Luis Arreola is the type of player that professional clubs clamor for.

He is skilled, reads the game well, and also stands a head taller than anyone else on the field.

The 14-year-old from Chicago quickly caught the eye of Chivas de Guadalajara scout at an Alianza de Futbol tryout.

“They had a scout there named Victor Rangel, a well known former Chivas and Mexico National Team player,” Luis Arreola, the player’s father, told TopDrawerSoccer.com. “Chivas Director of Fuerzas Basicas and former U15 Mexico National Team coach, Salvador Gamero, called me personally around the 25th [of July] to see if we could go out there the following week.”

Chivas arranged the trip for father and son. The younger Arreola trained and played with the Chivas 1999 squad.

“He played a game this past Saturday against Chivas 98s. Luis scored a goal and Chivas 99s won 4-1.”

Luis was included on the roster for Chivas’ 1999 squad, which played in the Houston Dynamo Academy Cup last weekend. Chivas won the U15 age group, playing a year up, without conceding a goal in five games.

The list of teams that are interested in Arreola’s service expands well beyond Mexico though.

The attacker also starred against Hamburg’s youth team in a scrimmage where he scored both of the goals for his side in a 7-2 loss to Hamburg’s top side from the 1999 age group.

Arreola is currently on his way to Germany for trials with Stuttgart and Schalke 04.

The older Arreola said Thomas Gaunsauge helped arrange those opportunities. Gaunsauge is a former professional player from Germany, who lives in the Chicago area now.

Arreola is not the only player for his current team, FC Athletico, which his father started five years ago, to attract foreign interest. His teammate Kevin Garcia also piqued the interest of Chivas, but he did not have his passports ready.

The interests from professional academies for Luis have not spurred U.S. Soccer into calling the forward into a U14 Boys National Team camp.

Arreola, the father, said he has been in Training Centers, but has not advanced past the regional level.

“He has been invited six-seven USSF Training Centers in the last year or so,” Arreola said. “One of those was a Regional event, last summer, where they called up the best 99s and 98s in entire Midwest Region to Fort Wayne, Indiana. He scored two goals in a game vs. 98 defenders in a 4-2 win.”

The father has been led to believe that switching clubs may be the key to getting the attention of the Federation, but he does not plan on following that path.

“Academy coaches in Chicago have told me that USSF will never call Luis up for National Camp if he doesn’t join an Academy team. Coincidentally, they have contacted me regularly to sign Luis up with an Academy - Chicago Magic and Chicago Fire.”

USSF has routinely denied this allegation in the past.

"Our goal is to bring in the best players for the Youth National Teams, regardless of their club situation," a USSF spokesperson told TopDrawerSoccer.com. "The Training Centers are a great example of how our scouts are always looking to identify players from any background or club.

"We do encourage the elite players to seek out the most competitive everyday training environment in their area as we believe that will provide them with the best opportunity to develop. In many cases, but not all, Academy clubs can provide that important environment."  

TopDrawerSoccer.com asked U14 BNT head coach Hugo Perez about calling in more players from Midwest clubs in February.

“We have gotten into that area [the Midwest],” Perez said. “If you look at the first team, it is solid. From the first 11 starters to the 16^th player, it is solid. They come in and do the same thing. I am sure there are more kids in the country that can help us and we are going to continue to look for them. Now, they are going to have to come in and break into the first team or be at the same level in order to keep up.”

While Arreola waits for the opportunity with the youth national team, he weighs the options ahead of him. Local high school Lake Forest Academy has offered him a full-ride for the school year. Chivas has presented a relatively lucrative opportunity with the club covering the expenses for his schooling, food, room, and other incidentals.

“Tough decision will be between top high school education at Lake Forest Academy or top soccer education at Chivas when we get back.”