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The world is watching as football takes over the USA, which is happening not only due to Messi’s arrival but also because of the continuous investment and structuring of their male and female national leagues, the MLS and the NWSL, respectively, and the rising numbers of football, or soccer, fandom all around.
To achieve this status, USA football clubs and leagues have demonstrated excellent marketing and financial strategies, offering valuable lessons for more traditional European leagues.
Fan Engagement
MLS excels in fan engagement through various initiatives, including interactive fan experiences, social media, and community involvement. The marketing and promotion in North America and beyond also stands out.
Angel City FC, an NWSL club with a majority female ownership, is an exemplary model for building a community within a football club from the ground up. The MLS itself is committed to attracting younger fans and creating innovative content, as evidenced by its recent partnership with TikTok.
Sports properties all around the world can be inspired by such activations to expand their global reach and attract new fans, connecting with them on a personal level and building a more engaged and passionate fanbase.
Stadium Atmosphere
While there’s nothing quite like South American hinchas, the MLS and the NWSL have worked on creating a vibrant and family-friendly stadium atmosphere. Attention to every detail enhances the matchday experience, making it more comfortable and special for the fans. Austin FC, one of MLS’s clubs with the most engaged community, also does that by promoting activations like Pride Night.
North Americans have always been industry leaders when it comes to blending sports and entertainment. Basketball has exemplified this approach and become a global benchmark with its fast-paced on-court action, spectacular plays, and exciting events that extend beyond sports. This constant pursuit of the “show” has not only defined the USA sports experience but has also influenced how other sports are approached and enjoyed in the country.
Besides providing more entertaining matchday experiences, traditional leagues and clubs currently face the challenge of improving stadium facilities and promoting fan engagement. The USA offers valuable lessons on how to enhance the overall atmosphere.
Financial Transparency
American leagues have clear guidelines to ensure the league is financially sustainable, with teams following current regulations and promoting transparency. European football can benefit from such measures to ensure that clubs maintain financial stability and comply with fair play.
However, regarding tradition and technical quality, the USA draws much inspiration from South American and European football, which have paved the way for the league’s continued growth.
Technical Quality and Playing Style
LaLiga is known for its technical and possession-based style of play, Brazil for its creativity, attacking style, and skillful dribbling, the Premier League for its fast-paced and physical matches, and the Bundesliga for its attacking football and development of young talent.
The MLS and the NWSL are on the path to defining their own style of play and can learn from all these leagues how to improve the technical abilities of their players and promote a more attractive, skillful brand of soccer.
Talent Development
Especially in Europe, football academies are professionally structured and continuously develop top-level talent, which helps not only to attract audiences to their own leagues but also to improve the clubs’ finances with substantial fees for the transfer of players.
By investing in developing young talent in their academy systems, MLS and NWSL can produce more homegrown talent. It is crucial for the USA’s national football interest and international attention to create its own star players to guarantee sustainable growth and reduce its current dependency on expensive international signings.
International Scouting
European leagues have been successful in scouting and recruiting top international talent, particularly from Latin America and other parts of the world.
The North American leagues are already on the way, learning how to effectively scout and bring in international stars to raise the overall level of competition.
For over 10 years, ISL has been based in the USA and has developed extensive knowledge of how the sports market operates, specializing in translating business strategies and standards from one continent to another.
This expertise is key to helping European sports properties find perfect opportunities to expand to the USA, bridging the gap between each culture to develop projects that facilitate international growth effectively.
The 4-time MLS winner has trusted ISL to bring international teams to the X edition of the Capital Cup. The Agency has secured the participation of one of the most successful teams in Central America, Club Xelajú, from the Guatemala Liga Nacional. Club Deportivo Águila from El Salvador will complete the tournament daw.
The ISL Tours And Friendlies Department has been working with the 4x MLS Cup Champion DC United to organize the Capital Cup in Washington D.C.
“It has been a pleasure to work again with DC United in the organization of the CAPITAL CUP, achieving the objective of inviting Central American teams to the Tournament.” said ISL’s Tours & Friendliess Director Bruno Diaz.
“The Capital Cup continues to provide an excellent platform to deliver and showcase top-level soccer from around the globe here in the Nation’s Capital at Audi Field. We look forward to delivering yet another highly competitive tournament, as well as a vibrant and memorable experience for D.C. United fans and the larger soccer community located here in the DMV.” said Danita Johnson, D.C. United President of Business Operations.
The games will be this upcoming summer at the Audi Field in Washington, D.C. between June 1st and June 7th in Washington, D.C.
DC United and ISL have matched up to organize the Capital Cup.
Stay tuned for more matches and news of our Tours and Friendlies Department!
After a forced two year break due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, ISL resumes its events and sports travelling activities to the UK. We are extremely excited to return to the home of soccer!
“We can finally return to the UK since this program offers different activities and experiences to our programs in Spain. I am very satisfied with the team’s great work, since October we have had 6 events during the toughest moments of the pandemic and the peak of the Omicron variant. That is not easy at all and it is due to the great work of the Experiences team.” – says Achille Obougou, Director of Travel Management.
Players and their families will join Team ISL on its return to the British Isles for an unforgettable nine-day experience visiting London and Manchester.
The players will train at Manchester City’s facilities with Manchester City´s official coaches and compete in friendlies against other teams. They will also train at West Ham´s training grounds for a day.
Players and families will enjoy exclusive tours of the Etihad Stadium and Old Trafford in Manchester, as well as two Premier League games. They will be lucky enough to watch World Champions Chelsea take on Crystal Palace on Saturday and Manchester United battle Watford next weekend.
Outdoor and cultural activities are planned for players and families to explore these two soccer hungry cities. More exciting surprises await our guests and we can´t wait for you to arrive!
The ISL team has been working hard to offer better travel experiences, prioritizing the players’ and families’ safety at all times.
This season, ISL has 20 sport events lined up in 5 different locations.
Stay tuned for more information about our soccer experiences! @team_isl
2018 Ballon d’OR winner Luka Modric´s first NFT (non-fungible token) collection will be made available by Ethernity Chain, found exclusively on their platform.
After the successful launches of Messi´s record-breaking NFT collection in August (grossing $3.4 million dollars on the first day), followed up by the popular Luis Suárez NFT launch in October, ISL and Ethernity will turn the Real Madrid talisman into historic digital tokens.
The Croatian national team´s captain will be the next soccer star with an official and authenticated NFT collection. Details about the collection will be announced in due course.
ISL – Ethernity’s official and exclusive soccer partner – has brokered the deal between Ethernity Chain and Luka Modric, as was the case with Messi and Luis Suárez.
Ethernity’s previous NFT collections for Copa América, Luis Suárez and Messi reached an accumulated sales value of over $5 million dollars, positioning Ethernity and ISL as a leading reference of digital art in the soccer industry.
“We are excited to continue bringing the biggest soccer names in history to join the exclusive talent family of Ethernity. Modric is gold and represents a transgenerational legend whose legacy will remain forever after launching his first NFT collection on Ethernity,” – says Marc Segarra, ISL Managing Partner.
In the coming months ISL and Ethernity will proudly announce more NFT collections with top global soccer brands.
Stay tuned!
ISL’s Tandhem player Luis “Koldo” Pérez was presented yesterday as one of Koi’s players – the new esports team founded by Ibai Llanos, one of the biggest Spanish streamers, and FC Barcelona star Gerard Piqué.
The Koi presentation took place at Barcelona‘s Palau St. Jordi, with a full house of more than 15.000 attendees. The tickets were sold out only 5 minutes after their release, and the event was live streamed on Ibai Llanos’ Twitch channel to over 300.000 viewers.
ISL attended the presentation, where Ibai and Piqué unveiled Koi’s LoL team members, content creators, and sponsors, including Disney+ and Cupra.
There was also a live draft of a car valued in 36.000€, and a show match against the French world renowned team Karmine Corp, which was the first victory for Squad Koi by 2-1.
In less than one day, Koi gathered half a million followers on Twitter and Instagram, surpassing many established esports teams, such Kcorp themselves.
We at ISL are thrilled to join this ground-breaking and innovative project with our Tandhem Esports branch.
Tandhem stands out by its unique capacity to identify and develop new soccer and esports youth talent.
Koldo is one of the numerous promising talents managed by Tandhem,
Born on November 7th, 2000 in Murcia, Spain, under the name of Luis Pérez, Koldo is a League of Legends jungler, previously playing for G2 Artic. He is very excited about joining Koi and looks forward to beginning this new challenge.
“I’m glad to be here, and very happy with the team, the club and this opportunity” Koldo said during his presentation speech at Palau Sant Jordi.
Koldo and the rest of the team will compete in the LVP and live at the Gaming House – an esports villa especially designed for high performance esports players.
Stay tuned for more updates on the Gaming House and Squad Koi’s results!
LaLiga Select – LaLiga’s pathway in North America powered by ISL – will have a second edition next year, with Talent IDs in six new cities across the US.
Created by the best league in the world, LaLiga Select was launched early this year as the first official recruitment platform of LaLiga to scout youth talent in North America.
The platform provides young American soccer players, aged 13 to 18, the opportunity to showcase their talent and start a professional soccer career in a youth club from LaLiga.
This year’s Talent IDs and Showcases sold out in the US and Canada with thousands of players joining. The high demand drove ISL and LaLiga to open registrations for a second edition of LaLiga Select, adding 3 new cities to the Talent IDs roster: San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
“After a very successful launch year, LaLiga Select will keep opening the doors of European soccer for American players, creating a quality reference in US soccer, while positioning Spain as an attractive market for young US players.” – says Alex Isern, ISL CEO.
In March 2022, the selected players from this year’s scouting events will attend a Showcase in Spain to train and compete under the supervision of different Technical Directors from LaLiga Youth Clubs. The best player from each age category will be recruited to participate in a sponsored training camp with a LaLiga Youth Club, and the Talent IDs will start again in June 2022.
“LaLiga Select aims to contribute to the development of young American talent, providing players an opportunity to showcase their talent, an experience that will step up their game, and ultimately, the chance to kick off their dream of becoming a professional soccer player and one day represent their country in the World Cup”,says Nicolás García Hemme, VP of Strategy & Business Development for LaLiga North America, “Our goal is to collaborate with local clubs to become their international recruitment arm and continue to add new locations every year in different American regions.”
“Soccer in the US is becoming a global referent in the production of talent; Dest, Puilisic, Musah, Tyler Adam, Reyna just to name a few. The common trait of all these American players is that they have an experience overseas. For that reason, we strongly believe that having an established path such as LaLiga Select will enable aspiring professional soccer players in the United States to achieve their dreams.”, explains Marc Segarra, ISL Co-founder.
Yesterday morning, the captain of FC Barcelona and Spain’s national team, passed by ISL’s Barcelona Soccer Experience training session to meet our players.
Busquets stopped at the Barcelona Soccer Experience training session to meet the 135 American players who travelled overseas to enjoy an unique soccer experience. It was a big surprise for all the young players, who were very excited to meet an international soccer star.
Just like them, Busquets had the dream to one day play for a club like Barça, and since 2005 he has been making his dream come true every day, step by step. From the Barça youth teams, to the first team, to wearing the blaugrana Captain armband. His perseverance, commitment and hard work are inspirational for all the young generations.
Sergio took the time to take a picture with each player and encourage them to keep pursuing their professional soccer careers.
The Barcelona Soccer Experience is a program developed by ISL to provide a professional and international soccer experience that players can’t have access to in the US. As the places are limited, the scouting process is made in collaboration with Barça Academy US, reaching players from all across the country.
The program offers American players and their families an exclusive and unique soccer experience in Barcelona, combining training sessions with official Barça Academy coaches, and competition matches against other Spanish teams. It also includes cultural guided excursions, an exclusive Camp Nou tour, Barça home matches, and many surprises!
For more information about The Barcelona Soccer Experience check https://islagencyold.wpenginepowered.com/travel/
Today, at the Ciudad Deportiva de Valdebebas, the American players participating in ISL’s Madrid Soccer Experience were surprised by the visit of Real Madrid star Lucas Vázquez!
It was a day to remember for the 43 young American players that travelled with ISL to participate in an intensive and exciting soccer experience in Madrid.
Little did they know that after their first training session they were going to meet a professional soccer player from one of the best clubs in the world.
Lucas Vázquez, who also plays for Spain’s national team, arrived with a big smile and took a picture with each player and staff member, while sharing words of encouragement.
With an enviable career, Lucas is a reference for these young kids who share one common dream: to play for a team like Real Madrid.
The Madrid Soccer Experience program offers American players and their families an exclusive and unique soccer experience in Madrid, combining training sessions with matches against other Spanish teams, and guided cultural visits to explore the city.
The experience also includes Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid LaLiga matches, as well as exclusive tours of both clubs’ stadiums – Santiago Bernabéu and Wanda Metropolitano.
In addition, the ISL team makes sure to always prepare something to surprise the players and make their experience even more unforgettable!
Learn more about ISL Experiences and follow us on Instagram! @team_isl
November was a busy month for ISL!
In addition to opening registrations for the 8th Barça Academy Soccer Camps, a program developed with FC Barcelona and Barça Academy, ISL organized three simultaneous soccer events with over 1.000 American young players.
On the weekend of November 20th, ISL kicked off the LaLiga Select Talent ID in New York, the Madrid Soccer Experience and the Barcelona Soccer Experience.
LaLiga Select is LaLiga’s first and only official recruitment program in the US, created, developed and managed exclusively by ISL. Previous Talent IDs have taken place this year in Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Canada. LaLiga Select also hosted several Showcases around the US in collaboration with local tournaments and soccer entities.
The selected players from the Talent IDs and the Showcases will be invited for a Showcase in Madrid, where they will be trained and watched by different LaLiga clubs, with the chance of being chosen to participate in a training camp from a LaLiga club.
The Madrid and Barcelona soccer experiences offer young players the chance to live a unique soccer week overseas, training with official coaches in the facilities of Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid and FC Barcelona. In addition, ISL organizes surprise visits of professional football players to the training sessions of the experieciences – this time, Lucas Vázquez from Real Madrid, and Sergio Busquets from FC Barcelona, came to meet and greet the players and took a picture with each one of them.
These experiences also include several matches against Spanish teams, exclusive stadium tours, guided cultural visits of Madrid and Barcelona, and live matches of all 3 clubs. The “mise en scene” of 3 events of this magnitude in 3 main cities takes years of expertise, as well as the deployment of dedicated teams both on the field and behind the scenes, making sure everything goes according to plan.
In total, more than 1.000 young American players participated in the events, with over 150 coaches and more than 100 staff members. The three events were planned and developed by the ISl team with months of anticipation, in collaboration with LaLiga and LaLiga Academies, FC Barcelona and Barça Academies, Real Madrid, and Atlético de Madrid.
ISL is proud to actively contribute to the development of soccer in the US, by organizing events that offer players unique training and competition opportunities, and give them the chance of traveling overseas and get to know some of the biggest clubs in the world.
Last Tuesday, FC Barcelona player Eric García joined ISL staff and players in the Barcelona Soccer Experience training session at Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper.
It was a surprise for the young American players, who were thrilled to meet the FC Barcelona star!
Just like them, Eric García comes from the Barça schools and his trajectory is an inspiration for the young generations who aspire to become professional soccer players.
The 20-year-old centre back posed for photos with the youngsters and also got the chance to say a few words to them, encouraging them to continue playing the sport and work hard to get better every day.
The visit happened during a training session of the Barcelona Soccer Experience, a program developed by ISL Experience.
This program offers American players and their families an exclusive and unique soccer experience in Barcelona, combining training sessions, competition, cultural visits, a Camp Nou tour, a Barça match, and many surprises!
Stay Tuned! @team_isl
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