Year Two of Partnership Between San Diego’s Albion Soccer Club and London’s Arsenal FC
Working Together To Develop Players for International Play – Storied Arsenal FC continues to lend expertise and work closely with youth soccer club to groom homegrown players.
Arsenal FC is the legendary professional English soccer club established in 1886 when a group of soccer-loving workers from the Woolwich Arsenal Armament Factory decided to form a football team. Now, nearly 130 years later, Arsenal FC plays in the English Premier League (EPL) and the famous soccer club is paving the pay for a new crop of talented youth players who dream of following in the footsteps players like Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira. Working closely with San Diego based Albion SC, Arsenal FC is successfully sharing the tradition of the Arsenal Way.
Partnership in Year Two Takes Flight
Many American youth soccer clubs want to partner with professional European clubs but few are able to. Working in partnership with PUMA, Albion SC is an excellent example of a powerhouse youth soccer club which has successfully partnered with an international soccer giant to the benefit of their youth players.
Albion SC’s Technical Director Noah Gins has been working for over a year with Arsenal FC and knows the partnership provides a unique advantage for his youth soccer club.
“Our partnership with Arsenal FC gives youth soccer players a legitimate shot to reach their dreams of playing in the EPL,” said Gins.
“Albion SC has a methodical and strategic plan for Arsenal FC to identify and develop an American youth soccer player,” said Gins. “Arsenal FC has already selected an American-born forward from the East Coast who has performed well on trials overseas.”
“Finally, Europe is aware that American soccer players are good enough to play internationally — now, it is just a matter of finding the players at the younger ages,” said Gins.
Gins, who acknowledges there are issues with youth soccer players playing abroad and that the first question is always “Does the kid have an European passport?” While logistics may thwart a youthful dream of playing in the EPL, talent may not be the issue. Already this year, Arsenal FC selected five Albion SC youth soccer players to travel to England for a special training at their facility in London.
“The partnership with Arsenal FC and Puma has provided more than I ever expected,” said Gins. “There is a true desire from Arsenal FC to find that special player, Puma continues to provide resources to help with this discovery, and we continue to provide more training and implementation of the Arsenal curriculum inside the club.”
The USSF Albion SC Development Academy BU14 team is currently at the PUMA ELITE Super Group at the Disney Junior Soccer Showcase in Orlando, Florida preparing to compete in the Elite Bracket and to watch Arsenal take on Borussia Dortmund.
The PUMA ELITE Super Group brings together PUMA’s top professional international academies to compete against some of the top talent the United States has to offer. As part of the PUMA ELITE program, PUMA has brought in the Arsenal F.C. and BVB- Borussia Dortmund U14 academies to compete in a week long event integrating them with our PUMA ELITE partner clubs within the states. Featuring 8 additional teams from around the country, it is a benefit through us that these teams will get to compete for an opportunity to play against the academies themselves. The youth soccer event is being held at the ESPN WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS at the Walt Disney World Resort and the competition ends on Nov. 30th, 2015. Throughout the week, the PUMA ELITE clubs will enjoy this unprecedented access to clinics, coaching focus groups, private athlete socials and open professional trainings.
PRO Bracket – The Arsenal F.C. v BVB – Borussia Dortmund will be aired from the ESPN WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS on ESPN3.com at 10:30AM November,28th ,2015
- Arsenal F.C. Academy
- BVB – Borussia Dortmund
- Orlando City US Development Academy
- Baltimore Celtic Darby (MD) – Reigning USYS National Champion
Elite Bracket
- Albion SC US Development Academy – PUMA Elite powered by Arsenal partner
- FC Virginia – PUMA Elite powered by Arsenal partner
- Cincinnati United (OH) – PUMA Elite powered by BVB partner
- Gwinnett Soccer Association (GA) – PUMA Elite partner
- Cleveland Internationals US Development Academy (OH) – PUMA Elite partner
- Clearwater Chargers Select (FL)
“In January, at NSCAA, we will map out our new Albion/Arsenal program with even more exciting opportunities from this strategic partnership – it is great for American soccer to have this pipeline for youth players,” said Gins. “We want to provide real opportunities for our players who aspire to become professional soccer players.”
Related Article: Albion SC and Arsenal FC Partner
The Backstory: As a youth soccer club in the USA, Albion SC is well known for producing high quality youth soccer players and the partnership with Arsenal FC was a perfect fit to provide unique training to a highly select group of elite players. The year started with five top Albion SC players being selected and taken over to London to train and see Arsenal staff and players. This was followed with 40 plus weeks of Arsenal Training for an elite player pool of 20 to 25 soccer players. Arsenal’s Bob Jenkins flew out to Southern California every 4 weeks to train and evaluate the hand picked players. This pool was selected by both Gins and Jenkins and represents players who they believe have the potential to go the distance and perhaps one day suit up for the legendary professional soccer club.
Hosted by Albion Orange Country, the US Arsenal FC Trails were hugely successful. Held in September, three players from Albion San Diego; Evan Rotundo, Cameron Dunbar and Gabriel were selected.
Subsequently, a total of sixteen youth players were selected from all across America to travel to England and train at Arsenal FC — five players where homegrown Albion SC players.
For more information on being a part of the exclusive Albion/Arsenal program, Gins recommends attending an Albion SC tryout.
