Eddie Johnson to Train 3-Year-Old Nevada Pierre — SkimNews
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- Eddie Johnson said Monday that his EJE7 Soccer Academy would train 3-year-old Nevada Pierre after the boy was removed from the i9 Sports youth program in Winter Park, Florida.
- Nevada Pierre was shown in a family-posted video dribbling past children and scoring several goals without any physical contact depicted; body-camera footage showed his parents telling Winter Park Police Department he was kicked out because he was too good.
- i9 Sports said a league official called police to report a disturbance between adults and that the call was unrelated to Nevada; police said no one was arrested, trespassed or forced to leave, calling the matter civil.
- i9 Sports said Nevada’s parents had successfully requested a refund on Saturday and that the league asked the adults involved not to continue as participants.
- EJE7 Soccer Academy turned down the family’s request when Nevada was 2 because Johnson said he was too young and advised them to seek experience in local youth leagues.
- Johnson said Nevada’s case exposed “entitlement, jealousy, envy, nepotism, gatekeeping and profiling especially against people of color” in U.S. youth soccer.
Why it matters: Nevada, 3, gains a training route at Johnson’s academy, while his family secures an i9 refund and the adults involved are asked to stop participating. The concrete change is that the boy who was told at 2 that he was too young for EJE7 can now train there.
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