15-year-old Efrain Alvarez keeps scoring amazing goals against adults

Coming soon to an MLS stadium near you.

Just before this season kicked off, the LA Galaxy handed a professional contract to 15-year-old attacker Efrain Alvarez. That’s currently looking like a shrewd decision — Alvarez has six goals in his last three games for LA Galaxy II in USL, as the youngest player in the league. Here are the two stunners he scored on Friday against Timbers 2.

And his performance against Saint Louis FC from last week might have been even better.

While most MLS organizations use their USL affiliates to get playing time for players who have already finished high school (or in most cases, college), the Galaxy have been giving younger players a chance to play for Los Dos. That’s a big part of why they lost this game 7-3 and why they have one of the worst records in the league, but the Galaxy brass don’t care about that. For them, it’s about getting players like Alvarez playing time against grown men who are full-time professionals.

USL should be a challenge for a 15-year-old, but Alvarez doesn’t seem to be having much trouble. The Galaxy might end up giving him a shot in the first team way sooner than anyone anticipated.

If you’re wondering about the international future of MLS’s hottest young star, it’s still very much up in the air. Alvarez has played for both United States and Mexico youth national teams, most recently participating in a Mexico Under-17 camp. Expect both federations to make a huge pitch to lock him down permanently in the next couple of years.