Fabiyi plays for the DC United youth academy and thrives. Fabiyi is ranked as one of the top recruits in the country, but he knows his journey is only starting. The odds may be stacked against Fabiyi, but that’s nothing new to him. Everyone starts somewhere, whether that’s a top team, a bottom team, or even no team at all. Players all over the world start from the bottom and make their way up to the top. “Before I got to the academy I was on the second-worst team for Bethesda,” Fabiyi said
Kids start playing sports at different times. The consensus, however, is that the earlier you start the better. “I started playing when I was six years old in Chicago,” Fabiyi said. Youth soccer can be brutal at times. When getting moved up to a better team, players have to say goodbye to their former teammates, who most consider family. “Being moved up was great but I had to leave my old teammates behind,” Fabiyi said.
Professional youth academies are a paradise for college and professional scouts. However, these youth academies of professional clubs are created for the sole purpose of creating homegrown players and promoting players to the senior team. “The purpose of youth academies is to develop a player and bring them into the first team as a homegrown player, which means they graduate the academy and are given first-team contracts,” Fabiyi said
Everybody has a different rationale for why they choose to do what they do, and soccer is no different. There are all types of reasons someone chooses to search for a new team including wanting to be able to brag, and wanting more exposure to scouts, to name a few. “Moving to DC United had a lot of benefits, but I mostly wanted to join because it was the best academy in the area,” Fabiyi said.
Being a part of a professional youth academy is so much more than you see on the field. Players spend countless hours around each other. “On the trips, we make a lot of memories together,” Fabiyi said.
People often see academy members as players, rather than people. However, to friends and family, these players are so much more than that. “My favorite part about Langston is that he always has a positive attitude and is not afraid to make a joke,” sophomore Kioko Kibua said. All of these players are their own unique people. Each one of them has a unique personality. “Langston’s personality is like that of an undying flame. He is a constant ray of positivity and humor and never fails to make you smile,” Kibua said.
People’s first impressions are all about personality. “He’s a very nice person,” sophomore Bryson Filbert said. People all around Fabiyi know he’s special. He has a huge fan club of people around him. “I think that the sky’s the limit for him, and he’s a really special kid,” Filbert said.
