Please note that as of today all IMG Academy 150 and Regional player rankings are only accessible with a Premier Membership. Find out why we made the change and how you can take advantage of our current Premier Membership promotion.

The 2014 boys IMG Academy Top 150 Rankings fall update is out today and it’s no surprise Rubio Rubin remains #1. TopDrawerSoccer.com reported this summer that Rubin will sign a contract with FC Utrecht of the Eredivisie when he turns 18. Just this past week, Rubin wore the captain’s armband and scored the tying goal against France to propel the US U18 MNT to a 2^nd place finish at the four-team international tournament in Limoges, France.

A couple of players are new to the IMG Academy 150 as we enter the final season of rankings for this graduating class. Most notably of these is University of Virginia(m) commit Chase Gaspar, who has debuted not only in our rankings at #58, but in the Development Academy with newly-formed Bethesda-Olney, where he scored on day one. He followed up his performance in the DA starting weeks with a call up to US U18 MNT where he made the roster for the Limoges tournament, earning his first start in a crucial draw with France.

In addition to Gasper, DC United midfielder Cristhyan Najar, Vancouver Whitecaps GK Marco Carducci, Oakwood forward Matthew Vasquenza, and Colorado Rapids defender Kortne Thompson have all started well in the 2013-14 season and have earned spots in the IMG Academy 150. Click here to see where they are ranked.

In addition to the IMG Academy Top 150 update, we have made key changes to the regional rankings which will be unveiled throughout the week. Some of the additions include Bethesda-Olney midfielder Matthew Ledder, Minnesota Thunder forward Sidney McClain, Carolina Railhawks midfielder Kalvin Kromer, and FC Dallas forward Wilfred Williams. Keep checking back to see who else made the lists.

As far as how we arrive at the rankings, it’s no simple task.

We keep an international database of players as the starting point for our rankings (if you’re not in it, enter a profile here).

We track an extensive list of selections to national team camps and other honors including USSF Development Academy (Boys), ECNL (Girls), and U.S. Youth Soccer National League event and season awards, plus U.S. Soccer Training Centers, ODP, id2 and other player identification programs.

From there we look at additional signs of top player performance in a club environment, with the help of an extensive network of observers around the country. The priority here is for club, college, national team and other select team coaches on the ground, but especially when we can gain corroborating opinions. The more layers of opinions we can gain accumulate the better, as our role is primarily to aggregate those viewpoints, rather than making our own determination as to a player’s quality.

As a matter of policy, we never share which coaches said what about whom so that coaches will be freer to share their assessments. Another policy is that parents’ opinions about their own children are not considered, but you are welcome to provide feedback about honors and other details that may be of help to us in keeping their profiles up to date as well as our challenge of sifting through thousands of players nationwide. That kind of data can be helpful, but the: “How can you not have rated my kid? He is awesome” communique, while compelling, will be consigned to the virtual trash.

In the end, there’s always some level of subjectivity about players, because after all, how good someone is relative to someone else is largely a matter of opinion, but we do our best to make our rankings as educated an opinion as can be.

The rankings will be updated every quarter. Keeping current rankings for 8 classes of 150 players each is no small task, and it is counterintuitive to think the rankings would change daily or weekly. We will announce each update.

So that’s it. You can see the newest version of the rankings here.

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