re: Its nice to see more African Americans playing Youth Soccer

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Right, but still, the majority of their international success has come with this generation only. If you consider success being actually winning trophies. Of course, they have consistently put out great players.

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But Spanish football was not based upon this premise previously, in spite of having isolated great footballers.

The ball has always been treated with reverence in Spain, but pure athleticism and size, were of a much higher qualification. There have been myriad maestros lost in the previous configuration, myriad. In fact, that was the problem with Spain, as some were irrefutable for some reason, and others not. Always, on subjective criteria. Luís Aragonés did a lot of good for the country´s footballing scene. Albeit, he did it based upon what he had in his hands (not designating from base what need be done).

In the North, I can say, people are still looking for size and strength, but technical ability is more important than ever. On the Mediterranean side and the South, it´s really a great concern with technical capacity.

In short, and simplifying tremendously:

North. Big, fast, can he play? Find the most technically proficient.

Mediterranean and South. Technical, OK. Let´s see who´s the fastest and the biggest.

Very generalist, as the technical capacity required is probably of a higher level than in other countries (not that Spain is better than others, but Spain looks for technical proficiency as a base, as opposed to athletic capacity in general).