The IMG Academy 150 Rankings winter update for boys in the 2015 graduating class is out today, and there is a new face at No. 2. Minnesota Thunder forward Mukwelle Akale claims the second spot in the rankings after a phenomenal showing with the U18 Men’s National Team at the Copa del Atletico tournament in Spain. Akale started every game for the USA, and while the U.S. team did not bring home a team trophy from the event, Akale came away with some hardware of his own, the award for the best player at the competition.

Another member of the Minnesota Thunder Academy, midfielder Jackson Yueill, has had a huge fall and climbs all the way to #19 with this update. Yueill has 12 goals so far for the Thunder’s U16 Development Academy team, earning him a spot on a select team at the Academy Showcase in December. His performance was strong enough to be called into the U18 Men’s National Team’s January training camp, then to the Copa del Atletico with teammate Mukwelle Akale.

New to the rankings are several players making their mark in youth soccer circles, garnering multiple recommendations for their rankings. Bethesda-Olney center back Alonzo Clarke debuted in the regional rankings last fall, but has spent time on trial in Europe and is a highly sought after college prospect, climbing to No. 84 with this update. Kendall SC forward Gonzalo Marquez is receiving interest from top schools and national scouts as well, has five goals on the season for Kendall’s U16 Development Academy squad, and debuts at No. 109. Others making their first appearance in the IMG Academy 150 include PDA forward Jalil Blalock, FC Bolts Celtic forward Mohamed Kenawy, Weston FC goalkeeper Etan Mabourakh, and Pateadores midfielder Luis Leon.

Click here to see where they are ranked.

In addition to the IMG Academy 150 update, we have made key changes to the regional rankings which will be unveiled throughout the week. Some of the additions include Weston FC midfielder/forward Diego Serfaty, Cincinnati United Premier center back Will Cohen, DC United midfielder Antonio Bustamante, PDA defender Justin O’Brien, Manhattan SC PSG midfielder Daniel O’Grady, Seattle Sounders center mid John Magnus and many, many more.

As far as how we arrive at the rankings, it’s no simple task.

We keep a national database of players as the starting point for our rankings (if you’re not in it, enter a profile here).

We track an extensive list of selections to national team camps and other honors including USSF Development Academy (Boys), ECNL (Girls), and U.S. Youth Soccer National League event and season awards, plus U.S. Soccer Training Centers, ODP, id2 and other player identification programs.

From there we look at additional signs of top player performance in a club environment, with the help of an extensive network of observers around the country. The priority here is for club, college, national team and other select team coaches on the ground, but especially when we can gain corroborating opinions. The more layers of opinions we can gain accumulate the better, as our role is primarily to aggregate those viewpoints, rather than making our own determination as to a player’s quality.

As a matter of policy, we never share which coaches said what about whom so that coaches will be freer to share their assessments. Another policy is that parents’ opinions about their own children are not considered, but you are welcome to provide feedback about honors and other details that may be of help to us in keeping their profiles up to date as well as our challenge of sifting through thousands of players nationwide. That kind of data can be helpful, but the: “How can you not have rated my kid? He is awesome” communique, while compelling, will be consigned to the virtual trash.

In the end, there’s always some level of subjectivity about players, because after all, how good someone is relative to someone else is largely a matter of opinion, but we do our best to make our rankings as educated an opinion as can be.

The rankings will be updated every quarter. Keeping current rankings for 8 classes of 150 players each is no small task, and it is counterintuitive to think the rankings would change daily or weekly. We will announce each update.

So that’s it. You can see the newest version of the rankings here.