BALTIMORE – The LA Galaxy pride themselves on having one of the best youth academies in the country, and that is precisely why they opted to deal their No. 12 overall selection in Thursday’s MLS SuperDraft.
Hours before the 2016 MLS SuperDraft, the Galaxy dealt their only first round pick to the Colorado Rapids in exchange for Targeted Allocation Money (TAM). The Rapids ultimately traded the pick themselves to the Chicago Fire, who selected defender Jack Campbell from the University of North Carolina.
The decision to trade out of the draft was made after an exhausting analysis of the current draft class, which club Vice President Peter Vagenas believes was simply not to the level of the products coming out of the team’s academy.