For a population of 3 million:
- Pro league with 30 pro teams (each with a youth system with 7-8 teams) + 80 semi-amateur teams (with promotion to the pro leagues)
That's between 10.000 and 20.000 players in the pro system. 100 (or more) each year are sold overseas.
- Very serious amateur league with 8.000 players every weekend in the capital city, Montevideo (any of those 8.000 players could be a pro in a weak national league) plus 2.000 players in the league for smaller cities.
- Teenagers play leagues much like Americans might play high school and college sports, there are probably 30.000 teenagers playing in leagues
- 140.000 players in all the leagues across all the smaller cities.
So that's about 200.000 active players for a population of 3 million - I was one until a few years ago :)
If China or India could achieve that much sports penetration (imagine 200.000.000 Chinese playing competitive soccer every weekend!), I don't doubt they'd be one of the top ranked teams in the world.
https://www.ovaciondigital.com.uy/futbol/mundo-futbolistas.h...
https://www.referi.uy/tierra-fertil-2017-emigraron-107-jugad...
You may have swapped your units there. 150 million coaches would be somewhat excessive for a population of 300 thousand.
I'm happy for their team to go far this tournament as much as the next guy, but what in the world are you talking about?!