[Sorry for the late replies on some of these; it was a busy week.]>>[dhunter] What is curious though is the belief that to be a great soccer player you have to participate in a specific club.<<I believe that this is an example of the
straw man fallacy.
I've never seen any post, or heard anyone, say that to be a great soccer player you have to participate in a specific club. Please let me know if I'm simply ignorantly missing who said this. The truth is much more nuanced and lies not in a specific club but instead in a specific environment.
The role of the club in helping a player realize his or her ambitions lies in at least the following:
1. Level of training. This is determined by the players with whom you train and the coach doing the training. A very talented group of players can offset a less talented coach, and a very talented coach can offset a less talented group of players.
2. Level of competition. This is determined largely by the skills of the team members and the coaching a player receives. You get to play in better leagues, and against better teams in better tournaments, the better your team is. In addition, there may be the opportunity for even stronger competition in the form of college scrimmages if the better college teams will schedule your team [or pool].
In terms of supporting your child as a highly ambitious soccer player, you have to first figure out what are the available clubs given your situation and then of those you have to judge which clubs and teams offer the highest levels of training and competition.