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what city football group
wants to stand for is is beautiful
football and we really do look at that
i think in time the mls will be huge
because i think the united states
they know how to do sport
soccer in the us is growing when you're
growing up i feel like
almost every kid plays soccer to be an
american
um coming over to to play in the premier
league it's it's
it's a dream come true i've been
watching this league for as long as i
can remember
those are the players that give you
extra something special that little bit
of stardust
i think there are far more young players
you know looking at professional soccer
as a
as a career as a pathway at one point
mls and u.s soccer will
produce talent and compete with the top
eight leagues in the world
and city have the lead and it's the
american
samus
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foreign
i moved to us in like 2000 when mls was
quite young and i said already at that
time that at one point mls and u.s
soccer will
produce talent and compete with i would
say the top eight leagues in the world
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mls has been growing for the last 10 15
years and really growing at a rapid rate
i think it's on the rise i think it's a
really exciting week i think even from
the time the
city football group took on the new york
franchise we have seen dramatic
improvement
in terms of the level and caliber of
player that's coming to the league
when it comes to scouting players it's
quite hard in terms that the country is
so big
the youth scene is not so organized yet
even though there are a lot of lot of
youth clubs mls is doing a very good job
the u.s soccer federation is also kind
of providing an
outlet for the best academies
where the u.s has probably had an upper
hand on on a lot of europe is
that it's probably been socially
accepted to play soccer
for women for a long long period of time
obviously in in the states you've got
you've got all the other
american sports to deal with you know
your baseball's basketball nfl even
hockey
and and probably on the men's side
soccer's not really on up until
more recent times whether you know how
the mls is emerging
but soccer has always probably been seen
as maybe a bit more of a girls
sport out there
it's a tradition where you know if you
take the inner city kids
or someone from the poorer area they
still look to
american football and nba because that's
where the culture is that's where their
heroes are like michael jordan
it's also where the money is
soccer in the u.s football um is
uh it's growing um i mean when you when
you're growing up i feel like
almost every kid plays soccer um growing
up and then that's when you
you either stick with it or you go you
go to baseball you go to basketball you
go to football american football
there's just so many different sports
that you can do so many different
avenues
so it's really just about if soccer is
your passion to really
figure out how to make it to the top i
think there are far more
young players in and around new york and
around the whole country that are
looking at
professional soccer as a career as a
pathway in the same way they have done
mba or nfl for multiple years and that's
a really exciting moment
through something called title nine
which is linked to the college system
and scholarships
it's been a it's been a vehicle and a
platform for
for girls to be able to get a full-time
scholarship into one of the
you know the big colleges out there and
get an education from it
players that would perhaps go from
argentina uruguay those sort of places
into europe are now going via the mls
and that says something about the about
the level of the mls and that was
growing
i think in time the mls will be huge
because i think the united states
they know how to do sports don't they
they're organized they've got financial
backing behind it so
that's a leak that's going to grow
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here we have a set way of playing
maurice
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we have a methodology that we all dear
to whether you're in the boys academy
girls academy men's and women's first
teams
yet another city strike for sergio
aguero
but what a team goal it was so we know
the type of profile that we're looking
for whether it's a
fullback or you know attacking 11 player
massive credit to see the football group
and being very clear
and what they want because we are
scouting for so many teams
the clear information or the clarity of
what we're looking for helps in my
opinion are scouts because i can see
this player is very very good and so is
this one
but this one fits more into man city
versus this one
zach stefan is an example very good with
his feet
and we all know that man city likes to
play out of the back so he then becomes
quite interesting versus other
goalkeepers are also very talented
but didn't necessarily have that at the
end suraj is
on side and stefan with the legs makes a
very very important tackle
so my agent um he gave me a call and he
told me that
manchester city was was uh was
interested in me
so obviously a very talented goalkeeper
was in germany
went from germany back to mls and he
ended up with
columbus and zac stephanie in my opinion
was probably
the number one goalkeeper in that region
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so what i do is monthly i have a call
with james smith
and we put in kind of like a monitor
list uh so we put in
put him in and said you know this is a
goalkeeper we should really look at
my agent told me that they've been they
were scouring me for some time now
i had no idea i guess i played played
all right and
everything worked out
so then it goes from me passes on to
kind of the goalkeeper expert
they liked him and then he went out of
my hands they had a
goalkeeper scout come out to training
come out to columbus of course you know
he's in the stands when when he came
into town
yeah i mean you have it in the back of
your head but at the same time you just
got to go into the game
it's just another game so then he kind
of progresses and then he ends up going
to you know negotiation with cheeky etc
but we're we continue to kind of gather
information
so you kind of connect all those pieces
together to
create a very robust uh kind of player
dossier
and then you kind of pass it on and see
how it progresses
i think he's very talented i still think
there's quite a lot of
development in him which you can see and
if he stays healthy
he's going to be a good goalkeeper and
it really was a terrific save
by zach steffen
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platforms like why scout in start are
now uploading women's games into
into their system so you you are able to
tap into that
but there's still there's still that
depth of data that you can really
put your hat on to make a decision and
i'm really just trying to get the
consistency of the data and making sure
that it's accurate
it's horton who takes it
what a finish the data on
them as as players the technical bit
gets you so far
but then it's about it's about that
personal matching up and
and making sure that they would fit into
the culture of the team
this could be personal but my my
feeling is all city football scouts
tend to love technical players i get the
feeling
we all love them i mean it's a penando
silva
davidson all this kind of type of
natural fluent movement what city
football group wants to stand for
is is beautiful football and we really
do look at that
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the next bit really and just as
important if not more important for me
personally
is is the people bit is the person the
values bit
really what we want is people who are
hungry
that hunger and that drive and that
passion for
wanting to win but also wanted to
develop not just developers
players but develop as people talent
isn't enough
and to get you by you need to be
mentally strong enough to be able to
enter a completely new
environment adapt and conquer
talent always you know like if you're
top top
we're there and then i would say the
adaptation to kind of fit into citizen
ball group module
i want players to come here not as a
stepping stone onto something
something else i want them to come here
buy into
the culture and buy into what it is that
we want to achieve within the game
and be a part of that
when carly came here kylie lloyd yes it
was only a short period of time that she
came to us for and that was always what
was going to be
but we were in the quarterfinals of the
champions league and
we wanted to win the fa cup because we
hadn't won it at that time
we obviously went on to to get to the
semi-finals of the champs league
losing against leon on 3-2 on aggregate
but we beat them
in leon carly scored the the goal in
that game
and we won the fa cup carly scoring a
goal in that fa cup finale
it was a great experience for us it was
a great experience
for her
there's a very much a difference between
the us as
a as a soccer system in terms of women's
football and the rest of europe
i think there's always been a thriving
youth soccer environment
around the whole country and
particularly in new york coming in being
based in the city
has allowed us to tap into some players
and some clubs and
identify talent and give a pathway for
those talent to join a professional club
i think there are players of a younger
age and now can now see a professional
pathway more readily than they could
even
10 years ago there's a lot of potential
for for there to be some good stars in
the future
it's really just about having the will
and having the good coaching
we're really excited by the level of
talent we've got and hopefully that
matriculating into our first team
this might be some sound a little bit
over romantic but
i think we have the ability to change
lives and i kind of like that
when i was looking to sign here i knew
that it was going to be
life-changing i mean a dream of mine to
to come over to play
in the premier league for a premier
league team and
and the best when i signed the contract
it was
it was so surreal it was just a dream
come true
and something i won't ever forget
you know it's not just about sports
it's in my opinion it's also like a
social responsibility in terms of you
take a player who maybe had
nothing and then suddenly you give him
the opportunity to
to not only achieve his dreams but he'll
help his family
in generations to come the after effect
of what football and city football group
can provide the players design
to me is amazing
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in terms of japan china india new
players face a completely different
culture
are they mature and open-minded enough
to cope with that
i think what we find is there are
hotbeds of of football
interest football support
we expect them to know their own market
in terms of japanese players
you can change somebody's life really
and give somebody the break that allows
them to be on the pathway to
hopefully super starting