football player to ever live. In terms of natural ability, there may be a "foundation." However, you can't assume if said "foundation" is better than, the same, or worse than the "foundation" of anyone currently on the US Men's National Team.

Growing up I played American football, basketball, soccer, and baseball through elementary school. I played with several kids who played all 4 sports too. I would say all of them had more "natural ability" than me and I would consider myself to be slightly above average in terms of ability. These kids, age 6-8, excelled on the grid iron, the basketball court, and even the diamond. However, they didn't do as well on the pitch because they couldn't cut suddenly while still using the right amount "touch" to maintain their dribble, judge the right amount of "touch" and proper angle needed when making a lead pass to a teammate while on the run, or execute the proper crossing pass while on the run. Whereas, I tended to do better than them on the pitch even though I was slower than them on the grid iron and basketball court because I was chubby as a kid. Given my physical appearance, I shouldn't have done well in the field and I should have been stuck playing a GK. However, I could play ST, MF, or DF equally and tended to play on the left side because I am left-footed.