You want to go pro. I am one.
I played the same games your player is playing now, without anyone showing me what the pros actually did. I found out anyway: 8 years a professional, 150+ games played, currently playing for Örebro SK in Sweden's Superettan. This is what I built for the kid I used to be.
I grew up moving. Bangkok. Houston. Chengdu. Bangkok again. Fourteen years of my childhood were in Asia.
Wherever I was, the same problem followed me: no access to real, pro-level feedback: the kind that tells you specifically what to fix, the way a pro actually sees the game. I had to try and fail, try and fail, and piece together what the pros actually did, on my own.
One day, Chelsea trained at my school. I watched. That's when the gap stopped being a feeling and became something I could actually see the size of.
So I became a pro anyway.
There was no blueprint. Training alone. Watching video, over and over. Building my body in the gym until it could do what the game asked of it. Eventually, things started happening.
Part of that path was DC United's academy: boarding school, in Calverton, Maryland.
My parents supported the dream without knowing what it would actually take from them: the travel, the uncertainty, the years of not knowing if it would work. Part of why I do this now is for parents like mine: not just support from the sideline, but a clear picture of what's actually happening and what to expect.
Wake Forest and Yale both offered me a spot. I turned them down the same week Houston offered me a professional contract. I still finished my degree (a Bachelor's, online, through SNHU, summa cum laude) while playing.
Houston Dynamo, MLS Homegrown. Houston again. RGV FC, in the Rio Grande Valley. Charleston, with the Charleston Battery. Tórshavn, in the Faroe Islands, with AB Argir. El Paso Locomotive FC, in the USL. Now Örebro, Sweden: Örebro SK, in the Superettan.
8 years a professional. 150+ games played.
After finishing my Bachelor's, I figured: why not keep going. I completed a Master of Business Administration in Sports Management at SSBM Geneva, alongside still playing.
- 150+
- professional games
- 8
- years a professional
- MBA
- Master of Business Administration in Sports Management, SSBM Geneva
- USL
- Championship Team of the Week, Week 15 and Week 18 (2023)
- 2023
- Defensive Player of the Year, El Paso Locomotive FC, voted by El Paso fans
- Defensive Player of the Year 2023, El Paso Locomotive FCVoted by El Paso fans
- USL Championship Team of the Week, Week 15
- USL Championship Team of the Week, Week 18
Remote isn't a workaround. It's the point.
Professional players carry a physical cost every day. Coaching on top of playing, in person, isn't sustainable. My body needs rest most people don't see. But the actual work (watching film, breaking down a game, guiding a player through it) doesn't need a field. It needs a screen and full attention.
That's what makes this scalable to players at every level, not just the ones near a former pro. My hope is bigger than just me: professional players across Europe's biggest leagues doing this too, one day, in pursuit of their own coaching licenses, or just for the love of it.
You're not just watching from the sideline. You're carrying a version of this too: the not-knowing, the cost, the wondering if it's the right path.
My own parents did that for me, without a clear picture of what it would take. Part of what I do now is give that picture back: what actually matters at this age, what doesn't, and what the path really looks like, for your player, and for you.
If I could tell the kid I was one thing, it's this:
"It's simpler than you think it will be. But much harder than you could ever imagine. I'm here to help you through it now."