How Gianluca Busio Compares With Tyler Adams

“You can see that I’m in the same spot that Tyler Adams was two years ago. A 16-year-old, playing in MLS, getting a couple games in and now he’s in the Bundesliga. I think of it as, why can’t that be me?” This is what Venezia’s Gianluca Busio had to say of Tyler Adams, now of RB Leipzig just a month after the former New York Red Bull made the jump to Europe in 2019.

While American fans are used to seeing homegrown talent in MLS make the trip across the Atlantic in 2021, this was not as common when Busio made this comment as a 16-year-old in MLS. The former Sporting Kansas City midfielder will likely be grouped with a number of MLS homegrowns leaving in the summer 2021 transfer window. However, his story is very similar to that of Tyler Adams – perhaps more than he could have guessed at the time of his statement.

Though he falls in a generation of Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams’ development is a much better testament to the American system than his United States teammates. Though McKennie will tell you he has FC Dallas’ academy to thank for much of his development, he moved to Schalke at the age of 18 before ever making his professional debut. Pulisic on the other hand was never a part of an MLS academy and moved to Borussia Dortmund as a 16-year-old boy.

Tyler Adams was developed solely by New York Red Bulls before his European move and worked his way through the academy, into the second team (New York Red Bull II in America’s second division) and finally into the first team under Jesse Marsch. Since then, Brenden Aaronson of Red Bull Salzburg and Bryan Reynolds of Roma have followed the same path to Europe as Adams. Now – add Gianluca Busio to that list.