David Silva, Juan Mata, Ander Herrera, Thiago Alcantara, Thomas Müller.
Hope this isn't too harsh but focusing so much on athleticism is one of the biggest reasons why the US has lagged behind for so long in quality compared to the rest of the world.
About 2/3s of Barcelona’s midfield the last decade have not been elite athletes. Do you really consider guys like Busquets elite athletes?
I dont consider any of these guys elite compared to Lebron James or Odell Beckham. But most of these guys are not slouches athletically. Nor are any of these guys upper echelon players in my opinion. Barca is an outlier though. But the core you allude to played together forever, and they were bolstered by elite athletes like Messi, Marcelo, Alves, Suarez, etc. They also never really had to play in the new era of counterpressing and high pressure.
I would consider Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappe, Pogbra, Bale, DeBruyne, Griezmann, Salah, Varane, Hazard, Zlatan, Lewandowski, De Jong, etc. to be elite athletes though, at least for the sport they play. I think Modric is a current outlier.
We shouldnt get too far down the rabbit hole of why US lags. I think/agree that solely prioritizing athleticism at a young age, to the point of not properly developing skills, was (is?) a problem. But on a national team level, we went from a team that out gritted, hustled, and "athleted" our opponents, to a slightly more skilled group that couldnt do any of these things. Hopefully we are now hitting a generation that marries skill with athleticism (Pulisic, Weah, Adams, Sargent, etc). The best national teams right now are the best blend of skill and athleticism.
Anyway, you've made your points, i've made mine.
