I am a dumb American with a question about your football?

No question is dumb.

To answer your first question, many young talented players are already associated with a Football Club as early as the age of 5/6 yrs old. These clubs have deep youth systems/academies that are consistently developing talent and will often have try outs to acquire more talent. Some of these clubs, specifically in South America, will go as far as providing schooling. As these crop of talent get older, their aim is to make the reserves for the club. Once you make the reserves, your aim will be to make the Senior team.

These kids can even switch Youth Academies if they want but they are also "signed" by the club and will require a monetary transaction. Once the player makes the Senior team and play, they have made their professional debut.

Drafts don't exist. Club's have scouts all over the place looking for talent and are inviting them to try out. If they are good enough, they are signed into the club.

Free Agency does exist in the sense that the player will be able to sign for another club if their existing contract has expired or will expire before signing for the new team.

A current example of this would be Flamini of Arsenal who will move to AC Milan this summer.

Most players though are transfered in and out of the clubs.

Think of these like trades. There are specific time periods to be able to do this, one in off season and another in the middle of the season. Lets say a big club has interest in acquiring Ronaldinho of Barcelona. Because he is still under contract with Barcelona, Barcelona owns him and now becomes a middle man and will ask for money, player(s) or a combination of both. If there is an agreement between both clubs, the next step is agreeing to a new contract with the player itself. This is different than the US since the contract is passed on, not so in Football.

Another big thing to remember is that there is no Salary Cap restrictions, so big market teams have a huge advantage and are able to shell out a lot of money to acquire the best players and signed them to large contracts.

Football Clubs can also loan players to other clubs, but this is a whole other story to get into.

Hope this helps

Kristian D Explained it well. There is no draft. Young players can sign professional contracts at 16. Players contracts are bought and sold, and yes a young player (not under contract) can play for any team he wants to. some clubs will try to sign a player to a long term contract, or extend his existing contract usually 5 years. Also clubs are not franchised by the league. In England we have 92 professional teams in four divisions. The premier is the top division with 20 teams, the other three divisions have 24 teams each. We also have a promotion and relegation system where the top three teams in the second division ( the championship league) are promoted to the premier league and the bottom three teams in the premier league are relegated to the lower division (the championship league). This is done through all the divisions. So a team in the lowest league can play their way up to the top division. (great system). I hope this has helped.......And no mate you are not a dumb American. It's nice to see that you have some interest in the world game.

Well, throughout the planet there are thousands of different clubs. When a kid starts to play football he usually start at his local team, if he is good enough a bigger side in the area will most likely try to get him to play for their team.

The major clubs in the world have youth academies, and kids from around the world are invited to try out at these clubs, and if they are considered good enough they will be allowed to stay and possibly play for the team when they are old and good enough.

However, if a player wants to transfer from one team to another, the team of destination will have to buy out their contract. Which often cost alot of money, the biggest money transfer in history was the transfer of Zinedine Zidane from Juventus to Real Madrid for $64.5 million.

Real Madrid was considered the Yankees of soccer for a while, however since "buying" the top players are very expensive most clubs cannot afford it anymore.

No, my peers play soccer and so they determine 7 hours an afternoon for the period of double days, three whilst they do not and I admire them for all their difficult paintings. Most of them would get institution scholarships, even a whole journey, that is why they take it so critically. They are are compatible, now not even giant, I've visible one of the crucial smallest linebackers ever and so they do exactly pleasant. They do rip at the football children however that is particularly best eighth grade soccer avid gamers, after prime college they do not particularly supply a sh*t hahaha :) They do not rise up in every different's faces, they do not act just like the conventional prime college stereotype "Jocks". They do take their recreation critically and they may be able to get injured conveniently, however that is why they coach so difficult and paintings on harm preventiveness. I like looking hockey larger tho :D Cus they are honestly allowed to battle hahaha

Do you really doubt that football and money are not associated? Nowadays it's mostly about having money. All prosperous club teams are rich perhaps with only a few exceptions.

MLS (Major League Soccer) has such a draft, but leagues in Europe and elsewhere typically do not.

i am a fellow dumb american with no answer to your question

sorry

lol

you just have to work hard, and with any luck, "someone" will see you and give you a chance.... that's the main rule....

THERES NO DRAFT