Are Americans just naturally late bloomers?

Name the best American soccer player today? Clint Dempsey? Landon Donovan? Altidore is scoring a shedload of goals right now and Tim Howard is still the beast he's always been. Now think about whose widely regarded as the best player on the planet? Messi, Ronadlo, Xavi, Rooney? Think of their ages, all those previously mentioned kids reached 5 star status by the age of 22 or younger. Americans? our stars mostly hit their prime around 25 and older. Look at our past and you'll see Alexi Lalas hit Italy at 24, Claudio Reyna hit his stride around 26 at Rangers and City. Brian McBride was a key part of the US attack into his 30s and probably would have helped our lackluster offense at the 2010 world cup (face it, he could probably do better than 0 goals in 4 matches). Hell, the one position American's have respected history in is goalkeeper. A position that is globally accepted as a late blooming job.

So... our we a nation of Ryan Giggs'

It would appear that way. The American training system through out almost all sports focuses on the high school-college-pro paradigm and it's been like that for generations. It's not mental anymore it's possibly physical now, us red, white and blues peak around 24-25ish. Obviously there are exceptions, but think about them, we almost consider them freaks. Kids like Missy Franklin, Johnny Football, Gabby Douglas... the list of outstanding teens and 20 year olds is actually quite low when you think about it. Infact some sports discourage crazy talent from jumping up too fast. Football requires 3 years of college while basketball demands at least 1 year.

So what now? Do we need to change? Do we need to conform to the world and start developing from age 5 like Brazilians and Italians do? Some would argue we already do with little league and pop warner football but it's really nothing like the structure and academies that the soccer powers implement.

Should America embrace our late blooming status? Should be consider guys like Stuart Holden, Shea, Torres and Williams as only just approaching their prime? Should we just not panic when our 20 years olds aren't leading the their league in goals scored or starting for United or Barcelona?