Player development is both art and science, simultaneously brimming with intangibles and ruled by cold, hard numbers – like how quickly a youngster matures and masters the fundamentals, when and how they are challenged with higher-level competition, and the age when they become a first-team regular.

In light of all that, it’s difficult to adequately describe just how comprehensively Seattle Sounders FC homegrown Obed Vargas defied the odds, and conventional youth soccer wisdom, to rise from distant, snowbound Alaska to his current status as an MLS All-Star, Mexico international, one of the world’s top central midfield prospects in his birth year and now, No. 1 on MLSsoccer.com’s 22 Under 22 list .

There’s a thriving soccer scene in Vargas’ hometown of Anchorage, Alaska. Yet the reg

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