Are there any notable countries

Wales? Doing better these days though.

Hungary (They've had 4 good tournaments, but pretty useless otherwise)

ETA: Does Ukraine count?

Portugal is probably on the high side of "historically average" but they take the cake for the question in OP, could probably throw England in there as well. Ivory Coast is a good example, Sweden... Average is a general term though

OP, I agree, I'm always mind boggled that a country like Belgium or Croatia can produce multiple world class players and a country of 330+ million can't produce more than Donovan or Dempsey.

Edit: and I know that LD and Deuce aren't exactly on the level of these other guys, I was just using examples of 2 of the best we have produced.

What about Ivory Coast? They have fielded some pretty damn notable players, at least for the last two world cups and don't have much to show for it.

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OP, I agree, I'm always mind boggled that a country like Belgium or Croatia can produce multiple world class players and a country of 330+ million can't produce more than Donovan or Dempsey.

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i think it just shows you how dominant the big sports are

and i know soccer has a really high participation rate with youths, but it just isn't taken seriously by a large % of kids during their formative years

and i'm not even talking about our superior athletes. it's just a numbers game in terms of which kids who will bust arse to develop in any sport. the super duper vast majority of those kids are not playing soccer

Belgium.

I think the African countries (Ivory Coast, Ghana specifically but now there seems to be quite a few emerging from North Africa) are better examples for the point being made, and maybe Japan.

That Europe is so concentrated with so many small countries makes it more difficult to consider.

Yeah, there's countries that haven't had a lot of success but mainly due to low population and limited quality depth since historically top players have been coming from all over Europe.


Seems it's almost more "par for the course" for smaller European countries to have their Pjanic and Dzeko or Lewandowski or Jovetic or Hamsik or Mkhitaryan etc etc etc but have some real weak spots on the NTs elsewhere.

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You can have all the youths you want running around after a ball but that won't translate over into a legitimate training system if you can't implement structure

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that option is open. the kids who could flourish at that level aren't matriculating to top academies, b/c the kids who are willing to make that kind of sacrifice and who will work to become elite aren't playing soccer. look at some of the other examples...the ivory coast has vastly inferior training systems/structure than the US. that doesn't matter b/c the superstars they've produced weren't finished by teh ivory coast

Do you actually know anything about soccer?