Every MLS teams’ best player aged 20 or under

Portland Timbers: Marco Farfan

The story of Marco Farfan is worth reading. At 18, he’s forged himself a successful MLS career as a left-back for the Portland Timbers — competing with Lithuanian national teamer Vytas — and simultaneously finished his senior year of high school, graduating just recently. Jamie Goldberg of the Oregonian told his story, which includes rushing from Timbers training to English class.

He just missed out on the U-20 World Cup (look for him in two years, though) but has four starts this season in Portland, putting himself in the early Rookie of the Year conversation at one point. Vytas has received a majority of the starts at left-back, but the fact that former Leicester loanee Jack Barmby has been rendered mostly moot is testament to the rapid rise of Farfan.

As a Timbers Homegrown, he’s also played some for Portland’s USL second team, Timbers II. That second team has a number of talented players on it, but the first team has not been good enough at bringing those guys up and getting them early opportunities at the MLS level, which can slow down development. A big reason for Portland’s inability to stay consistent during the regular season has been their lack of success with young T2 players and SuperDraft picks. Having Ben Zemanski as your go-to backup midfielder only gets you so far.

Caleb Porter and the Timbers organization hope that Farfan is the player that reverses that trend. As the LA Galaxy can attest, simply having a USL team is only a step.