Global Image Sports (GIS) Brings American Youth Soccer Players to the World
Soccer is the world’s favorite sport and has often been called the “international language.” As the game gains in popularity in America, more youth players are looking to see what it is like to have a true “football” experience outside of the United States. Over the past few years there has been a rise in international travel for individual players and club teams, and an accompanying rise in companies dedicated to helping make those connections. One such company is Global Image Sports (GIS), a leader in developing partnerships between top European professional clubs and youth clubs in North America.
Soccer News: Formed in 2010 as a result of the successful West Ham United International Academy, Global Image Sports (GIS) has since developed strategic partnership agreements with professional clubs in the United Kingdom (West Ham United, Wolverhampton, Sheffield Wednesday, Charlton Athletic and Rangers FC), Italy (ChievoVerona and Sampdoria as well as Italian league Serie B), Netherlands (FC Utrecht) and even the United States (Portland Timbers). Most recently the company announced a formal partnership with Italian women’s Serie A club ASD Torres. GIS has also helped these clubs to partner with youth clubs in North America and, in some cases, conduct international player camps.
SoccerToday spoke with GIS Partnership Development Manager Katya Gokhman about the company’s services and their newest partner club, ASD Torres.
Diane Scavuzzo: Many players and their families are interested in traveling overseas to experience soccer internationally, but they sometimes worry about language barriers. How does GIS help players and their families and coaches handle the language differences?
Katya Gokhman: It’s only natural to feel uncomfortable in an unfamiliar environment, and we understand that. When we partner with professional teams, we make sure that they have a good environment for our youth academies. This includes speaking English. Most of our professional clubs are in an English speaking country or a country where English is not rare to hear being spoken.
Players may feel uncomfortable at first being in a country that doesn’t speak English, but we accompany our players on all trips abroad and make sure that they adapt quickly and comfortably for an enjoyable and unique learning experience. A lot of thought goes into where we take our youth academies and what professional teams we think would be most beneficial to our players.
Diane Scavuzzo: Soccer has been dominated by males for so long, but now females are becoming more involved. Do you work with any special programs for girls’ soccer?
Katya Gokhman: One of the things that is really important for us at Global Image Sports is expanding girls soccer in our company and globally. It is really important that we give the same attention to our girls players as we do our boys players. For this reason we are now partnered with women’s professional club ASD Torres. Perhaps they are not as big of a club as West Ham United or Glasgow Rangers, but they can have as big as an effect as these clubs do.
ASD Torres is the start of our first all-girls academy, and because it is so new a lot will be trial and error this first year. Professional women’s clubs offer a different aspect compared to men’s clubs, and what will be important is for us to be able to figure out how to fully use this new aspect to our advantage to help our youth girls players. Although this is just the start to our girls’ programs, we are excited to see where it takes us and how much of a positive experience it can provide girls in North America.
Diane Scavuzzo: How is ASD Torres different and why did you choose to partner with them?
Katya Gokhman: ASD Torres, is our first women’s professional club. They are, essentially, our big breakthrough into the women’s side of professional soccer. Many of our partner clubs do have a professional women’s side; however, ASD Torres is our first strictly women’s professional club.
We were pretty lucky to sign with them. Although they are a smaller club compared to our other clubs, they have won Serie A numerous times and compete in the Champions League. Not only that, but they have been nominated this year as the fifth best team in the world by International Federation of Football History and Statistics.
Our hope is this partner club will help girls in our academies be able to grow and become inspired by the great female role models on ASD Torres. These are women like Pamela Conti, who is a seasoned veteran player, and Arianna Criscione, who is Italian but actually grew up in Southern California and played on similar clubs like our youth players play on. On top of all this, they are located in Sardinia, Italy, which is a popular resort location. The weather is guaranteed to be warm and beautiful all year around!
Diane Scavuzzo: This all sounds very positive for youth soccer players who want to explore the world with their soccer team, but if a players has dreams of going professional? Can GIS help arrange trials for talented youth soccer players?
Katya Gokhman: GIS can not only help arrange a trial for a player but we can also arrange for college players to train with professional clubs in Europe during summer break. We arrange living accommodations and everything else that is needed so that players arrive ready to go and taken care of.
We know how important it is to follow NCAA regulations and we make sure that no rules are broken while our players get an experience that makes them better players and prepares them for their college season.
To learn more about Global Image Sports, visit their website, “Like” them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.
Global Image Sports (GIS) is a sports management company that provides opportunities and experiences in partnership with such clubs as West Ham United, UC Sampdoria and Chievo Verona. In addition to camps such as those for Wolves FC Academy, GIS also organizes tours for youth teams and assists clubs with direct access to coaching education and player opportunities with partner clubs. For more information on what GIS can provide to youth soccer clubs, email Mike Kelleher at mike@globalimagesports.com.
