Why Nashville SC's first homegrown signing, Adem Sipic, should get your attention | Estes

Ask Nashville SC youth academy director Kevin Flanagan about precocious forward Adem Sipic, and he raves about talent and potential and work ethic, much as you’d expect for a star player and pupil.

But he also recalls a high-schooler who made time to chat and kick the ball around with middle schoolers on the academy's younger teams. “These guys all look up to him,” Flanagan said.

That last part wasn’t why Sipic was selected for a special honor. Didn’t hurt, though.

Because what Nashville SC announced on Tuesday – that it had made the 17-year-old the first “homegrown” signing in the club’s short history – wasn’t just for Sipic. It was for every staffer, player and parent, current and future, of the burgeoning Nashville SC academy at which Sipic has trained.

“It’s important that people see that Nashville as a club is really invested in developing homegrown talent for our local club,” said Rumba Munthali, player development coordinator for the academy, “and it allows players to see that it’s not just a dream.”

This is how it’s intended to work in Major League Soccer. Mirroring other clubs throughout the league, expansion Nashville SC launched a local operation in 2020 to detect and develop local talent. These academics have helped grow soccer in the United States, but they have a competitive purpose  – to supply the big club with “homegrowns.” These are players who are either from a designated territory near an MLS city or have trained at an academy for at least a year, giving the big club rights to sign that player (rather than, for example, having to draft him).

As young as 11 or 12 years old, scouted and selected players can join Nashville SC’s academy and progress through four age-grouped teams (under-13 through under-17). Some players live locally and commute. Some live with host families. Some players can choose – as Sipic and 27 others did this past year, per Flanagan – to take online classes within the facility to finish high school while also training multiple times a day.

Sipic, who resides with family in Bowling Green, Kentucky, was originally selected through an open tryout. For the past three years, he has driven three hours a day to train at Nashville SC’s academy.

“There’s a lot of hard work and discipline that go into it,” Sipic said, “and you have to be 110% dedicated. You can’t be 50-50. … Having training every day and doing school on top of that isn’t the easiest thing, but if you want to get the contract and be a professional soccer player, you have to go through it.”

A dream fulfilled early

As the son of Bosnian-born parents who emigrated separately during the war-torn 1990s and met in the United States, Sipic said, he grew up around soccer in his family.

He has traveled to Bosnia, noticing things like bullet holes in the walls of buildings.

“A lot of it is not repaired yet,” he said. “Seeing all that brings you a lot of thoughts. I kind of use it as motivation to one day, hopefully, be a big star for the national team and accomplish many things and be able to help my parents and the country, in general.”

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One time in Kentucky, a guidance counselor pushed him for a backup plan if soccer didn’t work out, and “I never had an answer for her,” he said with a laugh.

Not yet a high school senior, Sipic already has attained his biggest soccer dream: becoming a pro.

At his age, it's unique. But around the club, Sipic has long been earmarked for it. He trained during the preseason with Nashville SC’s team. This season, he has appeared in six games for Huntsville City FC, the club’s MLS Next Pro team, scoring a goal in his first start this past weekend.

'As a club, we believe in him'

Sipic’s signing doesn’t guarantee that he’ll get called into action for big-league Nashville SC in the short term, but it does make that possible. And as a true, goal-hunting No. 9 striker, Sipic plays a position for which Nashville SC is short-handed and likely focused on addressing in the upcoming summer transfer window.

“There are 17-year-olds across the world competing at a first-team level,” Flanagan said. “It all depends on their individual ability and talent to get in, to get exposed to that level and to perform. As a club, we believe in him – clearly.”

Clearly.

Nashville SC promoted Tuesday’s “special announcement” of Sipic’s signing with a news conference at GEODIS Park featuring club owner John Ingram, CEO Ian Ayre and general manager Mike Jacobs.

Not bad for a 17-year-old from up the road in Bowling Green.

“It’s a big moment,” Sipic said, “just knowing I’d achieved what I’d been wanting my whole life.

“But it’s just a start.”

Others at Nashville SC's academy would believe the same.

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Adem Sipic becomes first Nashville SC signing via MLS homegrown plan