Soccer <\/p>\n
Player development is both art and science, simultaneously brimming with intangibles and ruled by cold, hard numbers \u2013 like how quickly a youngster matures and masters the fundamentals, when and how they are challenged with higher-level competition, and the age when they become a first-team regular.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
In light of all that, it\u2019s difficult to adequately describe just how comprehensively Seattle Sounders FC<\/a> homegrown Obed Vargas<\/a> defied the odds, and conventional youth soccer wisdom, to rise from distant, snowbound Alaska to his current status as an MLS All-Star, Mexico international, one of the world\u2019s top central midfield prospects in his birth year and now, No. 1 on MLSsoccer.com\u2019s 22 Under 22 list<\/a>.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a thriving soccer scene in Vargas\u2019 hometown of Anchorage, Alaska. Yet the region\u2019s small population (its metropolitan area is about a tenth the size of Seattle\u2019s), geographical isolation and cold climate that limits the outdoor season to four months or so impose difficult limitations compared to the lower 48 states.<\/p>\n \u201cGrowing up playing soccer in Alaska is definitely unique,\u201d Vargas explained on Breakaway<\/a>. \u201cIt’s not the same as everywhere else. Not as many teams. Not as [much] competition. There are maybe four or five teams in the whole state.<\/p>\n \u201cSo that kind of always kept me grounded, kept me humble because I knew I was the best player here in Alaska. But I didn’t know how far that was going to get me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n What made the difference for the now-20-year-old? It starts with his sheer, precocious talent, a powerful family legacy and the Sounders Academy’s scouting acumen.<\/p>\n Seattle spotted Vargas early and offered him the chance to join their homestay program at age 14, prompting him to leave his parents and three siblings and move in with a host family \u2013 that of his fellow homegrown Cody Baker<\/a> \u2013 nearly 2,000 miles from home.<\/p>\n There was pain in that decision, but also enormous pride, because Vargas\u2019 father, Obed Sr., had himself been a youth prospect in his homeland, spending time in the academy of Monarcas Morelia, a revered Mexican club, and was an influential figure in his sons\u2019 early love of futbol and the acumen that blossomed from it. (Obed\u2019s younger brother Abad would follow in his footsteps; now 17, he too is working his way through Seattle\u2019s developmental pathway.)<\/p>\n F\u00fatbol, in fact, is the main reason the Vargas family wound up in Alaska in the first place, as Obed Sr. revealed to MLSsoccer.com contributor Jon Arnold in a moving profile on Backheeled.com<\/a>. When Morelia cut him loose from their system at age 19, the pain was such that Obed Sr. roamed as far away from the place as he could, initially landing at a fish-processing job in the Aleutian Islands alongside an aunt.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to get away, as far as possible from Mexico because I couldn\u2019t achieve my dream of playing professional soccer,\u201d he told Backheeled.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \n Remarkable rise<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n