FRISCO - He's the leading face of the FC Dallas Homegrown program and a leading face in the next generation of the U.S. Men's National Team.
USSoccer.com followed Plano-native Kellyn Acosta as part of their new, 11-part series Rising, featuring the emerging faces of the USMNT. You can watch the full episode above and read the full article from U.S. Soccer on the Homegrown here.
Here's a short excerpt:
Not long ago, Kellyn had watched Oscar Pareja representing his hometown team at the Cotton Bowl. Now, that fiery midfielder was the head of the club’s Academy Program, and he wanted Kellyn to join him at FC Dallas. Oscar’s first MLS coach in Dallas was Dave Dir, who was now the Executive Director of ASG – the club where Kellyn was playing for Coach Zee. Pareja and Dir had remained close despite each overseeing separate youth clubs. “Dave called me and said, ‘I have a kid that I know you will like,’” Pareja said of how he was introduced to Kellyn. “And the first day that I saw Kellyn, I was very impressed. I called Dave back said, ‘So you're going to let him come?’ And he said ‘yes, of course, if you like him. He’s a great player and it seems to me that he's very engaged with the game at an early age.’” With Dir’s blessing, Pareja approached Kellyn and his family. After asking all the right questions, seeing what FC Dallas had to offer and discussing with Coach Zee, the Acostas knew it was an easy decision. Kellyn was joining the FC Dallas Academy. “The range that he had in those few first trainings, it was amazing,” Pareja recalled of the then 13-year-old. “And I said, if this kid has that range with that intelligence, and technical abilitiy…Those elements, when you have them in a player at an early age, it just tells you that he has a lot to provide and that he has a high ceiling.”Accordingly, Kellyn’s career took off.
