New Blog
Thursday, October 18th, 2012 | Global Image Sports | No Comments
Welcome to the new Global Image Sports blog! With every upcoming blog, we will tackle a different subject about football, giving both insight into GIS, as well as the professional footballing world! This week, we will be focusing on the core of what Global Image Sports represents, and our philosophies about our partnerships and making it as a professional footballer.
It is many Americans’ dream to one day play for the likes of Manchester United, Barcelona, and Real Madrid. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to get in with these footballing powerhouses. Knowing this, Global Image Sports has made the decision to try to partner with quality football clubs in which we feel young American players will have a better chance of success. Many of the bigger clubs in the world have started to lose focus on their academy teams as well, with big money investors putting hundreds of millions of dollars towards the signing of top established players. We realize that the previously mentioned clubs have a great draw in America and would attract numerous American youth soccer clubs to partner with us, but it’s not all about making money here. With much of our staff having been in or around the professional game for years, we know how hard it can be, and really want to give our partner club’s players the best chance for success!
Here at GIS, we feel that one of the best ways to become successful is for a player to work his way up the football ladder, advancing from league to league until eventually reaching the top. This past season in the English Premier League (England’s top division), only 77 league appearances were made by players 21 years of age or younger during the entire season! With every EPL team playing 38 league games a year, these appearances were obviously few and far between. However, when you look down into the English Championship, League 1, and League 2, younger players were getting many more chances to gain game experience and showcase their abilities. From these appearances, players from lower divisions get bought by top clubs for millions of dollars at the end of every season. Even in America, players regularly move up from the USL-PRO and NASL 2nd division leagues into the MLS.
Global Image Sports uses all of this knowledge to strategically choose what European football clubs we partner with. For example, even though West Ham United was in the English Championship last season (2nd division), they are known worldwide for having one of the best youth academies in all of football. We look to partner with clubs in different countries and leagues to give our American youth soccer clubs access to the greatest chance of success. We are always in talks with other European football clubs looking to expand on the opportunities we can offer our American players.
I hope this first blog has given you a bit of insight into a few of our philosophies here at Global Image Sports, including how we feel American players can have success in the world of football, as well how we strategically pick the European football clubs we choose to partner with. Be sure to check in to GlobalImageSports.com all year to keep up-to-date with the new GIS blog, and see which new topics we will be discussing every week!
Yours In Football,
Global Image Sports
This blog was written by Carl Woszczynski. Carl is currently a professional goalkeeper for the Los Angeles Blues of the USL-PRO. He was drafted by the Chicago Fire in the 2012 MLS Draft, and was the 3rd overall goalkeeper to be drafted. Prior to his professional career, Carl was a 4-year player at the University of Alabama-Birmingham (NCAA), where he was a 2-time captain and an All-American.
