Later this week, eleven young players from Republic FC will participate in U.S. Soccer’s Fall YNT Regional ID Center in San Ramon, CA – a one-day Talent Identification session put on by the federation’s youth national team program.
Five players born in 2009 – Salem Chandler, Rylan Hashimoto, Julian Nunez-Corona, Preston Thao, and Brayden Vu, and six players born in 2010 – Andy Castro, Evan Galvan, Zahyir Gonzalez, Grayson Utsuh, Christian Chavez, and first-team signee Da’vian Kimbrough, make up part of pool of 60 invitees from clubs across Northern California.
Talent ID Center invitations are not a call-up to the Youth National Team, but are single-day sessions with U.S. Soccer Talent Identification managers meant to replicate Youth National Team Camps. Designed to identify and evaluate top talents for Youth National Teams, they serve as a critical part of the federation’s player identification and Youth National Team selection processes.
Republic FC’s six participating players in the 2010’s session are the most of any club in their age group. Of the eleven total players invited from the club, three will attend their second ID Center – Chandler, Hashimoto and Kimbrough each have earned previous invitations. Thao and Nunez-Corona each have participated in two previous ID Center sessions, leading to an invitation to this past February’s U14 YNT Talent ID Camp in Southern California. Castro, Chavez, Gonzalez, Utsuh, and Vu, each standouts on the club’s U-13 and U-14 squads, earn their first invitation to a national team program.
