Mark Ellis, RIASA Academy Director, recently announced that alongside other investors he had acquired a major shareholding in former Premier League Finnish club PS Kemi Kings, meaning this will now offer further exciting opportunities for graduated RIASA student athletes!
Following on from this exciting news, Mark held a team meeting with all of our current RIASA student-athletes to discuss this opportunity further. During the meeting, Mark spoke about the history of the relationship between RIASA & PS Kemi Kings and what’s required for any individual who is pursuing a career in professional soccer.
Commitment, desire, hunger, application, talent and positivity were all characteristics that Mark identified to name a few, but the most important factor Mark mentioned to our current academy players, was the actual opportunity itself which is available.
Mark went on to speak about how sometimes in academy programs or at college soccer level there is usually a large amount of players who are technically gifted and have the correct application but could be unguided, or they don’t have the correct opportunity in front of them.
This is where RIASA can help. By committing to our UK college soccer programme in Leeds, you will be working towards earning a dual accredited US/UK degree in International Sports Management BA.
The degree is highly valuable as you look to break into the sporting industry, and it’s also flexible due to the nature of it being an American degree which is accredited both in the US and the UK (The flexibility is it’s a Liberal Arts Degree structure, in which you can transfer credits to the UK & US).
Alongside studying for your degree, you will be training and competing under the guidance of our highly qualified UEFA A & B licensed coaches, who are at the top of their game.
Don’t just take our word for it, listen to Shane King who graduated from the RIASA program in 2021, and is now currently on a 12-month internship working for us coaching, and playing with aspirations of making it to PS Kemi Kings.
If you’re weighing up where you want to play college soccer, and you’re thinking of UK based programs, then RIASA is the perfect fit for you! We have Male and Female Undergraduate programs and postgraduate too for older students who want to make their CV stand out.
Start your journey with RIASA, you never know, you might end up playing pro in Europe or back home in the USL or MLS! We currently have limited spaces left in our roster for both Male and Female students starting Fall 2022, Jan 2023 and Fall 2023.
Male Undergraduate Soccer Program