Generation Adidas
Player Age Pos Home Town College/Prior Drafting Team Graduated Current club
Corben Bone 21 M Plano , TX Wake Forest Chicago Fire Louisville City FC
Teal Bunbury 19 F Prior Lake , MN Akron Kansas City Wizards 2011 New England Revolution
Dilly Duka 20 M Montville , NJ Rutgers Columbus Crew SC 2011 FK Partizani Tirana
Blair Gavin 20 M Louisville , KY Akron Chivas USA 2011 retired
Luis Gil 16 M Garden Grove , CA US Under-17 Kansas City Wizards FK Viktoria Žižkov
Zachary Herold 17 D Port St. Lucie , FL US Under-17 Toronto FC Retired retired
Sean Johnson 20 GK Lilburn , GA UCF Chicago Fire 2011 New York City FC
Jack McInerney 17 F Alpharetta , GA US Under-17 Philadelphia Union 2012 Oakland Roots
Danny Mwanga 18 F Kinshasa , DR Congo Oregon State Philadelphia Union 2011 retired
Amobi Okugo 18 M Sacramento , CA UCLA Philadelphia Union 2012 Austin Bold FC
Ike Opara 20 D Durham , NC Wake Forest San Jose Earthquakes Minnesota United FC
Tony Tchani 20 M Norfolk , VA Virginia New York Red Bulls 2011
Andrew Wiedeman 20 F San Ramon , CA California FC Dallas retired
Players -- 2010
Generation Adidas is a joint venture between Major League Soccer and U.S. Soccer aimed at raising the level of young professional soccer talent in the United States. The program, sponsored by Adidas, offers professional-ready players in the U.S. developmental system not yet eligible for the MLS SuperDraft early entry, allowing MLS to compete with foreign professional clubs without comparable restrictions on player signing. From its establishment in 1997 to 2005, the program was sponsored by Nike and was called Project-40. Originally intended to improve the U.S. national team player pool, American national team eligibility is no longer required for program entry. Carlos Parra was the first Project-40 player when he signed with the league and was allocated to the New York/New Jersey MetroStars in 1997. Since then, the program has included players such as Tim Howard, DaMarcus Beasley, Maurice Edu, Carlos Bocanegra, Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore, Ben Olsen, Sacha Kljestan, Freddy Adu, Brad Guzan, Michael Bradley, Nick Rimando and Kyle Beckerman. Generation Adidas players do not count against the MLS senior roster and usually earn a much higher salary than the league minimum. Entering into the program automatically classifies a player as professional, and thus disqualifies them from playing college soccer. As a result, Generation Adidas players are also guaranteed scholarships to continue their college education should their professional career not pan out. From 1998 to 2000, MLS entered a team of Project-40 players, supplemented by other MLS players who did not get much playing time, into the A-League in the USL. In 2017, MLS introduced Canadian Generation Adidas players, part of a new initiative with the Canadian Soccer Association. Canadian Generation Adidas players count as domestic players on US based MLS teams.