For people familiar with the College Soccer system in the United States of America, then the name, Ousseni Bouda is one that you will be familiar with by now, but for first time reader, you need to know that Ousseni Bouda is one of the top College Soccer prospect to emerge in recent times, and he happens to come from Africa.
"MLS is the American Dream for players like me."
We'll see where @StanfordMSoccer's @Ousseni_bouda, one of the best attackers in the college game, lands soon.
Catch the #SuperDraft by @adidasfootball this Tuesday at 3pm ET, streaming on MLS channels! pic.twitter.com/wWeTbkWTh2
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) January 9, 2022
Bouda was born in the capital city of Burkina Faso and after years of playing street football, he got admitted into one of Africa’s prestigious soccer academies called The Right to Dream. He honed his skills in the Right to Dream Academy for four years, before making the move to New York to further his educational and Sporting career at Millbrook school.
From Burkina Faso to Stanford, California, Ousseni Bouda of @StanfordMSoccer dreams of impacting and inspiring younger generations in West Africa the same way the Right to Dream Academy inspired him.
🔗: https://t.co/MafnttYQP5 pic.twitter.com/sDbYipDVOX
— NCAA (@NCAA) December 5, 2021
While at Millbrook school, he won the prestigious Gatorade National Soccer Player of the Year for the best male high school player in the whole of the US, in which he set the record for the most single season high school goals with 61goals and most high school career goals with 156. He followed this on-field success at the college level, where he was awarded the Pac-12 Conference Freshman of the Year.
These awards did not go unnoticed and subsequently, he was selected to become a member of the 2022 Generation Adidas class. The Generation Adidas program is that allows professional-ready players in the US developmental system and are not draft-eligible, to sign with MLS clubs, but without restrictions on player signing. To put this simply for first time readers, this is a program where top prospects in College Soccer, are signed to a Generation Adidas contract, and this ensures that the salary of these players are not counted against the budgetary limit of a club, as set out by the league, hereby leaving room for the development of these athletes.
This is the latest example of the quality of the Right to Dream Academy, as they have produced 6 members ( Michael Tetteh, Josh Yaro, Abu Danladi, Francis Atuahene, Edward Opoku, Ema Twumasi) of the Generation Adidas initiative, before Ousseni Bouda.
For someone, who initially started out with prioritizing sports over education, Ousseni has found a way to strike that balance between both, having played for the Stanford Soccer program. Signing the Generation Adidas contract, means he still gets to finish his College degree, on a scholarship.
Ousseni’s long-term goal is to someday represent his country at the highest level, and also to inspire the next generation of African footballers to strive for academic and sporting excellence. This is something he said he learnt from the Right to Dream character program.
The 2022 MLS draft is going to be held on the 11th of January, 2022, and of course, Ousseni is projected to go in the first round, as the number 6th overall pick to the FC Dallas team.
