Can We Kick It? Probes $15,000 Youth Soccer Costs and US Failures to Reach Black Communities
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jul 31
Can We Kick It? Probes $15,000 Youth Soccer Costs and US Failures to Reach Black Communities
2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jul 31
Summary
Released this summer, the documentary argues US soccer has long failed to engage Black communities, telling the sport’s history through Black voices from grassroots fields to the professional game.
Majeed centers the pay-to-play pipeline as a key barrier: competitive youth soccer can cost more than $3,000 a year, with travel and hotel bills pushing totals to about $15,000 per player.
That pricing, he says, helps explain why the US player pool still skews toward families with means even as the national team has become more visibly diverse and still underrepresents Latino communities.
The film also revisits overlooked Black soccer history, including Howard University’s disputed 1971 NCAA title and its undefeated 1974 championship, plus Joe Gaetjens’s 1950 winner over England.
Majeed says the men’s World Cup collapse against Belgium sharpened scrutiny of those structural gaps, arguing the next four years will test whether US soccer broadens access or keeps the same image.