DeAndre Yedlin named best young player in MLS

Occasionally, Tottenham Hotspur or some other fairly large European team will be linked to a young foreign star that most of their fans aren't terribly familiar with. Sometimes, fans from that country rant and rave about how they're the best unknown prospect on earth, and sometimes they're horribly confused about why a big European club want such an average player. It's always particularly hilarious when Tim Vickery does the latter when asked about a South American star.

So if you're super skeptical about new Tottenham signing DeAndre Yedlin, you can at least take some comfort in knowing that he's been named the best young player in MLS. The league's website does a 24 best players under 24 feature every season, and he's taken the top spot this time around.

Here's some of what they had to say, and you can go watch a video here.

"He's arguably the top attacking right back in the league. His speed is excellent. He needs to improve on the defensive side of the ball -- locking down in the final third and not giving up so much space. Because he goes forward so much, he's susceptible to leaving holes."

That last bit is why a player with such immense talent was so cheap. He's far from the finished product, but he was a pure attacker three years ago. He's grown leaps and bounds on the defensive side of the ball and seems like he absorbs coaching pretty well.

It's worth noting that this isn't just a list of the 24 best young American players, but young players period. Nos. 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 on the list are not Americans. The entire top 10 are players I'd consider to be good enough to make a move to Europe and succeed right now. National media voted him above a lot of very good players, so you should be happy that Spurs have signed a player who's so well thought of.