MIAMI, Florida – The Draw for the 2023 Concacaf Men’s Under-17 Championship is set for this Thursday and there is no doubt that fans will be treated to a spectacle of Concacaf’s rising stars at the tournament next February 11-26 in Guatemala.
The CMU17 has proven to be a great showcase for the region’s young players, while also demonstrating the collective strength of its teams.
Mexico have 14 U17 World Cup appearances to their name, including first place finishes in the 2005 and 2011 editions, becoming the only Concacaf nation to have won an U17 World Cup.
El Tricolor will be participating in their 18th CMU17 next year and Mexico fans will be eagerly anticipating who might be the next big star to emerge. One player who did just that was Santiago Munoz, who scored five goals in the 2019 CMU17 to help Mexico claim their eighth CMU17 crown.
Since then, Munoz went on to score the Goal of the Tournament of the 2019 FIFA Men’s U17 World Cup and helped his country win the 2020 Concacaf Men’s Olympic Qualifying Championship in 2021 before securing a transfer to Premier League side Newcastle United.
In that same 2019 CMU17 tournament, Giovanni Reyna was a stand-out performer for the United States, who finished as runners-up and qualified for their 17th U17 World Cup.
Reyna scored six goals to lead his team, including five goals in the team’s three knockout round matches prior to the Final.
It has been a whirlwind at both the club and international level for Reyna since that 2019 CMU17. The son of former U.S international Claudio Reyna has since made his Bundesliga debut for German giants Borussia Dortmund, becoming the youngest U.S. player to appear in a Bundesliga match at 17 years and 66 days.
With the U.S. National Team, Reyna has become one of the team’s key figures in attack and scored in the 3-2 extra time win for the U.S. against Mexico in the 2021 Concacaf National League Finals, while later helping the U.S. qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
The 2017 CMU17 will long be remembered for the goalscoring exploits of Honduras MF Carlos Mejia, who finished as the tournament’s top scorer with seven goals.
Thanks in large part to Mejia’s heroics, Honduras qualified for their fifth U17 World Cup out of its 19 CMU17 appearances. After featuring at the 2017 Under-17 World Cup, Mejia was part of the Honduras team that participated in the 2019 Under-20 World Cup.
He has also enjoyed a successful club career at Honduran club Motagua, appearing in three matches in the 2022 Scotiabank Concacaf League and scoring one goal in helping Motagua reach the SCL semifinals and also qualify for the 2023 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League.
A new crop of young players has Haiti poised for great things in the future, and a big part of that movement is Ronaldo Damus, who enjoyed a breakout performance at the 2015 CMU17 for Les Grenadiers.
Damus scored four goals in Haiti’s five matches and remains the country’s all-time top scorer in CMU17s since 2009. In that 2015 CMU17, Damus scored in a narrow 3-1 loss to Canada before tallying a first half hat trick in a 4-1 win over Saint Lucia to finish as the tournament’s top scorer among Caribbean players.
Damus went on to have several prolific seasons in USL League One and the USL Championship with North Texas SC and Orange County SC, respectively, scoring 39 goals across three seasons and helping both sides win championships before moving to Swedish club Sundsvall.
Damus has also become one of the key players on the Haitian Senior Men’s National Team, appearing in Concacaf World Cup Qualifying for Russia 2018, along with three matches in the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup.
With another CMU17 looming on the horizon, it will be fascinating to see which players from the tournament will emerge as stars at both the club and international levels.
