Aspire in the World Fellows Book - 2025

20 21 11TH ASPIRE ACADEMY GLOBAL SUMMIT ASPIRE IN THE WORLD FELLOWS Welcome to this year’s Aspire Academy Global Summit, every year we get to spend time with each other. Unfortunately, this year I couldn’t join you. Asyouare likelydiscussing inoneof the topics today, the condensed calendar that the world of football faces nowadays is affecting my opportunity to be with you in Philadelphia. We are currently undergoing World Cup qualifiers this week, with Qatar competing in the playoff, trying to make it to your World Cup next year in the US, Canada, and Mexico. So, I am jealous that I cannot be there with you, but I know that you have a wonderful two days ahead. I wanted to send a message to thank U.S. Soccer, MLS, and Philadelphia Union for hosting us. Thank you for working with us over the past few months, specifically Richie Graham, Jay Sugarman, and the rest of the Philadelphia Union Organization, working alongside Valter Di Salvo and our team to put together our very first Aspire Academy Global Summit in the US. [ 03.3 ] IvanBravo, AspireAcademy DirectorGeneral THE OPENING In our 11th year, we have been all over the world. We have done several summits in Europe, in the Middle East in Doha, and we have had a presence in South America and Asia, with the latest in Singapore. But we have always wanted to do one in the States. Valter and I have talked about the States for a number of years, and we felt this was the perfect timing with the World Cup coming up. I want to thank Richie especially; I know he has been very involved from day one, pushing hard to work with MLS and U.S. Soccer to allow us this opportunity. I ama big fan of MLS, and I am a big fan of what the Philadelphia Union represents within the league. I have followed MLS since the early 2000s, when Don Garber and Ivan Gazidis would travel to Real Madrid and Europe just to promote the league, and we would see expansion franchises coming about. I remember when the Philadelphia Union was established around 2010. What it represents is a club that believes in developing players, in being connected to the community, and in grassroots. It has an identity that believes in homegrown players arriving to the first team. That resonates greatly with us at Aspire Academy, and I am personally thrilled that our first time stepping into the U.S. is with Philadelphia. I also follow the careers of coaches in MLS closely, and I am very excited that Coach Bradley Carnell, the head coach of the Philadelphia Union, has agreed to participate. He had a wonderful run with St. Louis City a couple of years ago. It is great to see coaches who have earned their wings going through the different steps in the leagues—going from assistant coach to head coach to leading an expansion team in St. Louis that broke records in its inaugural season. Those are the stories we love to see, and we know how much work is behind that. So, I want to thank Coach Bradley for joining us.