournament on TV — they are seeing it spill into their schools, parks and neighborhood clubs. From free clinics in Miami to surprise World Cup tickets for a Queens school team and booming participation in Chicago and smaller markets, the tournament is acting as a real‑time accelerator for the American youth game. The next test will be whether that surge survives once the World Cup leaves town.”
Indeed, Kaina Tavonatti, a coach in the SAY Northern Soccer League based in Kingsford, Mich., told a news outlet in Michigan’s Upper Peninsulathat he was using some of the player skills on display during the World Cup to teach his own players.
“There’s a lot of concepts you try to get across as a coach that are hard to show on a whiteboard, but when you can see it from a bird’s-eye view, things click in,” he said. “Not everyone is going to watch the World Cup, but the ones that want to get better tend to.”
Of course, the exit of the U.S Men’s National Team in the Round of 16 put a damper on some of the newfound enthusiasm for the sport — and also prompted some observers to renew the debate surrounding the (increasingly expensive) evolution of the game in the United States.
“If soccer costs money, millions of kids can’t afford to play it,” wrote The Athletic’s senior soccer writer Henry Bushnell after Team USA fell to Belgium, 4-1, on July 6. “In addition to being unfair on an individual level, the cost restricts the pool of talent available to U.S. national teams. A country of 340 million people becomes, in soccer terms, a country of much fewer. Many of the supposed advantages associated with a large population simply don’t apply.”
Bushnell explained that U.S. youth soccer’s “pay-to-play” system is only partially to blame. Families “pay hundreds of dollars annually for their 6-year-old to play recreational soccer; thousands of dollars for their 12-year-old to play competitive ‘travel soccer;’ and in some extreme cases tens of thousands of dollars for their teenager to play for an elite club, perhaps to pursue a professional career or college scholarship.”
Often, he added, a club’s main incentive is to win. “That desire to simply win clashes with individual player development — which is why some countries, such as Norway, a nation of 5.6 million people [that saw its national team make the World Cup quarterfinals], effectively ban league tables and championships until a kid reaches adolescence,” Bushnell wrote.
Landon Donovan, a former pro player, longtime UNMNT member (2000 to 2014) and widely regarded as one of the greatest soccer players in U.S. history, won’t argue that point. He told Front Office Sports that parents — before launching their kids into the sport — should make sure they “love the sport first and foremost. And then make sure they’re getting better. Throw the winning — throw all that crap out the window. When they get older, yes, I agree. But these are 8-year-olds, 10-year-olds, 6-year-olds. We need to stop; it’s not worth it.”
According to Project Play, an initiative of The Aspen Institute, the average U.S. sports family spent $1,016 on their child’s primary sport in 2024, a 46% increase since 2019, according its latest parent survey in partnership with Utah State University and Louisiana Tech University. Baseball remains the most expensive sport among the three most-played ones — soccer and basketball are the other two — with families spending an average of 1,113 per year on registration, travel/lodging, lessons/instructions and camps in 2024. Soccer comes in second, at an average family spend of $910 per year.
Costs aside, there are ways to maintain the momentum generated by a memorable World Cup. US Soccer Parent offers five realistic strategies:
- Lock in routines now.
Parents and coaches can turn short‑term excitement into long‑term habit by establishing weekly play times, from formal practices to informal pickup games with friends.
- Give kids an immediate next step.
Clubs that offer post‑World‑Cup open houses, free “try soccer” days or rolling evaluations will be better positioned to capture new interest instead of losing families to long registration gaps.
- Keep referencing World Cup moments in training.
Coaches can use clips, stories and examples from the tournament in practice plans, so the magic of the World Cup continues to fuel learning and engagement.
- Sustain partnerships, not just events.
The organizations helping deliver clinics, tickets and mini‑pitches around World Cup 26 can remain long‑term allies if clubs stay in touch and look for ongoing funding, scholarships and programming support.
- Protect what’s growing.
As numbers grow, safeguarding and player‑first culture become even more important. Strong policies and youth voice will help ensure that this boom is healthy, not just bigger.
As Project Play Executive Director Tom Farrey told The Athletic: “There’s nothing wrong with paying to play. People are providing a service, and we want coaches to have background checks and (be) trained and provide a good experience to kids. People should be writing checks, there’s value there. … There’s nothing wrong with having a capitalist model. But it has to be aligned with the literature around talent development and child development. Otherwise we’re going to continue to wring more and more money out of families and continue to see poor results.”
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