A club-record four teams qualifying for MLS NEXT Cup. A U-16 team walking away champions at Generation adidas Cup. A U-13 team, made up of Atlanta United Youth Program alumni, champions at MLS NEXT Cup. The 2025-2026 season for Atlanta United’s Academy had a lot of winning to go around.
Even Javier Perez, Atlanta United’s Director of Methodology who oversees the Academy and player development, couldn’t have forecasted this level of success this quickly into his tenure.
“The academy [has] exceed my expectations,” Perez said. “… I've been very, very pleased with the direction, not without the challenges that we've been facing. When you talk about absolute terms, when you talk about having an Academy that reached four finals of MLS NEXT in two years back-to-back, no other club in MLS has been able to do that. That puts into perspective where we are right now. This is ongoing, and you have to keep working, but where we come from and where we are right now, this is very, very big for us as Academy on player development.”
Perez, whose international footballing pedigree has seen him coaching at clubs like Real Madrid and national teams like the United States Soccer Federation, knows talent when he sees it.
But he wouldn’t rush to pedestal Atlanta United’s Academy just to hype up his own work. He would, on the other hand, point to the numbers. “Data points”, he calls them.
Individual success stories certainly do contribute to that resume. Cooper Sanchez, an Atlanta United Homegrown blossoming into a consistent First Team starter. Another Academy product Arif Kovac breaking the MLS NEXT Pro single-match scoring record with 5 goals for Atlanta United 2. The development and placement at the professional level is encouraging to Perez and the sporting staff at the club.
One of his biggest data points is the amount of international representation Atlanta United’s Academy has earned. Eight of the U-16 players have, at some point this season, been called up to international teams this season — along with three U-19s and more up and down the Academy.
“When you start to adapt all these data points, it takes you to one conclusion, and it’s that we are building something really special here,” Perez said.
But the stat that will always reign over the rest is the team success. Four different Academy teams qualifying for postseason play, an Atlanta United record, was no small feat. As Perez pointed out, the standards for qualifying for the playoffs, called MLS NEXT Cup, are about as high as it gets.
“It's a tremendous exercise of resilience and teamwork for players and staff,” Perez said. “I'm extremely proud.”
The Academy regular season, which runs on a more European calendar from fall to spring, takes place in two parts. Atlanta United’s youngest Academy age groups, the U-13 and U-14 teams, earned their top-bracket berths with their Quality of Play scores, a statistic which assesses a team’s offensive and defensive actions across their regular season matches. The U-13s 85.9 score was good for first in the Southeast Division, while the U-14s 85.5 score was good for third.
From U-15 and up, traditional points dictate league tables. Atlanta United’s U-16 and U-18 teams qualified for MLS NEXT Cup U-17 and U-19 brackets via a separate mini-competition called MLS NEXT Flex.
But before MLS NEXT Cup, Generation adidas cup provided a preparatory opportunity to get knockout football experience. A separate competition from the MLS NEXT season, the tournament takes place in March and April and sees U-15 and U-16 sides competing. Atlanta United’s U-16s went on a run to win the second-tier bracket, building that confidence heading into the biggest test of them all at MLS NEXT Cup. Two young 5-Stripes, Mason Moskau and Gonzalo Riveras, were named to the tournament Best XI sides.
The Academy had already written a wildly successful season, but they weren’t done there.
The U-16 team made a run to the U-17 bracket championship match, winning a 7-6 penalty shootout against Philadelphia Union in the quarterfinals in unforgettable fashion. Some of the best moments at tournaments like MLS NEXT Cup are when different Academy age groups can share in the celebrations, and this one was no exception.
After taking down Inter Miami 3-0 in the semifinals, the U-16s fell just short of a trophy with a loss on penalties against Orlando City SC after a 2-2 draw in regulation.
The U-13 side, on the other hand, took a hold of their opportunity and walked away champions. Their run to silverware included two penalty shootout wins, including the final against LA Galaxy, and another semifinal win over Inter Miami.
The side’s victory was a glowing endorsement of programs even further down the development pipeline at Atlanta United. Of the 18 players on the championship U-13 roster, 17 of them started with the club’s Youth Programs in Regional Development School.
“What we want is to build the identity of Atlanta United,” Perez said. “This is a very young club, but a club with high expectations, a club with high demands … We have to do that from the ground up, and there's no better way to do it than with our U-13 team, which is our entry point for the Academy. You go through the grind, you have struggles, but you are able to overcome adversity and at the end be successful and victorious.”
Perez made it clear it’s not just his work, or that of the talented youngsters, that’s laying the foundation for this success. It’s the coaches, the trainers, the support and administration professionals, the front office.
“I want to praise the staff,” Perez said. “… We have up to nine different departments within the player development space, and each one of them plays a very important role.”
Two MLS NEXT Cup finalists and a champion, after a regular season of already-historic proportions, was a huge achievement for the Academy. Perez’s bottom line, though, is that just this success isn’t enough. Sustained dominance at the Academy levels means years of positive results and exemplary player development. That’s what feeds the talent pipeline to the professional teams — the First Team and Atlanta United 2.
“I don't want to point out that this is the best academy in the country. I think that’s ongoing. I don't think that something static. I think it's dynamic,” Perez said. “You have to earn that after every tournament, after every game, after every season. I want all of us to be on our toes to continue working towards that objective.”
