Over a decade ago, two best friends from Barcelona who graduated from
Winthrop University with honors and an NCAA Big South Soccer
Conference championship on their shoulders had an idea to change the
soccer landscape in North America for good.
With the support of Andres Manzano and UE Cornella, the journey
began while still in college, when they organized their first-ever soccer
activity on American territory. Over 80 children from the Carolinas
attended the winter camp,—— where they were able to explore, live, and
experience soccer in the same way that Marc and Alex did as
youngsters in Spain.
- After winning the best Business Plan Competition Award in College and
successfully executing the first-ever soccer event while still in college, their
ambition and their driven mentality brought them to meet Mac Lackey. Together, they
formed ISL in May 2013.
The mission was clear. Build the most robust, professional, and trusted pipeline
between the European and the US soccer market so they could both benefit
from each other.
And the vision was simple, becoming a referent in the production, organization,
and mediation of world-class soccer events across the Atlantic.
As a kick-off of their partnership, ISL prepared its first-ever campus summer
route across the East Coast. Nashville, Louisville, Birmingham, Charlotte,
Raleigh, Greensboro, and Richmond.
- As part of ISL’s organic growth and strategy, ISL selected the best players from
their first round of summer camps and invited 14 players alongside their families to
live the first-ever international soccer experience: A week of training and playing
soccer in Spain.
At that time, it was a very (but significantly) small company; that’s why Marc and
Alex acted as Project Manager, Event planner, and chaperone. Marc’s mother
took care of each of those children as if they were her own, doing the breakfast
and laundry.
That first international experience in Barcelona was ISL at its core. Professional, caring and unique.
- After only two years of chasing their dreams, FC Barcelona got an eye on ISL’s work and
decided to endorse its idea of growing the game of Futbol in the United States.
During the summer of 2015, ISL was allowed to operate and manage FCBarcelona’s
soccer camps and international experiences.
FC Barcelona gave five markets for ISL to fill up the camps and provide a lifetime soccer
experience to all its participants. Louisville, Cincinnati, Charlotte, Richmond, and
Raleigh were the first cities. The rest is history.
In the meantime, ISL was working with his first client outside FC Barcelona, Xavi
Hernandez, to help him develop a training tool to help thousands of players improve their passing and controlling skills.
- FC Barcelona’s first summer camps series and international experience were
outstanding. ISL earned FCB’s trust, and in less than a year, they were offered to open
Barça’s first academy in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Oscar Grau, who ended up being the General Director of Barça, attended the
presentation in person along with the Deputy Manager of the city of Charlotte, Ron
Kimble.
In the upcoming years, ISL will focus on growing FCBarcelona’s summer camps, the
international experiences, and the soccer academy business. In a short period, ISL
managed over 10,000 participants across all of their activities surpassing the $10
million income threshold for the first time in less than four years of operation.
- ISL’s impeccable work and reputation caught the attention of other sports properties
and investors looking to break into the US market. That is when ISL started its
relationship with clubs and sports institutions such as ManCity, Real Madrid, LaLiga, Inter
Milan, USYF and others.
Simultaneously, Bobby Epstein, the owner of Circuit of The Americas, prestigious investor, became a friend, and partner of ISL.
ISL grew up, and with it, its team (divided between Spain and the United States)
decided to open its Headquarters in Miami, Florida, during the summer of 2019 and
open three new services; Exhibition Games, Sponsorship Brokerage, and Talent
Management.
- The pandemic largely stopped their plans, but the desire to continue growing was intact.
Thanks to ISL’s adaptability, it closed several exhibition games and sponsorship deals, keeping ISL afloat.
In January 2021, LaLiga betted on his ideas and created LaLiga Select: A new project to discover talent in the United States.
- The Web 3.0 technology showed up in everybody’s life and ISL was there to become an expert on acquiring IPs from the most significant soccer properties in the world to generate business on this upcoming trend.
You have surely heard of NFTs. Surely you have listened to that Messi, Luis Suarez, and Modric created their own NFTs and were bestsellers within hours. Well, they did it together with Ethernity. Did you know that too? Epic.
- On its 9th anniversary, ISL is healthier, bigger, and doing better than ever!
ISLs core values are intact and continue to carry on our business to new heights; Integrity, Passion, Versatility, Ambition, Teamwork, Perseverance, and Empathy.
Who would have told us when we started that we would be in such a privileged position doing something meaningful while working with the biggest in the sports industry?
It is still hard to believe, but we have no doubt what brought us to this point; Believe, Humility, Respect, Hard work, Resilience, and Unconditional love for what we do and who we do it for/with.
Always grateful. Always thriving. Always ready.
Witness greatness. Witness ISL.
Marc, Alex, Bobby and team ISL.