Roma host coaching summit for elite U.S. soccer academies

In January, the club announced the expansion of its renowned youth soccer academy program to the United States. The club now has a direct, year-round partnership with nine elite U.S. soccer academies with a focus on identifying and developing top-tier players.

“We are very proud to launch our U.S. Academy program and to formalize our partnership with select top-flight U.S. clubs,” AS Roma President James Pallotta said at the time. “Player development in the United States continues to be a top priority for us. We are confident this initiative will be great for the country and club and produce many star players of tomorrow.”

This past weekend, representatives from each of the elite partner academies flew to Rome to participate in the summit and the feedback about how the new partnership is developing was extremely positive.

“I think the ultimate mission with the Roma academy is basically player identification,” revealed Mike Lupenec from Vardar academy in Detroit. “Are there any kids in our academy that can play at this level in Europe?”

For Jon Szczuka from Pateadores in California, the weekend was a unique insight into the inner-workings of a European giant and he believes it can only help the mission to develop a new generation of elite American players. “This partnership is a tremendous opportunity to expose the interworking of AS Roma and something that we don’t get in southern California,” claimed Szczuka.…