FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – New England Revolution Under-16 defender Daniel Jones (West Hartford, Conn.) has been selected to play on the MLS Eastern All-Star team at the Generation adidas ESP event in Portland, Ore., during the first week of August. Jones will travel to Portland to train, play and compete against other talented MLS Academy players from across the United States, as well as Bayern Munich’s Under-16 Academy team.
The Generation adidas ESP event runs parallel with MLS All-Star week and aims to celebrate the MLS player development model, while also testing the players against their European counterparts. A committee of MLS academy directors selected each team and will serve as the coaching staff for the entire event. MLS players born in 1998, 1999 and 2000 were selected for the All-Star teams by the panel of directors.
“We’re proud Daniel has been chosen to participate in this event,” Revolution director of youth development Bryan Scales said. “This is a great opportunity for him to play with some of the league’s best up-and-coming youth players, and also get a chance to compete against one of the world’s top clubs.”
Jones, 15, is entering his third season with the Revolution’s youth teams and plays as an attacking left back. While an Under-14 team member the last two seasons, he played the majority of the 2013-14 season with the Under-16 squad, making 19 appearances with the older team. He second seven goals between the two teams on the season, including three with the U16s.
Jones was named to the Eastern All-Star team along with 18 other players from the Columbus Crew, D.C. United, Montreal Impact, New York Red Bulls and Toronto FC. Their team will play three 70-minute games against the Central All-Star team, Western All-Star team and the U-16 Bayern Munich Academy during the week.
On their off days, Jones and his MLS teammates will participate in other special activities that range from pseudo post-game conferences, a soccer tennis tournament at adidas’ world headquarters, a FIFA 14 tournament, adidas barbeque, a Futsal tournament, a training session with FC Bayern Youth technical director and watching the MLS All-Star game on Aug. 6.
